The Pankey Institute

It started with the belief that patients should receive the quality care they deserve.

Forty years ago, Dr. Lindsey D. Pankey, Sr. had a national and international reputation in dentistry as a world-class restorative pioneer and educator. He was a passionate advocate of comprehensive, patient-centered dentistry and spent much of his life helping other dentists understand the happiness and fulfillment to be had in closer relationships with patients. Having accumulated nearly every award and honor that organized dentistry could bestow, several of Dr. Pankey’s colleagues sought to honor him in a unique way. They asked him to lend his name to an institute for advanced continuing dental education. He accepted, and fundraising began to form the nonprofit known as The Pankey Institute.

The first courses of the Institute commenced in September of 1972 with the mission of “bridging the gap between what is known and what is practiced.” Since that time, a continuously enhanced curriculum and growing faculty have focused on that mission, and The Pankey Institute has been dentistry’s "one place" for postgraduate education that enables general dentists to:

• Take control and reshape their practices to spend more time providing the kind of dentistry they enjoy most.
• Master advanced technical skills and gain confidence to perform them.
• Develop trusting relationships with clients to provide comprehensive and individualized optimal care.
• Improve their dentistry for more predictable and long-lasting results.
• Offer philosophically and clinically congruent continuing education for the members of their practice teams, their interdisciplinary specialists, and their dental laboratory technicians.
• Receive continuous support from faculty, mentors and fellow classmates.

The Institute’s curriculum is not just about gaining competence in new techniques. It’s about experiencing life-changing discussions, new challenges and innovative approaches in a supportive environment that will impact all aspects of practice (clinical, behavioral, financial) and life. The Pankey Institute has a renowned reputation for helping dentists develop a personal philosophy of practice that leads to a healthy, balanced life and highly fulfilling career. Pankey-trained dentists have the reputation of being well trained in positive behavioral influence, occlusion, functional aesthetic dentistry, and complex diagnosis and treatment planning. 

“The Institute has provided a place for dentists to explore the meaning of excellence and renew their commitment to the kind of dentistry they want to be doing.” — L. D. Pankey