Partner Spotlight: The Center for Research & Education in Technology (CRET)

From time to time, we like to highlight the incredible organizations that we have the privilege of working with across the dental industry. Today, we’re shining the spotlight on the Center for Research & Education in Technology (CRET). 

 

About CRET

CRET was founded in 2004 by dental industry leaders who wanted to provide dental students with the latest technology and products, as well as the skills necessary to use them while actually treating patients. CRET’s founders observed that many dental school students were graduating without knowledge or training on cutting-edge equipment, new products, and procedures, for the simple reason that dental schools were unable to incorporate them as fast as private practices. As a result, many dental school graduates had to be trained on the job, necessitating dental practices to allocate significant time and resources to new dentists.

CRET’s founders believe that every dental school student deserves the opportunity to learn the latest and greatest in treatment technologies. They also recognize the need for dental school programs that expose students to contemporary technology while also being cost-effective and tailored to the unique needs of students and faculty at each individual school.

In keeping with these goals, CRET developed a Technology Educational Program (TEP) to teach dental students and faculty knowledge and competence in 21st century dental technology. The TEP provides a customizable framework for integrating innovative equipment, products, and procedures into each school’s curriculum.

What makes us so proud to support an organization like CRET is that we understand the real-world impact of equipping students to thrive in delivering state-of-the-art treatments to their patients in the CRET Innovation Centers (ICs). Dental school graduates who are technologically competent and confident in using that technology, are nothing short of unstoppable. Innovative new technologies and well-educated students lead to superior comprehensive care, resulting in better patient outcomes across the board.

 

Pushing the Industry Forward

Not only is CRET’s work impactful for students and their patients, but it also helps to uplift the dental profession and push us forward as an industry. Dental technology has made great strides over the last several decades, and it will surely continue to do so in ways that we can’t yet imagine. As a profession, we need organizations like CRET to ensure the dentists of tomorrow are prepared to move forward with such technologies.

 

Moving Forward with CRET

CRET continues to reach out to dental schools to develop TEPs. They have also set up several Innovation Centers (ICs), which are designed to resemble a private practice utilizing an innovative way to teach dental students and provide important feedback to manufacturers of new equipment and products. There are currently Innovation Centers open at three schools: the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Dentistry, the West Virginia University School of Dentistry, and the University of Mississippi.

Richmond Dental and Medical is a proud partner of CRET. If you’d like to learn more about the organization and all the work it’s doing to educate the dentists of tomorrow, we encourage you to visit their website at www.cretdental.org or you can send an email to info@cretdental.org.