Category: CE Courses

We’ll kickoff a new series of engagement for dentists and each 2-hour session will be different, based on what’s happening in the political landscape, specifically at the state level. Attendees will learn more about who represents them, how things work in Topeka, what bills we’re tracking for the dental community, and how can you meaningful engage in legislative efforts. There’s much to learn and much to do – we hope you’ll be part of this experience!

Ethics with a twist! Bring your staff for a Trivia Night event that will challenge your brain, test your ethics decision-making, and bring lots of laughs. This event usually reaches capacity so don’t wait to register!

We’ll kickoff a new series of engagement for dentists and each 2-hour session will be different, based on what’s happening in the political landscape, specifically at the state level. Attendees will learn more about who represents them, how things work in Topeka, what bills we’re tracking for the dental community, and how can you meaningful engage in legislative efforts. There’s much to learn and much to do – we hope you’ll be part of this experience!

About Hernan Veras, MBA

Hernan A. Varas is a Clinical and Practice Development Executive at Arrowhead Dental Laboratory and the Dr. Dick Barnes Group. With over 30 years of experience in the dental industry, he has worked closely with hundreds of dental practices, helping them enhance efficiency, productivity, and overall business strength.

Originally from Chile, Hernan moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing and communications. He later pursued a Master of Business Administration (MBA) with an emphasis in international management. Under the mentorship of Dr. Dick Barnes, he has dedicated his career to developing strategies and techniques that empower dental practices to thrive as successful businesses.

Course Description

A focused team increases your production potential. With the focused efforts of your entire team, you can create a patient experience that reinforces your vision of dentistry. This intensive 2-day course teaches a proven structure that will increase patient flow, end cancellations, and get patients to accept treatment. Now is the time. Find out just how productive your dental practice can be when you give your team the tools to realize your vision.

The New Patient Experience

• Diplomatic principles in dentistry
• Introducing new patients to the practice
• Getting the patients through the door
• Telephone principles and strategies
• Appointing new patients appropriately
• Managing cancellations

Team Engagement

• The New Patient interview
• The New Patient exam (charting for the dentist, hygienist, and auxiliary)

Treatment Recommendations & Case Presentation Strategies

• Principles of selling—not just the treatment, but the dentist and the practice
• Using before-and-after photos (Dr. Dick Barnes’ 7 Slides)
• Negotiation skills: dealing with objections

Financial Matters

• Closing the sale
• Finding the MONEY

Production Management

• Recall management
• Re-engaging existing patients
• Production principles
• Scheduling for production

We’ll kickoff a new series of engagement for dentists and each 2-hour session will be different, based on what’s happening in the political landscape, specifically at the state level. Attendees will learn more about who represents them, how things work in Topeka, what bills we’re tracking for the dental community, and how can you meaningful engage in legislative efforts. There’s much to learn and much to do – we hope you’ll be part of this experience!

About Amanda Hill

Amanda Hill, BSDH, RDH, CDIPC, is an enthusiastic speaker, innovative consultant, and award-winning author.  A sought-after thought leader contributing invaluable and inspiring insights into the current trends in dentistry. She brings over 30 years of clinical dental hygiene and now enthusiastically educates the dental industry. Amanda has authored over one hundred articles, bringing clarity to hot topics in dentistry. Recipient of the Association for Dental Safety’s Emerging Infection Control Leader award, she is affectionately known as the Waterline Warrior. An active participant with the advisory board for RDH magazine, Dentistry IQ, and the Association for Dental Safety’s Infection Control In Practice Editorial Review Board and membership committee, Amanda strives to make topics in dentistry accurate, accessible, and fun! She can be reached at www.amandahillrdh.com and AmandaHillRDH@gmail.com

Course Description

Ensuring infection control compliance can be challenging for many practices.

Staying compliant with infection control protocols is one of the most critical—and complex—responsibilities in dental practice today. From keeping up with evolving OSHA regulations and CDC guidelines to ensuring thorough team training, waterline maintenance, and proper sterilization, the demands are high and ever-changing. Add in cost management and effective documentation, and it’s easy to see how practices can feel overwhelmed.

But noncompliance isn’t just risky—it can be devastating. The consequences include potential patient or team infections, legal and financial repercussions, and lasting damage to your practice’s reputation. This course provides practical strategies and updates to help dental teams navigate infection control with confidence, protect those in their care, and maintain the trust of the communities they serve.

Learning Objectives

1. Define infection prevention principles and recommendations for dental health care settings

2. Recognize how to prevent transmission of infectious agents through standard precautions, with a review of cross-contamination prevention, hand hygiene, respiratory hygiene, and cough etiquette.

