Grafton-Sullivan Dental Society Meeting 7/12/06

Grafton-Sullivan Dental Society Meeting 7/12/06 Notes

Members present:

Website:

Steve has already listed our names and has made it possible to email us directly from the website.

Steve just added link to Bisphosphonate article on ADA website, Topics A-Z, under “osteonecrosis of the jaw”

What do we want to include on the website? Should we have a registry? Section for GSDS members to see, for example, minutes from the meetings? Perhaps they could enter with their ADA number? Need to cross reference perhaps with the NHDS. NHDS director Jim Williamson is the person for Steve to contact, info needs to be sent to mush@coutsoft.com. Per Steve, this may not be possible (to use ADA numbers as passwords). Maybe we don’t need a password. We could have a GSDS section that only GSDS members would even think about looking in. Or Steve could make a separate webpage that the general public would not have access to, would need to send link to GSDS members via snail mail or email. We can state on website “If you would like access to GSDS member info, please contact….”

Goal of website: Point of GSDS: To promote dental health in GS dental societies, and comradeship and professional development of its members. Meetings really are a chance to get together. So, point of website is to help accomplish this goal by making information available to professionals. To provide the public information like the following: if you have a problem with a dentist, refer them to the NHDS, talk about the free dental clinic, talk about denture care, link to amalgam article, link to state and national society, link to relative scientific articles.

Dental Health Foundation Mission

The Dental Health Foundation works through community partnerships to promote oral health for all by:

Providing leadership, advocacy, education, and public policy development;
Promoting community-based prevention strategies;
Encouraging the integration of oral health into total health;
Improving access to and the quality of oral health services
The foundation works to bring the latest findings in dental research to the general public, educators, and health practitioners; thereby bridging the gap between scientific knowledge and its application at the community level.

Local specialists could potentially address topics of interest (ie bisphosphonate)

Going to focus on making website for dentists for now, don’t want to get in over our heads, (ie no patient education for now)

Could have a link to ADA consent forms, need to find out if they are for sale or not. Could at least provide a link to the sources so dentists know they are available.

Email directory? Maybe not on the web site. Could send out regular GSDS update via email, that way members know we’re doing something, they have an idea about what our goals and activities are.

Need better attendance by members at the meeting, perhaps we could have 4 meetings a year the same month, same day of month or ie first Tuesday of the quarter, we may be able to get more involvement. Information about meeting times and locations could be provided in the website on a calendar.

Calendar: tool for members of GSDS ie meetings etc., schedule for the Wilmot Dental Education series, state quarterly meetings. Could update calendar regularly. Per Steve, can do something “like the hockey schedule”, where old events are removed. Per Steve, can give Tom username and password and he can log into calendar and add or edit events himself. Tom wants calendar to be kind of like an advertisement for dentists, would like it to be possible to click on an event and have it link to another site with more detailed information, ie click on “Wilmot Series” and it would go to the Wilmot internet site (just an example, don’t think Wilmot has a website?)

List of dentists in area- name and where they are. Andrew Bradley’s wife has a list, couple years old. NHDS must have list of names (because they send us mailing labels). Should be able to email us list.

Prevention of bottle syndrome, mouth guard information (ad in paper to refer people to site for more info)

Perhaps could include a forum (interactive thing), dentists can talk about issues, Mush did one for paintball site (www.paintballparanoia.com), good topic could be digital charts; forum shouldn’t be hidden, should be right up in front so it’s the first thing dentists see when they get to site. Usually people need a username and password so the “threads” can be traced (thread is an entire conversation about a certain topic)

Mush- here is the link to the California Dental Association, please add to website information about safety of dental amalgams http://www.cda.org/articles/amalgam.htm

Amalgam issue:

Absorption of mercury is a complicated issue. A bruxer is more likely to compromise amalgam restorations enough to cause a vapor or a solution, which is then what? Breathed out? Swallowed? Hard to know. One article Terri read indicated a person would have to have 500,000 restorations present to have enough mercury “vapor” present to cause harm.

Ann Williams (editor of Health Watch, Valley News) stated that she thinks the topic is interesting, and she wants to write an article and get our opinion. Terri would prefer to write it ourselves so we know the information is accurate.

Tom remembers a reporter who did a good job of writing an article about the relationship between oral health and systemic health.

Terri talked to a lawyer, and lawyer said according to code of ethics can’t advertise false information.

Sooner or later patients will start accusing us of placing harmful substances in their mouths, we need to be prepared and Terri’s article would be a nice thing to have pts read.

quackwatch.org, Mercury Toxicity Scam, blows holes in the anti-amalgam theory, Tom suggests Terri copies and pastes quackwatch.org article into his newspaper article

Presidential Meeting:

Jim Williamson exec director NHDS, Steve Ura president of NHDS need to visit one of our meetings together.

Need to determine date tonight. Thinking Oct 4 th (same day as our quarterly meeting), works for Terri, Mary, Tom and Patty. It’s final, Presidential Visit will be Oct. 4 th 2006

Terri and Tom think we shouldn’t have a speaker. We can chat awhile with just us.

Tom will look into having the meeting at Home Hill in Plainfield instead of Hanover Inn

Misc.

Frank Skip Weatherby sent Tom information about “Practice Transitions”, could be a good topic of conversation at a future meeting

Terri interested in another meeting with a few speakers like Dr. Schlein, (like the one we had in the past with Dr. Bradley and Dr. Neely).

Notes by Patty Erickson