AOS MEMBERSHIP NEWS Perseverance & Greatness Allan Rotberg, DDS AOS President Michael Phelps, perhaps the greatest swimmer that has ever jumped into a swimming pool, was quoted saying," You can't put a limit on anything. The more you dream; the farther you get." He won more medals in the Olympics than most of the countries that partici-pate in them combined and, for many, even through-out their entire history. Aristotle, one of the greatest thinkers and philosophers of antiquity in ancient Greece once wrote that, "Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet." Confucius, one of the greatest if not the most important Chinese teacher, philosopher and politician of all time once said, "It does not matter how slowly you go, as long as you don't stop." Finally, Siddhartha Gautama Buddha, founder of Buddhism in India more than 2,500 years ago, is believed to have written, "Endurance is the most difficult of disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes." What do all these monumental people who have contributed so much to humanity or achieved what no other human being has ever done before have in common? They all valued perseverance, grit, or the desire to attain a goal no matter what circumstances are faced, how difficult or time-consuming the task might seem. You could almost hear them saying that you don't ever quit trying, you just do it in small incre-ments, chipping away a bit at a time, as you keep improving and defeating the obstacles that stand in your way. It is no coincidence that all these incredible people agree on the importance of perseverance, of imagining where you want to be, to be able to find your way there through hard work and sacrifice. Perseverance is what most of the dental professionals have been practicing these past three months in a pandemic-ridden atmosphere where treating patients has become a more daunting task than perhaps ever before in modern dental practice. In the June 15th report from the ADA's Health Policy Institute (HPI), it was highlighted how dental practices have persevered after the lockdowns limited them to only treating emergency cases with scarce PPE available. They concluded that, “the dental economy is steadily rebounding and that 97% of dental practices are now open for business across the country, with an average of 65% of patient volume compared to the pre-pandemic levels.” Furthermore, they mention that PPE availability and stockpiling has significantly increased in dental practices. Remarkably, they finally said that "a robust recovery of the dental economy" has occurred. All these observations talk volumes about the resiliency shown within our profession to rebound from adversity and persevere in the face of very difficult circum-stances. We should be very proud as a profession of all these findings. By the same token, just as the dental profession has shown this great resiliency, the AOS, which has faced quite a bit of challenges of its own (as have the great majority of businesses across the USA, and the rest of the world), has also rebounded and found ways to persevere in this very tough environment thanks in no small part to the work done by people involved in its leadership circle. Our AOS membership has also played a crucial role in helping us, and my most heartfelt thank you to you all. I appreciate your sacrifice. We promise to work hard to keep providing quality contin-uing education in every level of expertise in orthodon-tics for all of you. As a result of all these efforts and examples of perse-verance, the AOS has not only emerged stronger and more versatile than before but has also reinvented itself in many ways. I'm hopeful that these changes will only end up benefiting its members and non-members alike. Many projects are in their planning and execution stages already. For instance, we have started to offer online courses, some of which are already advertised on our website. We are planning to offer a greater variety of intermediate and advanced on-site and online courses. We are also committed to enhance the educa-tional offerings taught during our Annual Meetings and to improve the content showcased in our society jour-nal, the JAOS . Finally, we are planning to revamp and drastically improve our AOS website. The sky is the limit and the AOS is just getting started. Stay tuned to discover and witness the AOS, version 2.0. Sincerely, Allan Rotberg, DDS www.orthodontics.com Summer 2020 45
Journal of the American Orthodontic Society Summer 2020: Page 45
