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Corporate Profile: Institute for Advanced Laser Dentistry Thomas Giacobbi, DDS, FAGD, Editorial Director Dentaltown Magazine

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Laser Curriculum Custodians
An interview with the program directors and instructors at the Institute for Advanced Laser Dentistry
by Thomas Giacobbi, DDS, FAGD
Editorial Director, Dentaltown Magazine

The acceptance and use of lasers in the dental profession are growing by leaps and bounds thanks to educational opportunities provided at organizations like the Institute for Advanced Laser Dentistry (IALD). Always staying ahead of the trends, the IALD trains dentists on the newest techniques with the most cutting edge equipment. To learn more about the IALD, Dentaltown Magazine recently interviewed IALD President and Program Director Robert Gregg, DDS; Vice President and Training Director Dawn Bloore, DDS; and Program Director Delwin McCarthy, DDS.

What can you tell us about the Institute for Advanced Laser Dentistry? When was it formed, for what purpose and for which constituent group of dental professionals?
Gregg: Dr. McCarthy and I have been training dental clinicians in the actual clinical use of various dental devices since 1989 for him and 1991 for me. In fact, Dr. McCarthy is "Educator Zero" for just about all the laser experts who are commonly known of in the United States today. He has either trained the experts or trained those who trained them. He was my first laser instructor, for example, in August 1990. Our collaboration together as laser educators began in 1994, two years after we co-authored the Curriculum Guidelines and Standards Dental Laser Education. That collaboration led to the formal organization of the Institute for Advanced Laser Dentistry in 1999. The IALD was formed in order to offer actual and practical live-patient clinical training to dental practitioners - as opposed to merely laser "certification" - in the use of dental lasers, supported by relevant lecture materials, which all meet and ultimately exceed the curriculum guidelines we helped craft. Following successful course completion, clinicians will have earned device-specific standard proficiency that exceeds the requirements of curriculum guidelines.

What does "device specific certification" mean?
McCarthy: As Dr. Gregg just mentioned, he and I were two of the co-authors of the Curriculum Guidelines and Standards Dental Laser Education as adopted by all the authors in both 1992 and 1998 editions. The guidelines are explicit that standard and advanced proficiency be specific to a single manufacturer's device, not just a wavelength or a generic type of lasers such as the diode family of devices by various manufacturers. For example, one cannot receive a single generalized certification to use any and all makes and models of neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG) lasers as the devices vary in their operating parameters, such as power, repetition rate, peak powers, pulse durations, etc. So, according to the standards, a clinician must receive a standard proficiency certification on a manufacturer's specific device model of Nd:YAG.

On which device or devices does the IALD offer training and certification?
McCarthy: The IALD presently offers Standard Proficiency Certification that includes, but is not limited to, the PerioLase MVP-7 manufactured by Millennium Dental Technologies (MDT). The IALD has a long history of conducting training and certification on a variety of devices marketed by different manufacturers. Recently, the IALD's Training Director Dr. Dawn Bloore has been responsible for increasing the institute's bandwidth to include additional levels and layers of training. Our history of diversity in training has been in part responsible for our continued recognition by the ADA-CERP and AGDPACE programs as a national CE course provider.

That's a lot of legacy in laser education. What did that lead to?
Gregg: We took the concept of device-specific training one step further. We expanded device-specific proficiency in training to include procedure-specific expertise in training.

