Dr. Marianna Evans is a dual specialist in orthodontics and periodontics at Infinity Dental Specialists, Newtown Square, PA. She received her DMD degree and specialty training in orthodontics and periodontics from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Evans is a diplomate of the American Board of Periodontology and the American Board of Orthodontics. Dr. Evans divides her time between private practice, teaching at the University of Pennsylvania Department of Orthodontics and clinical research on 3D imaging technology, periodontal plastic surgery and preventative orthodontics. Dr. Evans is a founder of the OrthoPerio Institute, an advanced education study club that provides courses on all surgical aspects of periodontics, implant dentistry and orthodontics.
Despite improvement in the dental care over the past 100 years, gingival recession continues to be a common periodontal condition. Although gingival recession is defined as a muco-gingival problem with apical migration of the gingival margin leading to root exposure, it is critical to note that it is a clinical manifestation of the underlying alveolar bone problem. It is always accompanied by alveolar bone dehiscences of varying degrees. In conjunction with the clinical exam, a 3D CBCT evaluation of the dento-alveolar anatomy provides further insight to diagnose and treatment plan gingival recession in three dimensions.
Learning Objectives: • learn to use CBCT images to evaluate and treatment plan gingival recession in 3D. • review new insights on the etiology of alveolar bone deficiencies and susceptibility to gingival recession. • review grafting procedures for orthodontic and restorative indications. • review different soft tissue and bone grafting procedures. • introduction to 3D guided approach to prevention of gingival recession with early orthodontic treatment.

I have been a member of organized dentistry since dental school. As a dental student I joined the NJDA and ADA as a student member. After graduation I did a residency at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick and joined the Middlesex County Dental Society. I have practiced in both Monmouth County and Union County and have continued my membership with Middlesex County. I have always assumed that most dentists are members of the NJDA and never questioned why someone would not be a member, it just makes sense to me, given all the advantages. This week I was leaving my office to walk to Quick Check for lunch and the dentist in the neighboring building stopped me to introduce himself. He has very limited hours and days and although we have been working in buildings next to each other we had never met. He seemed nice enough and walked to Quick Check with me and we spoke about dentistry and our practices. Before we parted ways at the sandwich counter I mentioned that I was President of MCDS this year and asked him if he belonged to the NJDA. He quickly responded with “no, I belong to the AGD”. I was slightly surprised by his response and negative attitude toward the NJDA and the ADA. I did what any member of the MCDS Board would do, and hopefully any member in general, I began listing all the benefits of being a member and all the good that the NJDA has done for dentistry and for us as dentists. I explained to him that in addition to all the advantages, what matters the most to me about being a member of MCDS is the camaraderie that is present at all our meetings. I am a solo practitioner and having the opportunity to mingle and share ideas and concerns with fellow dentists on a monthly basis is priceless. Sure we may share with our spouses the difficulty we had with our 4pm patient trying to prep the db of #16, but only our fellow dentists can really understand the difficulty involved. I ended the conversation with my neighbor by inviting him as my guest to one of our Tuesday night meetings to see what we are really about. I am not sure if he will take me up on the offer but hopefully I got him thinking about organized dentistry and maybe just maybe thinking of joining the NJDA. I look forward to seeing everyone at our next Tuesday meeting and mingling.

