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UKP00246 Increments up to 4mm without layering Flowable for excellent cavity adaptation Compatible with your current adhesive* For a free sample** please call or email us on: The revolutionary way to save time *Chemicallycompatiblewithmethacrylatebasedadhesivesandcomposites.**Limitedsamplesavailable +44 (0)1932 837303 (quoting free SDR sample) FREE SDR™ Launch Events visit www.dentsply.co.uk/ SDR.aspx for more information T rying to have a sensible conversation with a man in a three-foot high green hat is not easy. Fortunately it was not the time to be sens- ible for long as the man in ques- tion was Dr Edwin ‘Eddie’ Scher, and he had an important miss- ion to address the guests at his annual party held at London’s RAC Club. This was not an ordinary par- ty, falling as it did on St Patrick’s Day (hence the large hat, well I hope that was the reason any- way!). This year marked the 20th anniversary of the opening of Ed- die’s Walpole St practice in Lon- don as well his very popular im- plant courses. Visiting his practice was a far more orderly affair, as Eddie showed me around and talked about his career, his teaching philosophy and how his courses have stayed popular. Eddie has been running teaching programs for 20 years now, and has taught more than 700 clinicians on his courses at Walpole St. Eddie said: “1990 was a very desperate year for me as it was the year my father died, but it was also the year that we opened Walpole St. I was also passion- ate about developing the one or two-day courses that I was being asked to give by companies, but I wanted to take it one step further and develop a course that took a broader view. This means that delegates really need to know more than what a company is go- ing to tell them, they need back- ground, they need background literature and they then need enough knowledge to make deci- sions themselves rather than do- ing what they’re told. And so my courses were born! “We ran it as a year-long course. In the first year, we were fully subscribed, in the second year, we were double-subscribed, so we put on two identical days in a row. In the third year, we were triple subscribed and were doing three days, and by the third day, I was brain dead. We then took a step back, said ‘this is crazy’ and decided to do just one a year. It’s been going very well, always fully subscribed for the past 20 years.” During the 90’s the course re- mained popular, with delegates flying in from all over the globe to take part. Although this was a very satisfying position to be in, Eddie was concerned about the course format for people who had to travel great distances. “About 10 years ago we were concerned with people flying in from so far, for example from Hong Kong, so we tried to create a course for out-of-towners in a different way, so we formed our year-long course into six inten- sive days from Sunday morning to Friday afternoon. “We started the course in the October (2000), and it got fully subscribed, it was very popular and a good way to teach, as the practice was busy enough to do what we did on the year course - taking one patient from initial exam to surgery to fitting the prosthesis. But, you couldn’t use the same patient on the six-day course. However, the practice was busy enough that you could use a different patient for the same implant in the same region at different stages. And it worked well. It’s worked well since.” Eddie has strong ideals about how his course should be taught: “My ideal is group size is 10, 12 is really the maximum. With more it becomes difficult for people to ask questions. If there are only 10 people in the room, it’s a beauti- ful interactive group. “I do make a statement right at the start of the course on the Sunday morning. That statement is that I will never ask a direct question to a person. I will ask many questions throughout, but it will be to the group. I will never embarrass or chastise an indi- vidual. It’s up to each delegate 20 years of education Dental Tribune talks to Dr Edwin Scher about 20 years of implant courses at his Walpole St practice May 24-30, 20108 Feature United Kingdom Edition