Tulsa Shined for Session 2 of our Comprehensive Ortho Course in Tulsa and so did our students!

Tulsa opened up her arms and welcomed our students with an absolutely beautiful weekend with lots of sunshine and warm weather. The only sign of Fall was the beautiful color of the trees that were proudly showing off their leaves that were ready to fall. Of course, Fall is also a time for school and we did have a thoroughly enjoyable weekend with an incredibly bright and enthusiastic class that was not only fun but was also productive and focused.

This ortho course is structured for the general dentist with no orthodontic training other than dental school. Each of our sessions builds on information, presented in the same sequence you will encounter in treatment delivery. Our format for each of the sessions is to have a blend of lectures, hands-on exercises, case review and group discussions. When our students complete this course, they will have the knowledge, skill, and confidence to treat 80% of the malocclusions that come into their office.

During session one our focus was on the initial stages of treatment which covered proper record taking, cephalometric analysis, diagnosis and treatment planning, treatment options, treatment sequencing and the proper placement of brackets and bands. We started session two with a review of these concepts and then focused on building on that foundation to introduce Big Bob Gerety's archwire sequence, force systems to include compensating curves, rotation wedges, open coil spring, cinch back bends and ties, utility wires, ligation methods, and the use of the Multi-Distalizing Arch. The MDA is our workhorse for predictably managing class II occlusions. 　It is a fixed appliance with bilateral adjustment to resolve the discrepancy of unbalanced malocclusion that we so often encounter. 　We had hands-on projects for each of these topics to reinforce the lecture material and it was a pleasure to see the teamwork and diligence as our group of doctors tackled these exercises.

This was a very dedicated class and on Saturday they kept their noses to the grindstone for an optional Lunch & Learn. We had a great turn-out for Dr Twana Farley-Duncan who was gracious enough to accept our invitation and prepared a wonderful presentation! She shared with our class the experience she had as a student in Big Bob’s class and had some great words of wisdom for our class. She presented to the class some of the cases that she has treated using Big Bob’s techniques with a focus on the MDA. She also provided the A’s in a Q&A on implementing SoonerCare into the ortho portion of her practice. It was so delightful to see one of our past students share such beautiful cases with a new group of our students and also share how she has so successfully incorporated orthodontics into her general practice.

On Sunday we had the case review segment of our ortho course which is an invaluable part of our program. It was thrilling for us to see all of the cases that our students brought to share during session two and appreciate the cases that our Monitors shared with the class, providing a perfect blend of beginning cases and cases well into treatment. The case review offers our students the opportunity to present cases for help with initial diagnosis, or cases that are in treatment, and provides them with the exposure to many different treatment objectives. We are looking forward to watching as these cases progress during our course!

We are always striving to improve our course and add features that will enhance our student’s experience in our program. This year we have added "The Clinician’s Corner" which is an area designated for us to spend individual time with our students. We have instruments and items on hand to demonstrate techniques and help you to improve your skills, we can answer your questions about your cases, or we can help with questions that have come up during the course. Don’t be bashful, visit with us at The Clinician’s Corner!

Our next session will be January 10-12, 2014 at the Crowne Plaza Southern Hills Tulsa and we welcome all of Big Bob's past students to attend and participate as a Monitor and start off the New Year with a dedication to refreshing and increasing your orthodontic knowledge. To register as a monitor please phone Straight Wire Seminars at 877-448-8606 or visit their website at www.StraightWireSeminars.com.

Our ortho course is being held in Tulsa, OK at the Crowne Plaza Southern Hills. The dates for the remaining sessions are:

January 10 - 12, 2014

March 7 - 9, 2014

May 16 – 18, 2014