AGpO MEMBERSHIP NEWS What Is New for 2022? Study Clubs, Online Courses & Professional Networking Welcome everyone; this is my final opportunity for now to send you my thoughts as the President of the AGpO, so I will pass along some recent observations. I ask that you consider thinking inside the box as well as outside the box. Why? Because all that is old is new again. As we look back on the year, we see two study clubs coming online. Our aligner course is online now, and AGpO’s library continues to grow. While these things are in a new format, they are preceded by years of outreach from our seasoned mentors at the AGpO. Our two-year Tip Edge courses are full, and we now have waiting lists at many locations. The more we offer; the more the basics come into view. The study clubs have demonstrated that while we get grounded after the two-year hands-on ortho class we have all taken, we still all need to grow our diagnostic skills and that takes more training, more time, and more work. While we may enjoy using aligners, a lot has come before them. Before we use MARPE and SARPE and the latest brackets and wires, we need to under-stand the diagnosis that precedes our treatment. As we use our Tip-Edge® bracket successfully, we must keep in mind that it is not about the bracket. This summer, I had the pleasure of going to three separate multi-day seminars in Europe where I heard speakers from all over the globe discuss straight wire success and failures, aligners and TADS and then the new devices that split the palate. We saw cases, science and invivo studies. Sounds very progressive and it was very informative, but I think my biggest insights came at lunch and dinner talking to the speakers. When we asked them to Raphael Santore, DDS share their thoughts, the concept AGpO President that kept repeating itself was to start with an accurate diagnosis. Devices come and go, but the difficulty of diagnosis never gets old. We were urged to respect what the old devices did and what they didn't do even as we evaluate all the new devices. In truth, the mechanics emerge from bioengi-neering principles and the diagnosis. Every action still has an equal and opposite reaction. We saw how the twin block compared favorably to the MA features offered by Invisalign. So, tying this all together, we are obligated to continue our orthodontic education no matter what level we are at right now. It is with great pride that I urge each of you to come to the AGpO 2022 meeting. The meeting is our lifeline. We have wonderful speakers and topics lined up. We get to mingle with our colleagues for several days and find out what we did not know that we did not know. In conclusion, I am grateful to the AGpO for being here for all of us. The AGpO is our home base for knowledge, friendship and trust, and this allows us to move forward in the amazing field of orthodontics. Thank you, www.orthodontics.com Summer 2022 39
Journal of the American Orthodontic Society Summer 2022: Page 39