3. Employ standard operating procedures to remain in compliance with regulation, which includes PPE and practitioner safety, sharps safety, safe injection practices, and environmental controls.

4. Formulate a successful dental unit waterline protocol, including dental unit water quality and waterline testing.

5. Manage a successful infection control plan that includes sterilization of patient care items to prevent disease transmission.

About Shayne Yonce

Shayne Yonce brings more than 30 years of information technology experience, including supporting dental practices since the beginning of chairside digital technology. His career has been shaped by a lifelong curiosity for technology, beginning with his first exposure to computers in a fifth-grade summer school class. Since then, he has developed deep expertise in the hardware, systems and technical infrastructure that keep organizations operating. In his role with Adams Brown Technology, Shayne focuses on bringing the right people and resources together to resolve technical challenges quickly and effectively. He understands that technology issues can create unnecessary downtime, frustration and expense when businesses are left to navigate them alone. By coordinating the appropriate expertise and helping clients work through complex situations, Shayne helps organizations minimize disruption and reach practical outcomes. He also enjoys sharing his knowledge with others and helping clients better understand the technology they rely on every day.

About Brendan Giesick

Brendan Giesick has worked in the technology and risk space since 2018 and leads the strategic growth of Adams Brown Technology. His role includes aligning technology and cybersecurity solutions with market needs, developing strategic partnerships and helping organizations make informed decisions about risk, resilience and long-term growth. Brendan works closely with business leaders to understand how their organizations operate, where sensitive data is stored and which systems are most critical to daily operations. This perspective allows him to connect data security with broader business priorities, including continuity, regulatory responsibility, financial risk and customer trust. For dental practices, this means helping leadership understand how technology decisions affect the protection of patient information, the reliability of clinical systems and the practice’s ability to continue operating during a disruption. Brendan’s approach is centered on making cybersecurity practical, understandable, and directly connected to the health of the organization.

Course Description

This course provides dental professionals with a practical understanding of today’s cybersecurity and data privacy challenges. Participants will learn how to protect patient information, comply with HIPAA and PCI requirements, recognize common cyber threats, secure dental technologies, and respond effectively to security incidents. The course also explores the growing role of AI, vendor risk, cyber insurance, and the financial impact of data breaches while providing a practical roadmap for strengthening security, improving resilience, and protecting both patients and the long-term value of the practice.

Learning Objectives

• Understanding Data Security: Define PHI, ePHI, PII, payment information and the dental records that require protection.
• Why Dental Practices Are Targeted: Explain why valuable patient data, limited security resources and operational dependence on technology make practices attractive targets.
• Common Cybersecurity Threats: Review phishing, ransomware, stolen credentials, insider threats, human error and lost devices.
• The Dental Data Lifecycle: Follow patient information from intake and treatment through imaging, billing, communication, storage and disposal.
• HIPAA Compliance: Cover the privacy, security, documentation and breach-notification responsibilities of dental practices.
• PCI Compliance: Explain how practices should securely process payments and minimize exposure to cardholder data.
• Data Security Best Practices: Introduce different tools, policies, and operational approaches to help with data hygiene.
• Protecting Dental Technology: Address security risks involving practice-management systems, imaging equipment, chairside computers, mobile devices and remote access.
• Backup and Business Continuity: Explain how reliable, protected and regularly tested backups keep the practice operating after an outage or attack.
• Employee Security Awareness: Show how training, clear procedures and good daily habits reduce preventable security incidents.
• Vendor and Third-Party Risk: Review how software providers, cloud platforms, payment processors and other partners can create additional exposure.
• AI in Dental Practices: Explore how AI is improving clinical, administrative and patient-communication workflows while creating new data-handling risks.
• The Economics of Data Security: Discuss the realities of paying for data security, how AI is effecting this, and compare the cost of prevention with downtime, recovery expenses, legal exposure, patient attrition and damage to practice value.
• Incident Response and Breach Management: Outline how to detect, contain, investigate, report and recover from a security incident.
• Cyber Insurance: Explain common coverage requirements, exclusions, deductibles and the importance of accurate security documentation.
• Building a Security Roadmap: Provide practical priorities dental practices can implement over the next 60, 90 and 180 days.

We’ll kickoff a new series of engagement for dentists and each 2-hour session will be different, based on what’s happening in the political landscape, specifically at the state level. Attendees will learn more about who represents them, how things work in Topeka, what bills we’re tracking for the dental community, and how can you meaningful engage in legislative efforts. There’s much to learn and much to do – we hope you’ll be part of this experience!

This is one of our favorite events and very popular! Meet the new members of the WDDS, reconnect with familiar faces, and enjoy drinks and food with your colleagues. It’s a casual, fun time and you don’t want to miss out.

RSVP encouraged. Dentists are encouraged to bring their spouse/guest.

