AOS MEMBERSHIP NEWS Take Care of the Pennies and the Pounds Will Take Care of Themselves Randy Newby, DDS AOS President The admonition from William Lowndes, the British Secretary of the Treasury, 1695-1724, is applicable to the AOS. Aside from the obvious meaning of the importance of fiscal responsibility, to me, the old English proverb also implies the importance of effective delivery systems of the services that the AOS has to offer, especially in the area of education. The Covid-19 pandemic has negatively affected most dental practices. It has devastated some, to the point of having to sell a practice or worse yet, closing perma-nently. The ADA reported that by August 10, 2020, 98.9% of the dental practices in the United States had reopened, but 51.3% reported lower patient volumes. The ADA also reports a 38% decline in dental spending in 2020, and estimates a decline of 20% in 2021. I have always believed that to blunt the negative effects of external factors beyond our control, a practitioner will be successful if he/she is clinically well-rounded. A dentist who competently provides many services, including orthodontics, will be more successful that one who doesn’t. The AOS is adapting. Borrowing from the pennies analogy, the steps we are taking in order to be successful now and in the future will be measured and hopefully effective. During a pandemic, the last thing that some of you want to do is attend a live classroom orthodontic course. Travel concerns, hotel costs, time away from your family and practice and other reasons may be obstacles to whether you attend a live course or not. Many of our educational offer-ings will be livestreamed or videoed and archived to be viewed at a convenient time by a participant. Dr. Bruce McFarlane is currently presenting a series of 10 webinars. For a fee, dentists can watch them as archived videos on www.icando.ca. Questions can be submitted during the live sessions through the webi-nar engine, or later via email. The AOS is offering courses by SeminarWeb; that library is expanding. Hopefully, in the next few months, some of our more experienced AOS members will begin to present. Again, steps (pennies) in our educational offerings hopefully will be informative and impactful. The financial health of the AOS is dependent on our membership supporting our educational offerings. Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Spring Diplomates meeting has been cancelled. One of the scheduled speakers at this meeting was Dr. Terrance J. Spahl. He is a giant in the areas of functional orthodontics and TMD therapeutics. Dr. Spahl’s recent book is titled, The Clinical Management of the FJO/TMD/Migrane Continuum . It can be ordered by contacting Ohlendorf Appliance Laboratory. Dr. Spahl will show how orthodontics and orthopedics factor in when treating TMD patients. The bullet points describ-ing this book say it all: “Ortho and TMD really are connected.” “The scientific proof has finally been assembled.” Evidence based “The safe and permanent cure for most all migraines is finally at hand!” “Temporomandiular Disorder (TMD) is the problem.” “Functional Jaw Orthopedics (FJO) is the solution.” Dr. Spahl has graciously agreed to lecture for a full day at our annual meeting in October, so this lecture is one you won’t want to miss. Please plan to attend either live or virtually. Recently our great AOS patriarch, Dr. William “Bill” Wyatt, has made two substantial financial gifts to the AOS. Dr. Wyatt is 92 years old. A direct quote from Dr. Wyatt, “There isn’t going to be any need for orthodon-tics in heaven or hell; before I leave this earth, my wish for the AOS is that we continue to expand the quality and quantity of our online educational offerings.” Let’s make sure we get this done! Randy K. Newby D.D.S. www.orthodontics.com Winter 2021 45
Journal of the American Orthodontic Society Winter 2021: Page 45
