Episode 43: The Dental CE Network - Where Travelers can find CE

Welcome to the navigating dental insurance podcast, where we don't take from insurance [music] companies. Here are your hosts, Mr. Jordan Comstock and Mr. Ben Tuinei. >> Okay, welcome to another exciting episode of the navigating dental insurance podcast. I am your co-host Jordan Comstock. I got the other co-host the better looking than me >> the other guy >> Ben Tuinei on the line. What's up, Ben? >> What's up, man? Better looking, uh, I think people should know that, uh, our good, uh, former NBA basketball player Mike

Sissel calls Jordan Little Zac Efron. >> Little Zac Efron? >> I think he has a crush on you. Like he has his like major man crush on you, Jordan. >> [laughter] >> And sometimes I feel that way when he talks to me. So, he's a great guy. He cracks me up when he when he calls me Little Zac Efron. >> [laughter] >> And he and he says it as a compliment. He's not making fun of me. So, >> Yeah, he does. [laughter] >> But we have

an exciting guest on our show today, uh, Dr. Craig Smith. I've known Dr. Smith for a while. In fact, I knew him when I used to manage my dad's dental lab here in Salt Lake. Uh, he was one of our clients, but he we've stayed in touch. Uh, he's got a awesome office. Um, but Dr. Craig Smith grew up in the Salt Lake, uh, city area and in Arlington, Texas as well. He attended the University of Louisville School of Dentistry and graduated in 2006. He's currently

practicing in Holiday, Utah and a member of Ameri- American Dental Association and the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. In addition to being a general dentist, Dr. Smith is the developer of dentalcenetwork.com. In his free time, he enjoys outdoor activities such as biking, hiking, and kayaking like me. I love kayaking. Uh, >> [laughter] >> he does this all with his wife and three kids. Uh, Dr. Smith, welcome to the show. How you doing? >> Thank you. Thanks for having me. >> Anytime, man. Anytime. >> Yeah, it's

great to have you on the program. >> Yeah, super. We definitely need to go kayaking one of these days. >> Yeah, I'm I I I just recently bought kayaks and I've been obsessed ever since cuz I've always wanted them. >> I have a paddle boat. You know those paddle boats that you take to the lake and you pedal like a bike? >> Oh, yeah. >> Oh, like bike. That one. >> When I was 12 years old, me and my my twin brother bought one from our

we had a lawn mowing job um, back then and and we saved up all our money to buy like this $350 paddle boat. >> [laughter] >> And and and I still have that today. It's in really good condition, but I'm like, man, I need something cooler. I need some kayak. So, >> Oh, yeah. >> 2 weeks ago I bought kayaks and it's been a blast. Did you So, >> Did you know, Jordan, that I was on a call with Bill Rossi the other day? I think

it was last week. He said, "You know, I really like Ben, but I he's not the type of guy I would go kayaking with." >> That's [laughter] what Bill said? >> We've never met in person and takes one picture look at my picture and he thinks like I'm this this huge big overweight guy. >> [laughter] >> Oh, wow. No, you're you could definitely go kayaking. >> Uh, that's funny. Bill's hilarious. That that guy cracks me up. We >> [laughter] >> we just did an awesome webinar

with him and I'm super excited about it. Um, uh, to to share with everyone of our listeners and everything, but um, let's get started. Let's let's ask Craig some questions here. So, Craig, uh, or Dr. Smith, I should be nicer that way, right? >> E- either way's fine with me. >> [laughter] >> Unless you don't care, yeah. >> No, I really don't care. >> Okay, good. Um, Dr. Smith is is the founder and the developer of Dental CE Network. Um, Dr. Smith, could you tell our

audience what what is this Dental CE Network? Give us a little explanation of it and educate us on it. >> Well, Dental CE Network we developed it as an online database for dental continuing education and we give dental professionals one location to find all their dental continuing education needs. Our goal is to be the location like dentist, hygienist, and lab technicians use to find what's available for their dental licensing requirements. So, I mean on the site you can search by provider, you can search by topic