We’ll kickoff a new series of engagement for dentists and each 2-hour session will be different, based on what’s happening in the political landscape, specifically at the state level. Attendees will learn more about who represents them, how things work in Topeka, what bills we’re tracking for the dental community, and how can you meaningful engage in legislative efforts. There’s much to learn and much to do – we hope you’ll be part of this experience!

About Dr. John Roberson

A Hattiesburg native with a heart for patient care, Dr. John Roberson, DMD, leads our practice with a servant’s attitude. Dr. Roberson’s specialized skill set allows him to perform complicated oral-maxillofacial procedures with the potential to change patients’ lives. “I can’t imagine serving a community more vibrant than Hattiesburg,” Dr. Roberson says. “At Midtown Oral & Facial surgery, I can live my passion of helping patients put their Fresh Face Forward.” Dr. Roberson received his DMD from the University of Mississippi School of Dentistry, where he served as president of the American Student Dental Association and received American Association of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons award for outstanding performance and excellence in undergraduate oral surgery. After completing his residency in Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center–where his training included dentoalveolar surgery, anesthesia, implants, corrective jaw surgery, facial trauma, reconstructive surgery, TMJ, oral medicine & pathology, cleft lip & palate surgery, facial cosmetic surgery and skin rejuvenation–Dr. Roberson started his practice in Hattiesburg. “Here, we can bring the very best in oral and maxillofacial care to our patients,” Dr. Roberson said, “In our Midtown location, it has never been more convenient for our patients to receive top-of-the-line care right here in the Pine Belt.” Dedicated to continuing education and adhering to industry standards, Dr. Roberson is a member of the American College of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons, International Congress of Oral Implantologists, American Dental Society of Anesthesiology, American College of Dentists, International College of Dentists, American Dental Association, Mississippi Society of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons, Mississippi Dental Association, and the South Mississippi Dental Association. He is an active member of Heritage United Methodist church and enjoys spending time with his wife, Melanie, and their daughter and son, Maggie and Boone.

Learning Objectives

MEDICAL EMERGENCIES:

-What to do in the first 10 minutes of a medical emergency

-Recognize adverse reactions to drugs and implement appropriate interventions for those causing a medical emergency

-Understand and know the Emergency Drugs your office needs for medical emergencies:

-Recognize and discuss management of the DOME 24 (Dental Office Medical Emergencies):

-Signs/Symptoms and Treatment Algorithms for the following medical emergencies:

1. 1. Syncope
   2. Angina
   3. Myocardial Infarction
   4. Hypertension
   5. Hypotension
   6. Asthma
   7. Allergic Reaction
   8. Anaphylaxis
   9. Tachycardia
   10. Foreign Body Obstruction
   11. Local Anesthetic Toxicity
   12. Benzodiazepine Overdose
   13. Hyperventilation
   14. Hyperglycemia
   15. Hypoglycemia
   16. Epinephrine Overdose
   17. Transient Ischemic Attack
   18. Emesis/Aspiration
   19. Seizures
   20. Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA)
   21. Cerebrovascular Accident (Stroke)
   22. Adrenal Crisis
   23. Apnea
   24. Narcotic Overdose

-Identify the TEN Deadly Failures in Dental Offices

-The Six Links of Survival

-The 5R Emergency Response Plan

-Basic Management of Medical Emergencies: RPI/ABCDEFQ

-180 Seconds to Live Skills Training Guide

-Legal Ramifications of adverse events in dental offices

-Case Presentations involving various medical emergencies that occurred in dental offices
– Patient Deaths in dental offices and what could have been done different
– Describe all contents within the emergency drug kit and know their uses

-Medical Emergency Office Drills

-C.A.N.A.L. Acronym for medical emergency recall

-Patient Red Flags

-Patient Risk Factor Matrix

SEDATION EMERGENCIES:

• The 10 Deadly Failures in a Dental Office
• The Six Links of Survival
• The 5R Emergency Response Plan
• The Foundations of Medical Emergency Preparedness
• C.A.N.A.L. Acronym
• Sedation Concepts
• Airway Objectives – Partial Obstruction vs Complete Obstruction
• Airway Rules
• Sedation Cases Gone Bad and WHY!
• Useful resources

Management of the following emergencies:

• Apnea
• Bradycardia
• Benzodiazepine Overdose
• Hypoxia
• Laryngospasm
• Local Anesthetic Toxicity
• Anaphylaxis
• Tachycardia
• Hypertension
• Hypotension
• Stroke
• Seizure
• Narcotic Overdose
• Emesis/Aspiration
• Foreign Body Obstruction
• Ventricular Fibrillation/Pulseless V Tach
• Malignant Hyperthermia