Can you further explain procedure-specific training expertise?
McCarthy: Dr. Gregg and I had very extensive laser educator experience in the early 1990s when dental lasers were new on the scene. We were in a unique position to understand the dental laser marketplace. We developed a keen awareness and understanding, not only as it related to various manufacturers' laser devices and the education needs regarding them, but most importantly, we understood the needs of the practicing clinician.
Gregg: We realized that for more dental clinicians to use this marvelous technology invented by Dr. Theodore Harold Maiman, they needed to be well trained in the use of their specific device and have a new procedure or procedures that the clinician could and would use to pay for the capital investment. If we offered concentrated training on a single specific procedure that could present clinical results otherwise unattainable with conventional modalities, yet attainable to the new laser clinician, that was as predictable and reproducible as it was in our hands - that would be something extra special...
McCarthy:...and that something extra special is a procedure that came to be called Laser Assisted New Attachment Procedure or "LANAP." LANAP is a specific and defined periodontitis treatment protocol that has unique scientific proof of principle and FDA clearance to regenerate the attachment apparatus lost to the most severe forms of infectious, inflammatory periodontal disease.
Gregg: Dr. McCarthy and I developed an initial three-day basic laser training program that covered the requirements of the curriculum guidelines, ADA-CERP, AGD-PACE, and then some. One of our earliest LANAP graduates, Dr. Jerry Johnson, coined the course "Laser BootCamp" - a name that has stuck ever since. After successful completion of the first three days of training with IALD, a device-specific Standard Proficiency Certificate is awarded in the PerioLase MVP-7 free-running pulsed (FRP) Nd:YAG laser from MDT. Upon achieving this certification, the doctor is licensed in the patented LANAP protocol by MDT, and is qualified to practice LANAP.
McCarthy: Our experience as laser educators over the years taught us that the new laser clinician was just getting comfortable and to "know that they don't know" by the time six months had passed. We benchmarked six months as the critical juncture for clinicians to return for a fourth day "refresher/enhancer" course. We refer to this as Evolution 4 in LANAP parlance. Evolution 4 training at six months imparts an Expanded Proficiency Certification to the qualified doctor.
The full continuum of LANAP education is completed at 12 months with Evolution 5 and is all included in the purchase price of the PerioLase MVP-7. This milestone of achievement imparts LANAP proficiency certification and fellowship status in the IALD to the qualified doctor.


"I was a Laser BootCamper, then a LANAP practitioner,
and eventually a successful periodontitis treatment clinician..."
-Dr. Dawn Bloore		 Dr. Bloore, can you comment on your involvement
with the IALD?
Bloore: First, and foremost, I was (and am) a practicing dentist and then a prospective customer of MDT, looking for a successful means to treat periodontal disease. As a fourth generation dentist I'd seen it with my own eyes, since I'd often be the third generation of dentists to treat our periodontal patients. Our patients weren't regenerating lost periodontal structures; they were "melting away!" I was a LANAP skeptic at first, as many LANAPers are. Beginning in September 2001, I was a Laser BootCamper, then a LANAP practitioner, and eventually a successful periodontitis treatment clinician achieving phenomenal results for me, my practice and, most of all, my patients.
Then in the fall of 2003, I received a call from Dr. McCarthy asking if I wanted to enlist in the IALD's Certified Instructor program in order to become a certified IALD instructor, which I eventually achieved in 2004. In July 2006, I was selected to coordinate the training of principal investigators from three universities and two private practices which are to participate in a university-based, prospective, randomized, longitudinal, controlled, split-mouth clinical study design comparing LANAP, SRP, Widman flap, and OHI alone in the same patient.
I will further participate in this study as the LANAP clinical monitor. This study is expected to start later in 2008. My contributions as an IALD instructor and clinical study monitor led to my invitation to become the IALD training director, a role I have been carrying out ever since late 2006.

What are your responsibilities as IALD Training Director?
Bloore: As the IALD training director, I oversee the selection, training, standardization and calibration of the new IALD instructor candidates through the candidate selection process. This is to ensure that all course attendees receive the same consistent high level of lecture presentations, clinical instruction, and laser training to be taught anywhere in the world. IALD courses are taught with consistent, effective and comprehensive adult teaching methodology no matter which instructor or where the institute is conducting the training.

Where does this take the IALD?
Bloore: Really, it takes us anywhere in the world we need to go. As demand continues to grow, we have expanded our IALD training into the academic setting. The IALD has been training at the University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine since November of 2006. This could not have been accomplished without the dedication and support of the school's dean, Denise Kassebaum, DDS, and Raymond Y. Yunka, DMD, MS, professor and director of advanced periodontal therapies.
As a result of our tenure at the University of Colorado, we have developed a "template" for undertaking training away from our headquarters in Cerritos, California, and base of logistical support, as well as working in the academic environment.
Any need for more IALD certified instructors can be met by expanding our instructor base with our standardized certification selection and training requirements.