or speaker, or location. And we're trying to include all the ADA CERP Pace approved, university approved, and state state association approved CE providers. We're just trying to be the one website where you can find everything as there's so many sites that offer dental continuing education. And it will link back to the CE provider site. >> Awesome. So, it's it's pretty much a from what I understand like a database where where you know, users can go to to find the latest and greatest CE courses. >> Yes,

exactly. Trying to find out I mean, you can go to the ADA website and see who are all the providers and the Pace approved to provide providers on the American Academy of General Dentistry. And if you add all those up, there's about 2,100 providers out there. >> Wow. >> Yeah, there's 2,100 >> And is this like one of the first databases out there to help organize this all? I've never I've never seen it. >> As far as I know of, I think so, but I'm sure

there might be some out there, but we're trying to >> You're trying to make a really simple, easy to use. The I'm on the site right now. It looks awesome. It's got great if you ask me, my background is UX/UI design. It's got great UX/UI design. It's super easy to use. Uh You go in there and you can enter in your zip code and and find, you know, all the education courses right from the homepage, which is awesome there. >> Yeah, I'm checking out the insurance

stuff. I like this course here, uh stay out of jail. >> [laughter] >> Stay out of jail. >> Yeah, stay out of jail. Avoid coding coding errors. Do doctors really go to jail for coding errors? I I've I've had some doctors get in trouble for it, but I've never heard of anybody >> the jail, but I guess that's a great topic. >> It's more for to get their attention. It's a marketing copy, I think, but the whoever's doing the courses. That's funny though. >> Yeah, cuz

I I hope never to find out. >> Yeah. [laughter] Yeah. Yeah, it's that's funny. So, that's cool. Very cool. >> So, Dr. Smith, uh it I guess the listeners want to know um so, you're practicing dentist. It's always everybody's always curious to know um the the the side jobs or the moonlight jobs or uh I was reading this book the other day called the um uh what is it called? Ah, it's it's a a side gig something. I I'll think of it later, but what what

inspired you or motivated you to create this website? >> Well, um I like to travel and uh when my I like to go to different cities for CE courses and I bought a laser and I got invited to go to San Francisco for a CE course. And so, I took my wife with us and we used as a trip, kind of a getaway trip for both of us. And we went to San Francisco, got there Thursday in the morning, went uh dropped our stuff off at

the hotel and walked to AT&T Park and caught a Giants and Padres game. And the >> like my dad, going to those Padre games. Oh, yeah. >> Well, sorry. >> No, that's great. And no, and and I grew up in Texas and so, I'm a a Rangers fan, but I love just going to different parks and just seeing the and that was fun just to do the day day of the next day I traveled out to the CE course um which was a great CE course

and the following day we went to Alcatraz and checked out the city. And so early late 2015 early 2016 I thought hey why don't I try a different city and I've been out to New York City several times and I've never been to Boston so I actually started Googling CE courses in Boston and the only thing I could think of is uh the dental school so I checked out Tufts and Harvard and BU and it wasn't easy to find a course and so that's when I

got with some web developers and say hey can we find put a way where we can find all the dental CE out there and put it all on one course. I mean through all my research and now have found it's easier to find a course but I spent so many hours looking on research and having a martine develop it to where I know where to locate the courses now but in order to get to that area it took several hours on the internet to find CE

courses and so that's where we decided to develop one site where you can find all the continuing education courses put in your zip code if you want to go down to Disneyland and write it write the trip off you know go take a CE course the next couple days go to Disneyland or Disney World. >> Yeah that's what I'm talking about. Ben you like that stuff too right? Disney Well you like going to you like going to Disney World right? >> Oh yeah I had it

we'll be there in 3 weeks 4th of July. >> Oh perfect. That's awesome. >> to look uh So it's pretty cool you just put in the zip code here it looks like uh >> Yes you put in the zip code and it'll go to the area and I believe it has a 500 mile radius of where you want. You can even narrow it down if you want to go to a certain area on endodontics, you can narrow it down. >> So, it's got really good a