9/8/15
Attendance: Drs. Alyssa Bernstein, Nainesh Desai, Ira Rosen, Daniel Krantz, Devang Modi, Genevieve Fernandes, Richard Kahn, Bob Silverstein, Sunny Satwah, Mitch Weiner, Constantine Simos, Amit Vora, Nima MirMadjlessi, Maya Prabhu, and Elisa Marantz
Acceptance of 5/12/15 Minutes- vote unanimous.
Treasurer’s Report- Dr. Sanjeev Satwah
See full report on page 3.
Education Coordinator’s Report- Dr. Devang Modi
Dr. Eric Studley is confirmed to speak on “Ergonomics for Dentistry” on September 29, 2015 at the Pines Manor. On Ocotber 20th, Dr. Marianna Evans will be speaking on the topic of “3D Guided Approach to Mucogingival Problems on Adult Patients.”
NJDA Trustee Report- Dr. Mitch Weiner
See full report on page 4.
NJDA Council Reports:
Annual Session- Dr. Nainesh Desai
Information on NJDAs recent annual session is still being analyzed. NJDA has proposed a staff night-like event at the 2016 annual session and wants feedback from its components.
Dental Benefits- Dr. Devang Modi, Dr. Antoinette Tauk
See full report on page 5.
Membership- Dr. Genevieve Fernandes, Dr. Nima Mir-Madjlessi
Our next Council on Membership meeting is scheduled for Monday September 21st. Details will follow in the next newsletter.
Peer Review- Dr. Sandy Goldstein
There were no new peer review cases assigned or mediated during the summer months.
Committee Reports:
Corporate Sponsorship-Ira Rosen
At of the current time, we have two gold sponsors for this year – ZimmerBiomet and Dentsply International and we have two bronze sponsors for this year – Benco Dental Supply Company and Kuwata Pan Dent. AFTCO has decided not to continue publishing in our newsletter after the end of this calendar year. There are a few other potential sponsors “in the works”.
Mentor-Dr. Nima MirMadjlessi
Our bi-annual OSHA program that satisfies the OSHA standard on Occupational Exposure to Blood Borne Pathogens, which is required annually for dentists and staff, was given on June 30, 2015 at JFK Hospital in Edison NJ. There were 148 member dentists and staff in attendance, as well as 2 non-member dentists. Two CEU credits were awarded to the Dentists & staff members attending these 2-hour seminars. These seminars are available as a member benefit of MCDS. A very big “Thank You” to Dr. Devang Modi for arranging all our room accommodations for the MCDS-OSHA-Mentor programs at JFK Hospital in Edison, NJ. The next OSHA recertification course will be held on October 15, 2015 at St. Peters hospital. Please see the insert in this newsletter for additional information and registration for the Mentor program.
Budget and Finance-Ira Rosen
The budget committee is comprised of our current and past presidents, our current and past-treasurers and the chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee. Our by-laws require us to prepare the budget for the October Board of Trustees meeting for board approval and at then present it to the membership at the October General Membership meeting. A copy of the budget is then published in the November newsletter and then it is voted upon at our November general meeting.
New Dentist Committee- Dr. Sanjeev Satwah
NJDA New Dentist Conference will be in two locations this year: 10/3 in Mt. Laurel and 10/17 in Saddlebrook. $75 for Members, $150 for Non Members. 4 CE credits, lunch, drinks.
Membership Hospitality Committee- Dr. Genevieve Fernandes, Dr. Deborah Brown
Email blasts are being sent out by Dr. Genevieve Fernandes with reference to upcoming courses and holidays.
Hygiene Study Club- Dr. Alyssa Bernstein
The Central New Jersey Dental Hygiene [CNJDH] Study Club will meet on Wednesday September 16, 2015 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Edison. The speaker was be Dr. Robert Silverstein and the topic is “Invisalign: Understanding Limitations to Improve Outcomes”. Two CEU credits will be awarded to the hygienists that attend this meeting. The following CNJDH meeting will be on Wednesday November 11, 2015 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Edison. The speaker will be Dr. David Wendell and the topic will be, “Got Belly Fat... It’s not you, It’s your Hormones.” Two CEU credits will be awarded for this seminar. This CNJDH study club is available to our hygienists as a Dentist-member benefit of MCDS. Please contact Marlene Glickman, our Executive Secretary for MCDS, at 732-764-MCDS(6237) for additional information and registration in advance for the program.
MCDS Study Club- Dr. Genevieve Fernandes, Dr. Nima Mir-Madjlessi We will have our next MCDS study club meeting in October. Details will follow in an email blast from Dr. Genevieve Fernandes.
Old Business
The By-Laws will be reviewed by our President Dr. Bernstein with our last year’s President, and will be discussed at one of our subsequent board meetings.
New Business
All were in favor that it is a member benefit to attend our complimentary MCDS Study Club and reduced fee OSHA CE meetings. Future OSHA courses will be open to MCDS members only.
Respectfully Submitted,
Dr. Genevieve Fernandes,
Secretary

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Governmental and Public Affairs

