Our Core Values
Learn what lies at the heart of our curriculum
From Our Course Director
I know you have many options when it comes to dental implant training. There are a variety of excellent courses and training institutes available today — I have been involved with a number of them. We bring something very unique to the implant training landscape. I am very proud of our faculty, our affiliation with Koerner Center for Surgical Instruction (KCSI), Roseman University, and Blue Sky Bio.
My goal is to help you fly solo in your own practice by offering a carefully crafted curriculum that will make you complete at the level of engagement in oral implantology that you desire. Please look at our current educational offerings, get to know our faculty, learn more about Roseman University and Blue Sky Bio — and perhaps most importantly, please read our core values (below) and see if they resonate with your own. I hope you will find a fit with us.
Feel free to contact me with any questions you might have regarding your own unique needs. I look forward to helping you along in your implant journey.
Barry Hillam, DDS, MAGD, FICOI
Our Core Values
We provide a strong didactic foundation for the how of oral implantology, by grounding our clients in the what, why, and when.
We teach surgical fundamentals. We believe this is perhaps the biggest barrier to in-office implementation for general dentists. We strive to teach our clients the principles of exodontia and constructive surgery that are not commonly taught in dental school.
While we acknowledge and teach the benefits of guided implant placement, we do not promote surgical workarounds in the name of minimally invasive surgery. We train our clients to be surgically sound — teaching concepts in flap design, reflection, and closure that allow direct access to the alveolar ridge whenever possible.
We keep the prosthetic end in mind. Oral Implantology is constructive, prosthetic surgery. Our surgical instruction is tied to its restorative endpoint.
We acknowledge the incidence of back-end complications in implantology, and we teach ways to mitigate and manage these occurrences.
We provide abundant live patient experiences for our clients in a highly mentored environment. We generally favor a lower volume instructional model that “bookends” live patient experiences with treatment planning at the beginning, and retrospective case analysis at the end.
Our instructional goal is in-office implementation. We help our clients to engage with oral implantology at the level they choose, so that they can “fly solo” with these procedures in their own offices. We acknowledge the difficulty that practitioners can have in integrating implantology into their everyday workflow. We provide techniques and materials that help them surmount the manifold barriers to implementation.
We teach to educate, not to sell. Our program, curriculum, continua, courses and modules are primarily developed with educational ends in mind. Our topics and protocols are not derived from a need to sell a particular product (this is a very common problem in implant training). We do train our clients in the use of a specific implant system, and we affirm and appreciate our vendor partnerships. We are delighted to provide a platform for them in our courses to support our clients with their products. However, we strive to teach implantology in a brand-neutral manner.
We teach with consistency. We follow the same learning objectives with each course. We strive to limit improvisatory and extemporaneous learning experiences to live-patient events. Our didactic experiences are highly structured and consistent, so that course attendees can cover the topics that are advertised.
We honor specialists. We love to teach general dentists to expand their implantology skill set. At the same time, we have a have deep respect for periodontists, oral surgeons, endodontists, prosthodontists, and other specialists that play such a vital role in oral implantology. We try to avoid the casual use of terms in our program such as “residency” or “surgeon,” acknowledging the tremendous amount of accredited training that underlies the use of these titles in the marketplace.
Reach Us
We at the Koerner Center for Surgical Instruction are dedicated to helping you and your dental practice improve through top-tier, comprehensive surgical training.