Hello everyone. I am Mariah Mohammed with Becker's Hospital Review.
Thank you so much for tuning into the Becker's Healthcare podcast series.
Today I am absolutely pleased to be joined by today's speaker, Dr.
Marvin Berlin, in the world of dentistry,
achieving the prestigious fellowship and mastership awards from the Academy of
General Dentistry, a g d is a remarkable accomplishment.
The Fellowship Award, F a G d, and the Mastership Award, m a g d,
are two of the highest honors bestowed by the Academy of General Dentistry.
These accolades symbolize a dentist's commitment to a lifelong learning and a
dedication to providing the highest standard of patient care. This past July,
Dr. Berlin received his M A G D at the AG D'S
2023 Convocation Ceremony held in Las Vegas.
He joins the podcast today to share his journey in pursuing the F A G D and or M
A G D destination. With that, let's jump into the conversation today. Doctor,
can you please start by sharing a bit about your, uh,
journey into dentistry and how you became interested,
interested in pursuing these accolades?
Uh, thank you. Yeah, you bet. I've been, uh,
practicing dentist since 1989 and uh, literally took my very first,
uh, CE class back in 89. And, uh,
one of the interesting characterizations of that is when we started this
journey, you know, it's just these little eight hour classes,
eight hour classes here and eight hour and all of a sudden they started adding
up, adding up. And the first, I don't know, 10 or 15 years of my career,
I didn't, it wasn't really like I was, that was a goal. Um,
but as I got, it was about year 15, I remember. And,
uh, I saw those hours starting to kind of creep up. I was like, you know,
this is kind of, kind of cool that the a g d keeps track of them for you,
which is really kind of handy. And I would, I would recommend anybody,
make sure you join the A G D 'cause it you, they keep,
you keep track of those hours. Uh, and, but once you start seeing that, hey,
there's, you know, several hundred hours of CE that you've accumulated,
then you start seeing that goal and, you know, you realize, hey,
if I get to 500, uh, I can, you know, uh,
achieve this or at least take the test and move forward with it.
So it wasn't till about halfway through my career that I started getting excited
about it and, and that, but that's how the journey started.
It is just you start taking one class and then it's another, it's another,
and it just builds.
Got it, got it.
Thank you so much for sharing a bit about that background and how you were able
to achieve it. As I said before, and as you know,
achieving the F A G D and or M A G D is undoubtedly a
significant accomplishment.
What were some of the challenges you faced during your journey and what were the
most rewarding aspects?
The biggest challenge, Mariah is, is time away and spec,
specifically time away from your practice, time away from your, your family. Um,
you know, typically you, uh, classes are on a Friday or Friday, Saturday.
Um, and, and if you're open that day, obviously you have to close,
close the place down. And, and, uh, but that was for sure the biggest challenge.
Um, the other challenge, uh,
I would say is just the test that you have to take. 'cause you,
when you get outta dental school,
the last thing you want to do is ever take a test again.
And you have to go back and relearn how to, to, to study. And, uh,
and then once you take the test, you're like, okay, you could have done this.
It wasn't, I mean, you're a dentist, so you should be able to learn this. And,
and, but it was kind of stressful. Um, but other than that, the,
the reward has just been, it's an, it's an ama I don't know one,
it's personal accomplishment that, that you can do it. And when it's,
when with the F H E D, the fellowship award,
I realized that there's only I think six or 7% of dentists worldwide who have it
and have achieved it. You start realizing, hey, you know, if you do this,
this is something that, you know,
you recognize amongst your peers as a leader and you know that,
that that holds weight for sure. And,
and so that became almost like a, a goal in that, okay, I wanna do this.
I wanna be top of the top. And then once you get your F A G D, then it's like,
okay, wait, there's one more pinnacle and and there's Everest step there.
Do you want to go for it?
'cause then it's like 1% of dentists have done that and it, it's just a,
once you set as a goal,
then it becomes baby steps to get it done and you figure out how to do it. But,
uh, it's definitely a challenge, but definitely rewarding as well.
Yeah,
it definitely sounds like the benefits outweigh any of the other side,
which is absolutely great to hear.
How has the knowledge and skills you acquire through the F A G D and or M
A G D journey influenced the way you provide patient care and
manage your dental practice?
You know, multiple ways. It's so much more increased,
obviously if you take 1100 hours to which is the requirement for U M A
gt, actually mine was, I think over 1400 hours. That was what I, uh,
had going into that. You know, there's, that's a lot of education and it's,
it's amazing education that you go through and you realize this is, you know,
every class that you take CE wise,
you're gonna bring at least one or two pearls home to your practice to make you
a bedroom dentist, which is the whole goal of this. And so, uh,
what you realize is that this is not just an award that hey, you,
you hang it up on the wall and, and pat yourself on the back,
but you're actually a better clinician. You're,
you're gonna provide better care. So you're, you're you.
There's so much win-win, win. Everybody wins in this situation because, uh,
you know, you as a clinician are better. Uh,
your patients are gonna receive better care. Your practice, uh,
will be elevated. Uh, your,
your the ability to share knowledge with your team and your coworkers and your
partners or associates goes through the roof because now you can share that.
And I also teach a lot of classes, um, at Heartland Dental.
And this was my ability to, to be a better teacher. Uh, and you know, the,
when you teach, you've gotta learn something backwards and forwards.
And so it really, it was just a, a nice win-win for me all the way around.
That.
Is absolutely wonderful to hear.