NJDA Board of Trustee meeting August 19, 2015
Delta is forming an Advisory Committee and desired a generalist and one specialist member from NJDA to be represented on this Committee. The NJDA BOT postponed any recommendations until it gets more information from Delta on the duties of the Advisory Committee.
A member of Central Component addressed the board that due to a controversy at the last HOD meeting in interpreting what was said verbatim, that NJDA BOT should , at their discretion, tape all meetings. A motion was made to tape and archive all meetings which was almost unanimously defeated by the board with one for and one abstention.
A motion was made and unanimously passed by NJDA BOT to fund our representative director of the ‘Impaired Dentists Program’ (those with substance abuse problems) to attend a Well Being Meeting in Chicago.
Dr Michael Dzitizer, Council on Annual Session chair, addressed the board to reconsider its 4/2015 decision to discontinue all comps to the Annual Session Council members. The Boards’ main concern with the comps was the laxity in enforcement of the meeting attendance rules in order to qualify for the comps. The Board revisited the issue and voted to rescind its 4/2015 vote to discontinue the comps and maintain the January 1, 2015 Bylaws change and that the rules for attendance be strictly enforced. (MCDS will only get one comped Annual Session rep each year)
Acting on a letter that NJDA President Greg LaMorte received from NJ Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen, the NJDA BOT unanimously adopted a motion to support a limited scope MOM’s (Mission of Mercy) program of free or reduced fee dental care for members of the veterans community with Delta Dental securing funding and NJDA providing only the solicitation and services of our volunteer member dentists.
A motion was made and seconded (Vote # 9 BT-15-8-29) to shift the cost of funding ADA Delegates & Alternates to the components. There was much discussion on the policy or process of appointing the members and, in fact, that they are not component representatives but ADA Delegates or ADA Alternate Delegates. This motion was DEFEATED.
STAFF REPORTS
Communication — Ms. Nicole Fredrickson
We had sent out Monday email alerts to all unpaid members up to the drop date alerting them of their lapsing membership. Following the drop-date, they received 3 emails telling them their membership had lapsed. We have also mentioned that if they are unable to pay their dues, to call AnnMarie.
We are also working on a new untapped way of promoting events called Meetup.com. The cost is just $80 for six months.
We are continuing to send out fax blasts and we get about a dozen calls each day.
Membership — Mr. Brendan Breen-
Our dues revenue is at a $45,000 deficit from same time last year. However, certain target markets are performing well. Dentists who have been members for at least 10 years and are younger than 65 years old renewed for 2015 at a rate of 97%. We currently have 84 members from that demographic skew who have not yet renewed for 2015 that we will be targeting with the help of the members of the Board of Trustees.
In addition, the NJDA staff will be reaching out to all non members via 4 emails from Arthur Meisel, 2 fax blast, and staff phone calls. We will be segmenting the list of non-renews by age, gender and date of graduation to tailor the messaging to meet the needs of the specific target group.
Programs & Development — Mrs. Maureen Barlow
Resource Day is September 30, 2015. To date we have 14 registrants. The event will run from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. It is a member value with the proceeds going to Give Kids A Smile. A variety of topics will be available as well as CPR courses, shredding and photographer. We have scheduled two separate Early Career Dentists Conferences; one in the Southern part of the state on October 3, 2015 and the other in the northern part of
the state on October 17, 2015. She reminded everyone of the Business to Business Breakfast on October with breakfast at 8:30 a.m. This is a very important event and the partners look
forward to meeting and speaking with the leadership of NJDA.
The 2016 Annual Session lineup is complete and we should expect a cost savings again this year. The dates are May 6-7, 2016 at the Princeton Marriott.
Dental Benefits & Peer Review — Mrs. Joan Monaco-
The Dental Program claims complaints are double from last year and twice as successful in resolution. Peer Review Training will be held in October. Members must attend at least once every three years, however, most come every year.
She will continue to piggy back on the membership drive collaboration. She has sent letters to her classmates and has received eight phone calls.
Governmental & Public Affairs — Mr. James Schulz
Mr. James Schulz informed the board that at the staff level we all feel that membership development is everybody’s business. Next year, Governmental Affairs will be working with the
Membership Department to determine legislation that would impact targeted categories of the NJDA membership in an attempt to make the association’s governmental affairs agenda more meaningful. He plans to continue to use e-blasts to communicate to the existing membership on global issues of concern.
Effective November I, 2015 the Prescription Monitoring Program Reform (PMP) law will go into effect. NJDA secured amendments to the legislation to establish a more favorable environment
for dentists to comply with the law’s provisions. Another recently enacted law will require anyone who dispenses medication to provide a notice to the patients receiving the dispensed CDS about the take-back programs and how to dispose of unused prescription drugs.
Regarding the NJ Center for Oral Health Legislation, the Council on Govemmental Affairs outlined a new legislative course in light of Rutgers withdrawal of its support for the legislation (Rutgers opposed the requirement to build the Center under statute). We plan to draft a new proposal and attempt to have it amended into the current legislation during the Lame Duck Session of the Legislature.
The Governor has made a cursory comment about addressing in the 2016-2017 Budget the issue of higher education student debt. Mr. Schulz has informed the Governor that there needs to be a post graduate debt component too — particularly for dental and medical students who have a very high debt load in today’s higher education marketplace. He asked the governor to consider a NJDA representative should a working group be developed
Dr. Mitch Weiner informed the Board that both the Council on Governmental and Public Affairs and the NJDPAC were going to hold a joint focus group in the fall with newer dentists to attempt to better understand the legislative and political agendas of the younger members.