really good filtering system when you know when it comes to searching for any topic in any location. >> Yes. >> Wow. >> Very cool. Very cool. >> Um and then can anybody add uh this is my own personal question. Can anybody add like courses onto this? Do they have to be CE or they can be business courses or do you require them to be all CE? >> Well, when they register first of all, it's free for a CE provider to put their courses on and so

we encourage anybody to put their CE courses because every state is different. For example, in the state of Utah, if you are a dental specialist, orthodontist, endodontist, uh periodontist, like that, you can give CE courses and they count toward Utah's dental licensing. But in other states, that's not the case. >> Okay. >> If you register as a provider, we allow you to add in certain ones like ADA CERP designation, which we research if we research it to make we can assign it to you or PACE

approved based on the AGD and the ADA website and then so when someone searches a course, they'll be able to know that if it's AGD uh PACE approved or if it's ADA CERP approved or if it's uh a university approved programs. For example, there's a professor that signed up on our site that he's a university professor. So, any courses that he teaches at the University of Oklahoma will be uh University of Oklahoma, let me see, is ADA CERP approved. So, if he gives a course at

the University of Oklahoma, it'll be a CERP approved program and >> Huh. >> but you know, unless they unless the University of Oklahoma is putting their stuff on the site, it'll be difficult to find his course. >> Okay, I see. Very interesting. So, okay, there are there's several You mentioned there's several methods to use with this website. What are those methods? >> So, yeah, like I mentioned before, you can be a CE provider. A CE provider would register with us. We would make sure you know,

they're legit and putting legit courses on the site. And then if they have signed a designation that the university approved, we research that to make sure that is approved. For example, Spear Spear registered with us and >> Oh, cool. >> And Spear is putting all their courses on the site. They're very active about putting it on. We are also very active at trying to research and put as much courses on, but it's way more accurate if a CE provider puts it on because they can change

the date if it needs to be at the last moment. They can change the speaker. They can change the location. Um some people may take know of a of a person who teaches laser courses that's located in, let's say, Minnesota, but that person may travel throughout the country and they would have an idea if they're in Dallas, for example, or Florida and they can go take the laser course down there if that's close to where they're at or where they're going to take a vacation. And

then the other method is for dental professionals, um dentists can register. Right now, you can see in on the free version, which I believe you guys are looking at, is you can see all the past courses. Any courses that are past are completely free and that's where you can test test drive the courses. There is a There is a membership version where you can see all the future courses and online courses cuz Viva Learning, Dental Town, and all those other courses put it on online. And

that's a membership version, which is simply for dentists, just like 49 bucks a year, which is fairly inexpensive compared to all the other things we buy. Um it's even less than a Netflix subscription. And hygienists are even less than that because they have access to less topics. And the same with dental lab technicians. But then you can see all the online and future courses and plan ahead. And it simply links back to CE provider's course where the dentist or hygienist can sign up to take that

course with them and continue on with their progress. If they're going to take a course with Spear Education, they'll link back to Spear's. They link they they register with Spear and that's it. >> Yeah, I like that. That's cool. So, I'm [clears throat] looking at the registration part of your website here. So, complete topic access is about Well, it's $49.95 a year. Uh >> Yes. >> Hygiene access is $24.95 a year. Lab Dental Lab Tech access is $24.95 a year. Uh apply coupon. Um okay, so

so so so these pricings it's on an annual basis, not a monthly basis, looks like. Um >> Oh, nice. >> So, let's say somebody registers and signs up. Um how how fast can get can they get access to the CE uh once they put the put in their credit card information? >> Uh that day. >> That day? Okay. >> hour. So, immediate access. >> Okay. >> Yes, it's immediate access. >> Yeah, I was looking I was looking for uh insurance topics and uh the only ones

that I found were here in Utah. And of course, you know, not being registered on the website. Yeah. There's the the the one from uh Charles Blair. Charles Blair was the one of um Stay Out of Jail. I've seen that topic before. >> Stay out of jail and don't [laughter] die. >> And then >> Don't lose your license. >> And then and then some other insurance stuff. We Jordan uh we ought to put some uh some CE credits on here. So >> Yeah, so I was

