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In Texas, all active dentists and dental hygienists are required by the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners to accrue up to 24 hours of continuing education (CE) biennially. During a time in our history when dental professionals are not permitted to gather for live courses, Scott Stafford, D.D.S., M.B.A., and his team have quickly changed tactics to make sure their office bridges that gap. Dr. Stafford, director of the Office of Continuing Dental Education, began by utilizing Canvas Conferences to host Grand Rounds on April 3, 2020. “We traditionally had thirty to fifty in attendance”, says Dr. Stafford referring to the in-person Grand Rounds events. “The first week we went to virtual Grand Rounds, we had 250 plus people in attendance. The presentation was by Dr. Mike Huber and it specifically was an update on COVID-19, which we knew would garner a sizable response, but we didn’t expect over 200.” The popularity of virtual Grand Rounds presented a challenge when almost 300 participants logged-in to view Dr. Adam Saltz, a third-year periodontics resident, present on immediate implants and crashed the system. Dr. Stafford and Dr. Saltz worked in tandem to reboot the presentation. Dr. Stafford hosted Dr. Saltz’ PowerPoint deck from campus while Dr. Saltz called in to speak to the massive group of participants. The Office of Continuing Dental Education has moved to conducting Grand Rounds through a private Facebook live channel to provide a better viewing experience with less disruptions to the presenter’s feed. The COVID-19 pandemic left a trail of cancellations in its wake. Almost all of 2020’s largest dental and dental education meetings were understandably canceled to protect the health and safety of the public at large. Oral health professionals were left asking how they would achieve their live CE hour requirement to maintain their license. Dr. Stafford sought to remedy this by hosting a two-day virtual dental meeting on April 16th and 17th, which he and his team organized within 12 days from conception to the promotion of the event. Twelve speakers immediately responded to Dr. Stafford’s call and generously waived the customary honorarium for their service. This gracious act enabled Dr. Stafford to offer admittance to the virtual meeting at a minimum cost to cover the hosting platform expense. Courses that would have normally cost $125 for 3 hours were offered at $28. “With dental professionals out of work, we wanted to keep the offerings as inexpensive as possible,” Dr. Stafford explained. The two-day event attracted 466 dental professionals who completed 877 courses and were awarded 2,631 hours of continuing education. The courses ran simultaneously with the help from dental faculty who hosted rooms to assist the speakers with any issues or questions that arose from the participants. “It was not a perfect process and we had some bumps along the way, but we worked most of them out. We worked several long days to make this happen in such a short time frame, but we felt it could give our dental professionals something positive to focus on in the anticipation of returning to patient care”, Dr. Stafford acknowledges. “My staff supported this program while working from home via e-mail, voicemail, Teams, Jabber, and even by texting.” The School of Dentistry wishes to thank the Office of Continuing Dental Education, the virtual dental meeting speakers, and the room hosts for their service to our profession during this extraordinary time in our history. Virtual Dental Meeting Speakers: Bill Robins, D.D.S., Chris Perry, D.D.S., David Bonner, D.D.S., Tracy Civick, Adam Saltz, D.M.D., Mike Huber, D.D.S., Ernest Valdez, D.D.S., Kevin Henry, Ernie Luce, D.D.S., Clint Stevens, D.D.S., Greg Osborne, D.D.S., and Mike Young D.D.S. A special thanks to recent graduate, Lauren Hrynyshyn, D.D.S., who managed all of the social marketing for the dental meeting and the numerous faculty and staff who stepped in as room hosts including Kelly Lemke, D.D.S., Rita Parma, D.D.S., Asma Khan, D.D.S., Jacob Park, D.D.S., Barb MacNeill, D.D.S., Jason Sandlin and Dana English, Ed.D.  To read more about CDE course offerings and upcoming Grand Rounds events, please click the icons to the right.