Spear Study Club

Continuing dental education is easy to put off, but the clinicians who invest in structured, collaborative learning consistently deliver better outcomes for their patients and build more rewarding practices. If you are a Philadelphia-area dental professional looking for a meaningful way to grow clinically and strengthen your referral relationships, joining a study club led by a recognized periodontist offers something solo CE simply cannot: the ability to think through complex cases alongside colleagues who are as invested in growth as you are.

At Laudenbach Periodontics & Dental Implants, Dr. Jay Laudenbach founded the first Spear Study Club in Center City Philadelphia in 2013, bringing a nationally recognized, faculty-designed curriculum to a small, carefully selected group of interdisciplinary clinicians. Our practice has provided the Philadelphia community with advanced periodontal care for over 40 years, and our Spear Study Club reflects that same commitment to clinical precision and collaborative growth.

What Is the Spear Study Club and Why Does It Matter?

The Spear Study Club model was built on a straightforward premise: dentists who learn together perform better. Unlike passive lecture-based CE, Spear clubs use a structured, case-based curriculum developed by Spear Education faculty to guide meaningful discussion among a small group of peers. Every meeting is designed to be worth your time, whether you are working through a challenging occlusal case, discussing treatment planning for a patient with complex periodontal needs, or exploring how interdisciplinary coordination improves outcomes.

Spear Education is a nationally recognized CE provider, and its curriculum is accepted by the Academy of General Dentistry for Fellowship/Mastership credit. The structure ensures members build on prior discussions from session to session, which creates genuine continuity rather than isolated learning. According to the American Academy of Periodontology, periodontists receive three additional years of specialized training beyond dental school, making specialist-led study clubs particularly valuable for interdisciplinary case collaboration.

How Our Philadelphia Spear Study Club Works

Our Spear Study Club meets approximately eight times per year in a small group setting of 8 to 12 like-minded peers. Meetings run approximately two to three hours and are intentionally kept small to encourage guided learning, interaction, and interdisciplinary camaraderie. Members are expected to attend as many sessions as possible to maintain continuity and cohesion within the group.

The curriculum covers a range of clinical and practice development topics relevant to Philadelphia-area dental professionals. These include:

• Comprehensive treatment planning: using Spear’s Facially Generated Treatment Planning framework to diagnose and present care in a way patients can understand and accept
• Interdisciplinary case collaboration: workshopping real-world cases with specialists and general practitioners from across the Philadelphia area
• Periodontal and restorative integration: exploring how periodontal health underpins restorative success, with direct insight from a board-certified periodontist
• Implant treatment coordination: understanding how referring doctors and periodontists can align for more predictable implant outcomes

On several occasions, members of our group have attended workshops and seminars at the Spear campus in Scottsdale, Arizona — an immersive experience members have described as transformational for their clinical thinking and practice growth.

Who Should Join Our Spear Study Club?

Our club is designed for Philadelphia-area dental professionals who want to elevate the quality and comprehensiveness of the care they deliver. General practitioners, restorative dentists, and specialists are all welcome. The interdisciplinary mix is intentional: some of the most valuable conversations happen when a general dentist, an endodontist, and a periodontist are all looking at the same case from different vantage points.

At this time we are developing a second Spear Study Club starting with Spear foundational concepts that will guide clinicians to diagnose and recommend comprehensive care in a way drives patient case acceptance. If you are interested in joining either group, please reach out to discuss availability and timing.

Why Study Clubs Led by Specialists Make a Difference

There is a meaningful difference between a study club run by a generalist and one led by a board-certified periodontist with decades of implant and soft tissue experience. Dr. Laudenbach is a Diplomate of the American Board of Periodontology and brings direct clinical insight into every group discussion, particularly around cases involving periodontal disease treatment, gum grafting, and implant readiness. Referring doctors who participate in our club consistently report a stronger foundation for making treatment recommendations and a more confident approach to complex case acceptance.

Membership in our Spear Study Club is by registration only. For more information regarding registration, contact our Professional Relations Coordinator at prc@laudenbach.com or call (215) 985-4337. We serve referring doctors throughout Philadelphia, Ardmore, Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Newtown Square, Cherry Hill, and the surrounding Main Line communities. Reach out through our contact page to get started.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Spear Study Club