even though I have been using lasers for 12 years. I never took any proficiency exam or joined an organization.. Not to offend anyone I found that most of the old ALD stuff was very political and alot fo BS…. Is everyone here a member of the ALD? Do i really need a proficiency course for any reason…..Thanks for replying

Hi Ron–

Welcome to the forum.

I have also been using lasers for over 12 years–erbium, Nd:YAGs, holmium, surgical argon, diodes, carbon dioxide.

I don’t recall your name or having ever met you, though.

Yes, ALD is very political.  Every organization that I have ever been involved with is political.  I resigned from the ALD board and the organization a couple of years ago for a number of reasons–the main reason was loyalty to customers of MDT that were being discriminated against in their Advanced Proficiency certification exams.

The reason for Category II/Standard proficiency is for new laser users to establish “basic proficiency” in their use of lasers by a recognized body.

The reasons for belonging to a group of like-minded users–which is what the pre-ALD group started out as in 1989–are numerous.

The ALD started out in 1989 as a study club of pulsed Nd:YAG users (dLase 300), and became the North American Academy of Laser Dentistry (NAALD) in 1990, then the ALD in 1992.  It was not very political in its early days.  Now with around 900 members they are very impressed with themselves.  Not very accoutable for their policies, procedures, and ethical oversight, but still impressed with themselves.  Sounds like ADA!

What laser did you start out using in 1990? Carbon dioxide if you chose not to hang out with the NAALD would be my guess…..maybe Laser 35?

Again, welcome to the forum.

Bob Gregg
Co-founder
Millennium Dental Technologies
http://www.millenniumdental.com

Thanks Ron–

The reason the Curriculum Guidelines were written was to give the newest laser users some credibility in peer review or in a malpractice lawsuit. But your years of experience would speak to your “proficiency”, so it is probably not necessary.

No, there is no “grandfathering” per se. But the exam is pretty easy to take. Not politicized like the Advanced Proficiency is.

Put it another way. Dr. Terry Myers, the inventor of the first pulsed Nd:YAG dental laser, and arguably the “Father” of laser dentistry–has never taken Standard or Advanced proficiency test, and has never been grandfathered either.

Standard proficiency is also designed to standardize and calibrate the laser user, both new and old like you and me, so we can have a similar basis of understanding and communication.

Are you in a specialty? How much do you use your CO2? Who is the manufacturer? There was quite a variety of CO2 lasers 12 years ago–Crys, Sharplan, Luxar, NIIC, Directed Energy. What do you use it for most commonly? Have you looked at some of the newer laser systems and wavelengths out there now?

Bob

OK. Sure, Ron.

I remember your situation. Glad to hear you got it worked out.

Yep, Waterlase sure seems like the be-all and end-all. Yeah, that was my question–whether you were using any of the newer devices since your early days with CO2.

The “need” for pulsed Nd:YAGs can be summed up in three applications: Hemostasis, hard tissue, selective hard and soft tissue dissection.

You have lots of experience with “total tissue ablaters”. What your lasers see, they absorb into–collagen, water, hydroxyapitite–well that everything in the human tissues, I think.

Pulsed Nd:YAGs are selective in their absorbtion in different tissue, giving a multitude of interactions that can be exploited clinically. Thanks for the kind words about our product.

Bob