Calif. start-up personalizes cone-beam CT training

A California dentist has embarked on a new venture that combines his background in private practice with his cone-beam CT experience gleaned from his experience as clinical director at Anatomage.

Doug Chenin, DDS.

Doug Chenin, DDS.

Launched earlier this year, Clinically Correct is an education service that offers customized cone-beam CT training to dentists and their staff that emphasizes cone-beam CT principles and the technology's clinical applications.

"This is the first cone-beam CT education service that focuses on the clinically correct usage of cone-beam CT principles," Doug Chenin, DDS, founder, told DrBicuspid.com. "What I do is focus on the clinical objectives and clinical perspectives so that everything gets done in a clinically correct way."

Instruction is offered through eight hours of webinars, scheduled at the dental team's convenience, and in-office hands-on sessions, he explained. The complete curriculum consists of the following sessions:

• Audit of your current imaging techniques and images
• Foundations of creating Clinically Correct images
• Recognizing and correcting reconstruction errors
• Essential elements of specialty-specific imaging reports
• Invivo/Tx Studio Software proficiency training
• Advanced custom-tailored software training
• Practical evaluations after completing the program

"I figure out exactly what each office needs and what their staff capabilities are," Dr. Chenin said. "That is part of what makes this unique."

Understanding the basics

Dr. Chenin graduated from the University of the Pacific Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry in 2005 and practiced for two years in the San Francisco Bay Area before he began consulting with Anatomage. He soon became director of clinical affairs for the company, working with doctors all over the U.S. to teach them about Anatomage's 3D imaging technology.

"Over the years I kept thinking there was more need for education, and I really enjoyed that -- working with the doctors directly," he said. "I've always liked education and reaching out, and cone-beam CT is so new that the questions are often all over the board. Even doctors with 30 years' experience need to understand the basics."

While he is not an oral and maxillofacial radiologist, Dr. Chenin -- who has been on the corporate advisory board of the American Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology for two years -- believes his background gives him a strong footing for helping dentists understand how to use cone-beam CT imaging correctly in everyday practice.

"I think in general from a radiologist's perspective there is a concern when a general dentist teaches imaging principles," he said. "But I am not teaching them interpretation of pathology. Rather, I am teaching them how to utilize the software and imaging principles in a clinically correct format."

In addition to the cone-beam CT education program, Dr. Chenin also works with Beamreaders.com to provide implant planning training.

"The shows and events are wonderful and offer many great assets for education, but they can only go so far," he said. "They can't bring personalized, hands-on training. We offer webinars or in-office, 100% focused on them and 80% hands-on."