going to ask sorry, I don't >> No, no, go ahead. >> How do we become CE as this is more of a selfish question for Ben and I. How how do we become like CE providers cuz this is always been one of my questions cuz I've always wanted to create some courses and allow practices or dentists to get some credit for it. How do we do that, you know? >> Well, you'd have to register with like the ADA. There are certain criteria with the ADA to

be ADA CERP or with the AGD to be CERP. Or you simply get invited by someone else who is approved. And so >> They're approved then? >> [laughter] >> Yeah. >> Well, no, we are simply Ben's approved, is that what you're saying? All right, Ben's going to invite me then. >> But if if you teach at the Utah Dental Convention, which is a a PACE approved program, that will count as dental CE credits for those state that which all states accept the PACE approved program. >>

Then then you have to be a part of the speakers network, right? If you if >> You can be a if you be a part of the speakers network, they are approved. >> They're approved? Okay. >> Yeah. >> Very interesting. >> The the speakers it all depends on specifically which ones they are. Um and how we list it. And every state is different. California has different rules and >> stupid regulations. Aren't they stupid? >> [laughter] >> Oh, yes. >> I have to do a bunch of

regulations on my end, too, and I hate it. >> [laughter] >> And we we let the users know like hey, pay attention to the rules in your state. We try to identify each provider as they have been approved, whether they're a university approved program or PACE approved. And like stated before, if it's in Utah, if you're a dental specialist, like an orthodontist can give CE courses. Normally, like for example, what I've seen as an orthodontist and a periodontist team up and describe uh uh periodontal disease

and gum disease associated with uh orthodontic work. And they provide it mostly to dentists and hygienists and it's kind of like a tool to where they use it to uh teach the hygienists about them, but also get their name out there. >> Yeah. >> And that that can happen in Utah and other states. I'm not exactly positive. Uh most states they can. California has stricter stricter rules. >> Yeah, they usually do, freaking California. >> [laughter] >> It's great it's great to visit, but they they they

have they have great they have strict rules. >> they've got tons of strict rules. Not only on regulations, but you go there and you like you stay at the hotel and you get like taxed to tourists. There's a tourist tax. It drives me crazy. >> You got to pay for all them roads. All those roads, man. >> [laughter] >> Sounds sounds smart to me. You have other people pay for your taxes, right? >> Yeah. [laughter] Well, just have all the guys visiting come and pay their

taxes and that way we can just keep spending too much money. Uh anyways, I don't want to get off topic here. >> No, you're fine. >> So so if somebody has a a CE and they listen to this podcast um and they want to share it on your website. You mentioned briefly about that a few minutes ago. So they have to come in here and register, right? As a CE provider? >> Oh, register as a CE provider is really simple. I mean, once you register as

a provider, you register and you can almost immediately start putting courses on. We just go back and research to make sure you have the appropriate designation. If I mean, if someone goes on for example, if you guys go on and claim that you're a university recognized provider and start claiming that I our our research team goes and says, well, actually you're not. So sorry, we're going to have to take it take it away from you. But if you go and and say like hey, Ben Tinei

is going to give a speech here at this location and you mention this at the Utah Dental Convention, you can put in your description that the Utah Dental Convention is a pace of recognized provider. >> Oh, interesting. >> Yeah. >> That way your courses that you give are legit because you went through an appropriate provider rather than going rogue on yourself. >> Yeah, so I [laughter] I think that's very important because Jordan, you and I do um a lot of meetings here locally through uh with

the specialists. And then sometimes through the ADA districts, uh I do a lot of speaking here locally for for those districts that provide CE through the UDU, the Utah the Utah Dental Association, UDA. Um and then they offer and issue CE. So, let's say somebody in Arizona. Arizona has different standards. They want to be a CE provider, but it could be very similar to uh our our standards here in Utah where they can do it through a specialist. Um if if it's done like we're like