And you kind of touched on it a little bit about how you used your time. Um,
but can you provide some insights into how you manage your time effectively and
maintain a successful practice while working towards these destinations?
You know, it's something you have to plan. Um,
and and I basically looked and and realize, okay,
for me to get the hours that I need. And I said, okay, I'm gonna, I'm,
when I started this journey, I said, okay, I wanna do it in,
I wanna do my F A G D in five years. And I said, okay, if I do it in five years,
how many hours do I need a year? Break that down,
how many hours do I need a month? Uh, and then realize, okay,
I'm gonna go to a class every other month or whatever the case may be. And,
and 'cause I had mapped it out,
I mapped it on just kind of set myself as a goal, a time goal. And,
and then it wasn't, um,
it wasn't so much of a bearing on me 'cause I'd kind of planned for it.
I thought, okay, this year, say it was,
say it was year 2018 and I needed to take six classes
or whatever the case may be. I just, it, it wasn't like too much of a challenge.
'cause I'd set that as a goal and let my team know.
I'll let my practice know that, hey, I'm gonna be missing these, these dates.
And, and once you, once you plan it out, it's, it's not too difficult. Uh, but,
but you have, you can't just kind of scatterbrain and do it.
You have to really have a, a plan. And, and that's what we did in our practice.
And, and my team celebrated this with me. This was not just a me thing.
Uh, my practice, uh, McKinney dennis.com, um, was,
was in this with me the long, long way and fact,
my partners now are pursuing their, uh, F A G D and M A G D. So it's,
it's kind of spread throughout my practice. And, uh, it, it's, so it's been,
it's been, like I said, it's been a win-win for,
for all involved because we involved everybody from the get go.
Oh, wow.
That is absolutely amazing to hear how salt they could spread so positively
throughout of practice. Um,
how did Heartland Dental support you in your pursuit of the F A G D M A G
D?
You know, I, I could not have done it without Heartland. It was, um,
I went back and looked at my transcript and probably, probably, uh,
two thirds of my CE was through Heartland Heartland's. Continued education is,
is truly one of the best in, in the industry. And whether it was,
um, cosmetic courses or root canals or surgery or,
or whatever the case may be, you know, Heartland offers everything.
And so I could have take hours here and here, you know,
just almost at will. There was,
if I needed a class in a certain specific subject, Heartland would have it.
And where it really helped out was in my M H E D, because with your M H E D,
uh, you're, you have to have 400 hours hands-on and, which is hard to get.
There's not a lot of hands-on classes at Nationwide. Uh,
whereas Heartland provides hands-on classes and cosmetics and endodontics and
surgery, uh, and implants.
And so there was a lot of my hands-on hours Heartland provided just
from being a Heartland doc. Uh,
the other thing that Heartland really helped us out with,
and this was kind of a nudge, Heartland has a program called the Dental,
the Doctor Mastery Program. And within that Doctor Mastery Program, it's,
it's a way you can kinda separate yourself within Heartland and be a leader
within Heartland, but one of the requirements is that you get your F A G D.
And so that was another, uh, motivating factor for us that,
that was like another carrot at the end of that sixth because it was another
process to, to take that journey just a, a step farther. And, uh,
so Heartland Heartland's been a huge positive support on me,
and I really could not have done my F A G D or for sure my A G D without their
support.
That is absolutely wonderful to hear. Thank you so much for sharing that.
And Doctor, before I let you go, um,
for doctors who are considering embarking on the F A G D M A G D journey,
do you have any advice that you would offer them to navigate the process and
make and make the most of the professional development?
Absolutely, and, and I would encourage every dentist out there to do this. Uh,
it is a, um, fulfilling as, uh,
so much more fulfilling than you can even imagine.
And it's not just those letters after your name, it's really not. It's,
it's the knowledge that you gain.
It's the confidence that you have and your patients see that confidence, uh,
when, when you understand whatever, whatever the, the, the situation may be.
But it's, um, and,
and there is a feeling of,
of recognition amongst your peers that you've, you're, you've,
you've separated yourself as a leader and doctors look up to you and it
just, uh, it's a, it's a good feeling. And, uh, it's good. I,
I would, I would encourage any doctor out there to do it.
I would also encourage them to involve their team. Let this be a team award,
if you will. Uh, but, and let, 'cause they're gonna need to help you through it,
and help you through classes and, and whatever the specific, uh,
requirements that you're gonna need to get. And we celebrate as a team and we,
you know, at both my fellowship and the mastership and,
and then we celebrate it within Heartland. Uh, and so it's,
you make sure it's not just an individual thing, but celebrate it with the team.
I think that was a biggie. And then just do it. Just take these,
see how many hours you need, divide it by, by how many years you wanna do it,
and just make it a, a goal. Um, and, and, and bite-sized little pieces,
if you will, where it's not such a massive goal. Don't look at it as,
oh my gosh, I have to get 1100 hours. But just really start,
just divide it out and do it by it in four or five years. And, and it's doable.
They make it where it's totally doable. And, um, again,
I I couldn't recommend it higher. It's been an awesome honor, and I'm, I'm just,
I'm thrilled, thrilled of the, the journey.
Journey. Yeah, definitely. Well, thank you so much, doctor,
for your time and thought provoking responses today.
We also wanna thank our podcast sponsor Heartland Dental.
You can tune into more podcasts from Becker's Healthcare by visiting our podcast
page at becker's hospital review.com. Thank you again, doctor.
Thank you, Maria. Have a great day.