Council on Dental Benefits

The Council on Dental Benefit Programs met on May 13, 2015. The following items were discussed.

CRP Statistics: Staff provided the council with cumulative statistics for the year to date through April 2015 indicating a total of 72 complaints submitted to NJDA for the year. Of that number, NJDA successfully resolved 22, 4 were for data purposes, 41 are still pending and 5 were not resolvable. Please remember this is a member benefit and you can contact Dr. Joan Monaco at NJDA if your office is experiencing any hardships or delays with dental claims processing, payments, EOB’s, language…

Delta Dental TriCare: Currently Tricare Active Duty Dental Program is Divided into three components: Active Duty (Administered by United Concordia; TRICARE (Administered by MetLife) and TRICARE Retiree Program (Administered by Delta Dental). Delta Dental recently sent a letter of intent to contract with Delta of CA, and is bidding on all three contracts.

Aetna Medicare Advantage Plan (PPO): Medicare opt-in/out has prompted Aetna to send out “amendments” to the existing contract stating that Aetna providers may see Medicare Advantage patients and be reimbursed according to their negotiated fee schedule. The document was misleading as there was no remark pertaining to your eligibility to be reimbursed by indirect Medicare dollars based on your choice to opt-in or out. Confirmation with Aetna, Novitas Solutions and the ADA confirms that if you did not file an 8550 form or opt-in, then you would not be eligible for reimbursement. Although the benefits are still limited, it includes much more than the traditional Medicare dental coverage.

Cigna Newsletter/Claim Review Changes: Cigna announces it would like dentists to report CAD/CAM procedures on their claim forms. They are capturing information in an effort to justify changes to their claim filing process – council inquired about doing same day procedure. Cigna hired Dentistat, a company that does utilization reviews to review and collect data. Discussed Delta/audits. Delta is aggressive in NJ. Very unyielding. Discussed clinical documentation to support class V composites etc. Council urged to push members to use E-claims for faster reimbursement, less loss of documentation.

Audit Season Examples: Delta’s Internal Investigative Units checking pattern of practice. In one case, they went back 10 years, and are now asking for refund. Six years is the statute of limit on contract claims. Flags are part of required fraud detection plan by carriers. They are required to report to the Office of Insurance Prosecutor. Even if case is settled, that doesn’t mean it’s over.

Medicaid Provisional Credentialing: Takes 7 months to get credentialed. Medicaid uses an outside vendor. Horizon looking at past claims to see who’s really doing the work. If each doctor in the practice is not properly credentialed and provides services, refund requests are issued. Scion is one of the vendors. National problem. Possible provisional credentialing process being used in near future.

Medicare Opt In/Opt Out Update: Deadline was extended from June 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015 due to backlog of paperwork and inefficient process. Discussed the difference in 855i, 8550, opt-in/out
affidavit. Discussed Novitas Solutions role and helpfulness. Art provided phone number for direct assistance.

Non-Covered Services Legislation - Status: Reiterated non-covered services. Discussed difference between Insured plans and self funded or hybrid plans. Discussed how law pertains to only state regulated plans. Reviewed the limitations of legislation.
Student Indebtedness: Leadership Conference: Students are graduating with $250,000 + debt. Many are leaving NJ due to lack of jobs and high loans. Senator Robert Singer is opening centers in South Jersey. Leadership inquired about loan relief programs. Senator Singer will give tour of one of the facilities.

Cigna Recruiting/PPO Expansion: Recruiting – looking for dentists. Discussed fee negotiations process. Council suggested course on how to negotiate fees to membership.

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