here in Utah, done through a specialist, it's recognized by the UDA, will somebody in another state be able to use that as actual CE for their licensing uh renewals? >> That uh depends on the state. It it depends on the state of Arizona. Um >> Got you. >> It all depends on if like someone from Arizona came up and did it. But if they knew their rules and what the state of Arizona requires, and if they allowed, for example, you mentioned that you go through several

different districts and like the Salt Lake Dental District and speak there, the Salt Lake Dental District is under the Utah Dental Association, which would be a pace approved program, the hour or so you speak is technically a CE credit. >> Got you. >> Cuz you went through an appropriate resource. But if you say, "Hey, guy Hey, you want to put on your >> If we just go film like a video in our basement and we upload and say, "Yeah, we're we're approved." [laughter] >> Yeah, we

we can't do >> the University of Say No to PPOs.com. >> Yes, exactly. [laughter] >> Yeah, exactly. >> Yeah, and then there's also laws that I can't I can't do in Utah. There's 32 There's 32 hours every 2 years that we have to take. I can't do 30 hours on say no to PPO's. I have to kind of >> [laughter] >> You've got to You've got to be diversified. Is that what you're trying to say there? >> Yeah, well, there's so much There's so many courses

I can take business wise and then otherwise have to be clinical. >> Hey, doctor, we we could give you 30 hours, you know? Some of it kayaking, some of it skiing, you know? We We can keep you busy. >> That sounds great [laughter] to me. >> It'll be fun busy, though. >> You won't learn anything, but you know, you'll have fun. >> [laughter] >> I know. And then when the the licensing the professional licensing audits me, then they'll say, "What is this?" >> I just had

fun, you know? Working on my mental CE, you know? Keeping me sane. >> Yeah, mental CE. [laughter] Yeah, yeah. Lifestyle CE. That's No, that's awesome that you have you know, some restrictions in place that you know, make sure you're weeding out the the bad Not the bad, but just the the non- certified courses. That's really cool. >> Yeah, we just We just encourage We'd like to encourage all the CE providers to put it on. Of course, we can go out there and put it there and

grab all the research out there, but I mean, I've gone to a website where I've had a researcher gone to a website, put that put it on our site, and then you go back there a month later and they change the date. And so, that's where we're asking the CE providers to be more active in it because honestly, it's a no-brainer for them. It's free advertisement. >> Oh, totally, yeah. Well, and that's why I'm interested in becoming a CE provider because of the marketing and advertising

capabilities. >> It's actually uh what I've heard is fairly complicated to go through the ADA and the AGD, but which is good because then it >> weeds out of bad. >> Yep. >> Yeah. PACE I've done I've done it through Pace a couple times. As a matter of fact, I think my last Pace is still active. Uh but uh >> I think when I was at the lab, we did a course and I think it was through Pace, but I could be very wrong. >> [laughter]

>> Yeah. >> A doctor did it for us. Where were you at? >> Oh, it was Dr. It was Dr. Swenson that did it for us. You know Dr. Swenson. >> Oh, yeah. >> You bought his practice. >> Yeah, exactly. >> [laughter] >> Yeah. He's the one that did it uh for us the time cuz we were doing like a joint uh seminar and he was coming to speak with us and he got it all done for us. I think it was Pace cuz that sounds

really familiar, but >> Yeah, that's the AGD through the AGD. Um So, how many [clears throat] how many providers and courses do you have on the websites uh so far? >> Well, we researched it and we have well over We have about 7,500 courses on there. >> Wow. >> And like 2,000 of them are online courses. But, I mean, there's constantly courses to where they expire and for example, if there's conventions happening this week, as far as I know, I I believe Indiana, New Mexico, and

