Oregon Dental Association

Thrusday, Friday and Saturday was the ODA conference. I went all days. I did have to work for one hour for that one patient who would throw a fit if rescheduled on Thursday. I went to the conference and was amazed at how different it is compared to UDA. The vendor exhibit hall was full with Colgate, Burkhardt, PDT, Butler, Crest and Oral-B etc. but it also had booths from local winery and brewery. They offered free tastings of their products. In the registration guide you got several coupons for the free beverage. Then there were tables of decadent desserts, cheeses, veggies, and fruits. It was all posh and nice. There were some people in jeans but for the most part dentists were in suits....like church, RDH were in skirts, pant suits etc. So I felt frumpy in my too large dress pants with the waistband rolled to make them fit and a sweater. It was a totally different feeling there. Much more professional.

The speakers were amazing. These speakers are of a higher quality than I am used to. You have to pre-register and then you have to show your badge with proof of registrationto enter the course. So if you were a slacker and did not register you did not get into the more popular classes even if you were early. I took CPR, Medial Emergencies (OR requires 4 credits of med emergencies per 2 yrs),50 top most prescribed drugs, and Interdisciplinary dental treatment. It was awesome. I have been to several dental conference medication classes. This was the best. This speaker rocked! He was informative and talked about how the meds related to dental work....not how the drug acted in the body. I learned so much. Then the Interdisciplinary one was full of info new to me. I was so impressed. It was wonderful. That one was a 6 hour one and took all day Sat. My whole office-dentist included-went. It was great to hear about treatment planning starting with the patients needs....perio, functionality, biomechanical and aesthetics. It was great. I learned so much. He was such a high quality speaker. The speaker is a friend of Dr Martha Bibb. She is the dds who my dentist bought his practice from. She is by far the best clinician I have ever seen. She is weird but her restorations are flawless--even years later. Anyway she knows this speaker...Dr Kois. She said he speaks around the country for 20,000 a pop! I wanna earn $20,000 for 6 hours of lecturing! He was worth it too. The class was packed full 400-500 people. So I am sure our reg fee paid for it.

ODA knows how to throw a good convention! There was 7 massage chairs giving free massages compliments of ODA. Red Cross was also there taking blood donations. I was rejected. My Hematocrit ws 12.2 and the needed is 12.5 to donate. I felt so rejected. All in all it was a wonderful conference...and 20 ce credits later I will be better for the education I received there.