‘Showing Up’: How One Orthodontist Keeps Her Study Club Thriving After 14 Years

When orthodontist Dr. Diane Shieh decided to start a Spear Study Club 14 years ago, she wasn’t just looking for another professional commitment. She was looking for a way to stay energized and remain curious.

“I’ve always believed that private practice only gives you part of what you need to know,” she says. “You can’t be a good practitioner unless you’re constantly a student. The best way to do that is to be around people who can push you, lift you, and inspire you.”

That drive led her to co-found the Southern New Hampshire Spear Study Club with her colleague, Dr. Joe Torio, an oral surgeon. Today, the club comprises 25 members — specialists and general practitioners alike — who meet monthly in Nashua, N.H. to collaborate, learn, and challenge each other.

Discovering Spear and a broader way to think

Dr. Shieh first encountered Spear Education years ago when she attended one of Dr. Frank Spear’s seminars in Boston.

“As an orthodontist, I didn’t expect to get so excited about general dentistry,” she laughs. “But Frank made it so approachable and so practical. He teaches in a way that’s relevant across every discipline — restorative, endo, ortho, you name it. What really stuck with me was how he emphasized our role as educators. It’s not about being superior to our patients; it’s about helping them understand that the choice lies in their hands.”

That philosophy resonated deeply with her and eventually shaped how she leads. “Spear helped me realize my continuing education couldn’t just stay within my own field. To stay excited about dentistry, I had to understand what my colleagues were going through and see dentistry through their eyes.”

Building a study club that lasts

Longevity doesn’t happen by accident. Over 14 years, Dr. Shieh has learned that running a thriving study club requires consistency, creativity, and an intentional focus on engagement.

“We start planning the year in August,” she says. “When possible, our curriculum for the year is designed around a theme. We post our full schedule, including modules, from September to June, and members are contacted personally to align a case or topic for co-presentation. Having members learn from each other is as valuable, if not more, than just attending the module and CE. We are developing and identifying resident experts at each meeting. It’s rewarding as a leader knowing that your club members are resources for each other and feel comfortable sharing their expertise and talent.”

Each meeting includes dinner, discussion, and a combination of Spear modules, member cases, and guest speakers. This year’s theme is treatment-planning tools and digital workflows.

But what really makes the club special, she says, is the atmosphere. “Joe and I have a great group of practitioners who genuinely care about their patients and what they can do to be better. It’s exciting to see them share freely and feel safe to ask questions. Creating the environment to learn starts with our ability to be vulnerable as leaders as well — we don’t hesitate to ask questions and also highlight aspects of our cases we can improve on as well.”

That engagement is what keeps members coming back month after month, even through the challenges of the pandemic. “We met by Zoom during COVID, and people still showed up!”

The power of learning together

When her club travels to workshops at Spear Campus in Scottsdale, Arizona, the collaboration deepens even further. “That’s where the magic happens,” she says. “When you learn together, you unify your vision and language. You start seeing things the same way, and that makes communication and treatment planning seamless. That’s when you become a real team.”

Those relationships extend far beyond the meeting room. “Now we text each other about cases all the time. There’s an ease to treatment planning cases now where I can ask my colleague, ‘Do you want me to line this up to the gingival margins or the incisal edges?’ or they forward their treatment planning presentation to me prior to an exam, and we’re already on the same page. That’s the level of comfort and trust we’ve built.”

Seeing the results in others and herself

For Dr. Shieh, one of the greatest rewards of leading a Study Club is watching her members grow. She points to Dr. Darcy Neveu, who joined the club and is not only a Faculty Club member — she’s now a Spear Visiting Faculty member herself.

“I’ve seen Darcy’s work grow tremendously. Her case presentations flipped overnight,” she says. “Her clinical work is beautiful, and her confidence has taken off. It’s been so much fun to watch that transformation.”

Dr. Shieh has completed much of the Spear Core Curriculum herself and encourages her members to do the same. “We’ve been given this incredible framework, but you have to show up, push, and engage,” she says. “There’s no autopilot in leadership. You can’t just rely on Spear to do the job for you.”

Her message to other study club leaders is simple but powerful: “Make the experience worth it for your members. They’re giving up family time to be there. You owe it to them to make it engaging, relevant, and fun.”

Fourteen years in, she’s still just as energized — and still learning. “Leading a Spear Study Club keeps my passion for dentistry alive. Every meeting is a reminder of why I love what I do and why I never want to stop learning.”