NMDA Journal Fall 2018

24 New Mexico Dental Journal, Fall 2018 ADA Center for Professional Success Answers Your Practice Questions By the staff of the ADA Center for Professional Success Outside of clinical education, practice management is probably at the top of most professionals’ list of concerns. Dental school may prepare dentists with the techniques to properly address the needs of patients sitting in the chair, but surviving in the business community requires a very different skill set. It is not enough for working dentists to merely keep up with the science; they must navigate shifting government regulations, promote their practice, and take care of their own physical and mental health as well. Help is available to all ADA members as readily as entering the address “Success. ADA.org” and entering the Center for Professional Success. The Center was first proposed in 2012 as part of an ongoing effort to strengthen thevalueof ADAmembershipbymeeting the needs of dentists and dental students across a variety of career paths. The original proposal called for an easy to use web-based portal providing a dedicated comprehensive set of information, including interactive resources. Topics were to cover a broad range of practice management areas, including dentists’ health and wellness, continuing education, business decision support, practice growth and marketing support, business analytics, career path selection, and regulatory and legal information. In October 2013, the Center went online with more than 120 articles and topics ranging from financial considerations to office design to work-life balance. Since then, the total content on the site has grown to include more than 400 articles, 100 webinars, and 62 whitepapers and other downloadable resources. The Center for Professional Success is now the central repository for the bulk of ADA practice management information, as well as health and wellness resources. Traffic to and use of the site has grown quickly, having doubled from 2014 to 2018. It is fully mobile-enabled, and can be easily accessed via desktop, tablet, or smartphone. The Center’s website is divided into six distinct content categories:  1 . Practice Management  2. Regulatory/Legal  3. Education  4. Wellness  5. Dental Benefits  6. Career Each category contains a variety of resources, including articles, toolkits, on-demand webinars, whitepaper downloads, and coming soon—podcasts. The sections below offer just a small sample of the array of information available to ADA members through the Center for Professional Success. 1. PRACTICE MANAGEMENT The PracticeManagement section focuses on resources designed to help dentists run their practices efficiently and successfully. It offers practical advice and tangible resources on a wide variety of practice issues. One of the most popular resources on the Center is the Survey of Dental Fees. The current survey was conducted 2016 and draws information from a representative sample of 1,695 member and non-member dentists. The survey is repeated every two years, and the 2018 Survey of Dental Fees will be released later this year.