Colorado are happening this week. And so, they'll be expired, but then we're trying to then we'll put in next year's course. Uh for example, we worked with the Hinman and the Hinman was really helpful to where the week we're able to put all their speakers on. So, example, you're looking for the speaker Jordan Comstock or uh Ben >> Yeah. >> out >> [laughter] >> Hey, look, they're going to be in Atlanta I in February or March and they can actually plan accordingly or >> Wait, so

you can Can you search through speakers on on your site here as well? >> Yes, you can. >> Oh, that's really cool. >> That's awesome. >> speak >> The speakers is actually harder to do because you have to be consistent on the name. >> Yeah, I would imagine with I I know what what it's like to work with a database. It's like one letter is slightly off or it can it can kind of mess some things up. So, >> But as long as the entries are

consistent, it should be fine. I mean, you can search for example, well-known speaker is Gordon Christensen. >> Oh, yeah. >> And you can you can discover where Gordon Christensen's going to be. There's several different methods to do that, but on our website it's really easy. >> Awesome. So, let's yeah, so what can you remind our audience listeners what your your site is and are you giving your email or contact information or just the site? >> Sure, we can give the >> If they have questions for

you cuz cuz I'm sure you're you're wanting to look for partners, you know, to to add on the you know, the courses and stuff and I'm sure they may have some questions for you. So, let's let let's hear your contact information so anyone can contact you. >> It's www.dentalcenetwork.com and then the email address is easy. It's just info@dentalcenetwork.com. And we'll respond to you and then when you register as a CE provider and you can put your courses on almost immediately. Oh, the obviously we go through

our research our research team goes and checks for accuracy and make sure it's linking to a legit website and that you are actually a the designation of the approved course or like ADA CERP approved or we double check those. >> Yeah, this is just >> Awesome. >> Yeah, I think this could be a really great resource for all the many dentists out there that listen to our show. Um, Ben, do you have any last thoughts or or Craig, do you have any last thoughts? >> No,

I think it's great. I mean, obviously the the dentists that listen to your show are really active of uh installing a membership program, which is great. Cuz I've I've used that in my dental practice. >> Yeah. >> And um this is just one more tool they can use to make it simply just simply find what's continuing education is out there. And it's obviously changing. Well, we keep on adding more courses to it and updating it. And and then if dentists or CE providers have any requests,

we'll talk to our developers and see what they can do to add things to make the website better. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> That's awesome. >> Yeah, I that's always important in my opinion. >> Yeah, Jordan and I, you know, [clears throat] we do a lot of online online courses, webinars, and of course through the podcast. Um but I do a lot of speaking nationwide, which um I'm helping Jordan to get out there too in terms of the face-to-face meetings. I do a lot of them through

companies like Nobel Biocare or um you know, we we we meet with Patterson Dental here locally, and I do some across the country. So, if a company like that wanted to I I guess what we can do is post figure out a way to get those posted on Dental CE Network because a lot of our listeners you know, I'm sure a lot of them would like to see our ugly mugs in person. >> Um Oh, yeah, exactly. >> I'm video video in person, yeah. >> So,

promise >> Well, what's What's nice about that is you can you yourself can go and put your courses on there. Although, you're not going to get the designation as ADA CERP approved or PACE approved, but if it's through Nobel Biocare um Nobel Biocare is uh let's see. I can >> PACE They're PACE approved, I believe. >> PACE approved? >> Yeah. >> They're both. They're PACE and ADA CERP approved. >> Even better. >> And so, you can put the description that this this course is sponsored by

Nobel Biocare. That way, the dentist or hygienist going to your course would know It's like, "Oh, okay, this is legit CE courses because it's through the company of Nobel Biocare, which is PACE approved." >> Okay. >> Got you. Well, awesome. Well, our promise to our listeners is we'll start putting our courses online, both our webinars, the ones that are that are CE approved through the various organizations that we speak through. Um and we'll get that up here hopefully in the next couple of weeks, but check

it out, dentalcenetwork.com. Dr. Smith, thank you so much for your time. It's been a pleasure. This is actually very cool. I see on Facebook all the time, I'm I'm in Newport something, Louisiana. Is there's any CE going on in this area? >> [laughter] >> On like the Facebook groups or something there's there's like what's going on out there? >> All the times, like hey, is there any CE going on in this area? Go to that site and you'll figure that out what's going really going on

out there. >> I think so. I think this is cool. >> Sounds great. >> Awesome. >> Thanks. Thanks, Dr. Smith. >> [music] [music]