How many instructors does the IALD have?
Bloore: We currently have 25 doctors in the IALD certified instructor program. Of these, 16 have completed the extensive program, and are certified IALD instructors. In this category, nine are from the original core of instructors that ultimately completed and passed the standardization and calibration to earn their IALD Certified Instructor credentials. The other seven were initialized through the certification program using the standardized requirements. The remaining nine instructor candidates are all at various stages of the program. All are expected to complete their training process by the end of this year.

The IALD has a reputation for going the extra mile. Can you expand on that?
Bloore: I and the program directors, Drs. Gregg and McCarthy, are available by phone and e-mail to all doctors who have completed IALD training and who have questions. It is amazing to our IALD attendee graduates, but true, that they have access to so many people to ensure their confidence, success and satisfaction of their patients. It is a five-star experience from start to finish and beyond.
Furthermore, the IALD continues to be in touch with its graduating doctors by encouraging participation in the annual Clinicians' Meeting where doctors receive additional instruction and continuing education credits. This has been a well-attended annual event and the attendance continues to grow. The meeting has been held in several exciting locations from California, to Las Vegas, and recently Moon Palace in Cancun. The meeting always has outstanding line-up of speakers from all aspects of dentistry, not just the field of lasers. It is a great place to learn from the presentations and break-out sessions as well as from the fellow doctors with varying levels of various device and laser experience.
The Advanced Laser Dentists
The IALD wouldn't be the premiere laser training organization that it is without its instructors. Dentaltown Magazine contacted Charles R. Braga, DMD, MMSc; Roger D. Craddock, DDS; Allen Honigman, DDS, MS; and Raymond A. Yukna, DMD, MS, to find out how the IALD has impacted them and their practices.

When did you decide to teach at the IALD?
Honigman: I decided that I wanted to teach at the IALD after my initial IALD BootCamp experience. I enjoyed what was being taught and the conviction of the instructors in the advantages and the clinical results of the PerioLase. During my first year of utilizing the PerioLase in my periodontal practice and seeing the results that my patients were having, only furthered my resolve to become an instructor and help educate other dental professionals into the unique advantages of the PerioLase and LANAP.

How has your experience as an instructor impacted your dental practice?
Honigman: I have not had an opportunity to see how it will impact my practice in the long term, but in the short term, patients are suitably impressed and more at ease when they find out that I am an instructor candidate for LANAP. It gives more credibility to not only myself, but to the procedure. I believe that in the long term, being an instructor will have a major positive impact to my periodontal practice.
Craddock: I have greater confidence with the material, plus presentation-skills training has improved my case presentations. Adult learning styles and being sensitive to them was an important part of the training at IALD, and that helps me teach my patients.

Describe your current research on the effectiveness of LANAP. How many patients are involved, have any results been released, when will the research be complete?
Yukna: We have completed the prospective human histology study involving 12 teeth in six patients, the very positive results of which have been published in the International Journal of Periodontics and Restorative Dentistry in December 2007. The study demonstrated that cementum-mediated new connective tissue attachment to a periodontally diseased root surface was a universal and consistent finding following LANAP. We are about to start a multi-center clinical trial comparing LANAP to conventional surgical and non-surgical periodontal therapy. The clinical trial should be completed in 2010.

What would you say to a periodontist who is skeptical of success with LANAP?
Yukna: We as dentists, and periodontists especially, need to be open to new technologies and new approaches to the treatment of periodontitis. I was as skeptical as anyone ever has been about the laser and the protocol, but the results of the human histology research and my clinical private practice experience over the last eight years, have made LANAP my primary treatment recommendation for patients with periodontitis. It is sometimes difficult to change dramatically one's concepts, precepts, and method of treatment. But I do feel that laser usage, and the patented LANAP protocol specifically, will significantly alter how periodontitis is treated in the future.

What would you say to a dentist that is considering this technology for their practice?
Braga: Don't hesitate. The uses for lasers in dentistry are manifold. LANAP, however, is intellectually and financially explosive with respect to patient satisfaction, remuneration, and practice growth. You'll feel better that you're providing your patients with a service that is much improved over old-style periodontal therapy. And your patients will love you for it.
Craddock: It has been very gratifying to me personally, professionally, and financially to offer LANAP to my patients. It is safe and effective, and has been a very successful replacement for flap surgery in my perio patients.
Dentaltown Magazine
September 2025
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