EDITOR’S WELCOME Greg Cannizzo, DDS, CDE, JAOS Editor 3617 Municipal Drive, McHenry, IL 60050 Phone: (815) 344-2282 • Fax: (815) 344-5815 Email: drgrc@joltmail.com ASSOCIATION STAFF Adam Griswold AGpO Executive Director Academy of Gp Orthodontics 509 E. Boydston St. Rockwall, TX 75087-3956 (800) 634-2027 E-mail: agriswold@academygportho.com Nate Porter AOS Executive Director American Orthodontic Society 2451 West Grapevine Mills Circle Suite 510 Grapevine, TX 76051 E-mail: support@orthodontics.com Don’t Become Like the Paradoxical Frog There’s an obscure species of frog from South America that is appropri-ately named the paradoxical frog. The name refers to the fact that this amphibian starts life as an extremely large tadpole, about 10 inches long, before reverting to a much smaller frog of half that size in adulthood. Sadly, some dental professionals who start their orthodontic education find themselves following the life cycle of the paradoxical frog. As they begin their orthodontic education and start offering orthodontics to their patients, they are excited and quickly grow. Things are going well with making orthodontics part of their practice. They have ideas and energy and the future looks bright. Then perhaps something happens. They take on a difficult case and don’t bother to ask for assistance from their instructor or colleges. The treatment starts head-ing south and they become discour-aged. Or it could be that they have a patient who is not cooperative with treatment and they become discour-aged as treatment drags on. Or it could be they lose an orthodontic assistant and become bogged down with treatment. With all these scenarios they started out excited about orthodon-tics, but more time begins to be spent regretting the current predica-ment than working towards turning it around. More time is spent think-ing about the past problems they ran into rather than learning more to prepare for the future. And eventu-ally, just like the paradoxical frog, they end up smaller than they started. There have also been seasoned dentists I have met in my 34 years of doing ortho who have also followed the life cycle of the paradoxical frog. They have taken courses, come to Annual Meetings and even worked their way up in tier advancement to Fellowship and Diplomate status and then they stop growing and begin to allow their orthodontic knowledge and skills to shrink by not continuing to take courses or show up at meetings in order to continue to learn and grow. Don’t let this happen to you, or if it has, get started turning it around. Keep growing. Keep learning and expanding your knowledge so that you can proclaim and experience that the best is yet to come. As the AOS opens the new orthodontic teaching center in Grapevine in January you have a chance to see that the best is yet to come. Make sure to take advantage of the new courses available to you both at the facility and online. Mark your calendar to make sure you are part of the Annual Meetings offered by our great organizations this Fall. And make sure to attend the 50th anniversary celebration for AOS at the new center in Grapevine this October. If like the paradoxical frog you have noticed yourself “shrink-ing” with your orthodontic care and knowledge than use this Journal, all the courses available to you and all the great lecturers and presenters at the Fall Annual Meeting to once again start growing. Remember, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” Make grow-ing your orthodontic knowledge and treatment part of 2024. We are all here to help you grow. EDITORIAL STAFF Greg Cannizzo, DDS ............. AGpO/AOS Editor Jordan Balvich, DMD ........................ AOS Co-Editor Jim Mcllwain, DDS, MSD .................. AOS Co-Editor Lisa A. Wright ......................... AOS/AGpO Managing Editor Email: jaos@wrightgrp.com EDITORIAL REVIEW BOARD Robert Allen, DDS.................................AGpO Ron Austin, DDS...................................AGpO Chris Baker, RN, DMD .............................AOS Kauser Bari, DDS ...................................AGpO Jeff Dahm, DDS........................................AOS Fred Der, DDS .......................................AGpO Elsa Echeverri, DDS..................................AOS Drew Ellenwood, DDS ..........................AGpO Debra Ettle-Resnick, DDS.........................AOS Twana Farley-Duncan, DDS.....................AOS Majid Feshresti, DDS.............................AGpO Edward Gonzalez, Jr., DMD .....................AOS Thomas Jacobsen, DDS.........................AGpO Gregory T. Jeneary, DDS ..........................AOS Amanda Larsh, DMD ............................AGpO Brian Machart, DDS..............................AGpO Kyle McCrea, DDS ................................AGpO Sherman Menser, DDS..........................AGpO Randy Newby, DDS..................................AOS Minh-Khol Nguyen, DDS .....................AGpO Milton Ntragatakis, DDS.......................AGpO Humberto Nunez-Gil, DMD .................AGpO Ann Mary Orr, DDS .................................AOS Jennifer Rand, DDS...............................AGpO Raphael Santore, DDS...........................AGpO Joseph R. Schmidbauer, DDS ...................AOS Gary Schulman, DDS ...............................AOS Robert Shirley, DDS ..............................AGpO Kimberly Suter, DDS ................................AOS Susan Tiede, DDS .....................................AOS Walter Tippen, DDS ..............................AGpO Jose E. Turcios, DDS .................................AOS Saskia Vaughn, DDS.................................AOS Bradford R. Williams, DDS ......................AOS William Wyatt, Sr., DDS ..........................AOS 4 Fall 2023 JAOS
Journal of the American Orthodontic Society Fall 2023: Page 4
