Dr. Shahid Aziz received his DMD from Harvard University School of Dental Medicine and his MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He completed his general surgery and oral maxillofacial surgical training at New York-Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia University Medical Center. He is a Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Rutgers University. Dr. Aziz is a Diplomat of the American Board of OMS and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He is an attending surgeon at multiple New Jersey hospitals as well as a published author of peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters. He is currently President of the New Jersey Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons and a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Dr. Aziz is co-founder and President of the NJ based nonprofit Smile Bangladesh.
Surgical treatment planning is often the most important aspect of complex maxillofacial surgery. Virtual (computer based) surgical treatment planning (VSP) evolved as digital technology developed and it is has now become the standard of care. VSP increases efficiency and precision by the surgeon. In this lecture one will be exposed to the fabrication of digitally printed surgical guides, occlusal splints, planning of osteotomies and maxillomandibular fixation with VSP. Invisalign and its role and limitations in orthognathic surgery will be discussed.

 

 

This is certainly a time of turbulence in our dental practices and there is bound to be a lot of confusing messaging during such crises. I wanted you to know (from me) that myself, as your President, and our many other professional leaders have been busily working over numerous conference calls and correspondences during this time in order to try and make sure the most up-to-date and accurate information is available for you, our member dentists. We know that each of you must be prepared to lead your patients, office team members and families in making the best decisions and we are working hard behind the scenes to make sure you have the information you need at your disposal to make the tough decisions necessitated by the COVID-19 outbreaks in our community.
I want to speak to you personally and say that I know there is commonly a temptation to succumb to a certain melancholy during times such as these. This is even, to some degree, warranted as there will be some harder times ahead, certainly harder than we have enjoyed over the past few prosperous years. Nevertheless, my wish to each of you is that you might feel encouraged that this too will pass. We are blessed to live in a strong, secure nation in a community of particularly good people and occupy a wonderful profession. All will be truly well.
My thoughts and prayers are with each of you as we continue to lean on one another while weathering this global crisis. Reach out to MCDS/NJDA/ADA at any time, we are here for you!
As the pandemic of the coronavirus disrupts our daily life across the globe this is a moment to take a deep breath and pause. We are all in a snapshot in time where business, as usual, has come to a grinding halt and patience, discipline and resiliency will be essential characteristics of our lives over the next few weeks and months. We must recognize that these attributes are not only important now, but lessons that should be applied to the core values of your daily rituals within one’s business life.
Information is changing rapidly, by the hour. From the time this message was written on March 20 to when this newsletter reaches your mailbox, there will be many changes—hopefully for the best. Please note that our upcoming general meeting on April 21 has been canceled. We will reschedule as soon as possible. Please continue to keep your heads up.

Attendance: Drs. AniI Ardeshna, Nicholas Diaz, Christopher Fiorentini, Nima Mir- Madjlessi, Maya Prabhu, Ira Rosen, Sanjeev Satwah, Robert Silverstein, Antoinette Tauk, Mitchell Weiner, Araceli Ziemba, Stephanie Dowling
Acceptance of 2/11/2020 Minutes - Vote unanimous.
Treasurer’s Report – Dr. Christopher Florentini
See Full Report below.
Educational Coordinator’s Report - Dr. Antoinette Tauk
On 4/21/20, MCDS proudly presents Dr. Shahid Aziz who will be presenting “Virtual Surgical Planning in Orthognathic and Reconstructive Surgery and Invisalign Orthognathic Surgery.” This will be our last lecture until September 15, 2020. Editor’s Note: This meeting has subsequently been canceled.
NJDA Council Reports:
Membership - Dr. Nima Mir-Madjlessi
As of January 27, 2020, we have 4621 (+145 from 2018) members. There has been an increase of 82 female dentists, 13 specialist and 138 new dentists. A total of 3132 (% 68) have renewed membership for 2020.
SPI-Special Promotional Incentive: NJDA is going to target the specialists and large dental groups for recruitment. SPI allows for non-members to join for half off the entire year.
The council will try to reach out to the non-renewal members from 2019. We will try to see what are the main reasons for non renewal.
150th Anniversary: January 15 was the official ribbon cutting ceremony. Please view www.NJDA.org/150 for latest updates.
2021 Dues: The changes to the national dues structure will be implemented for the 2021 dues areas follows: 1. Elimination of the $30 graduate dues to $0. 2. Elimination of the 25% discount for life members. 3. Elimination of two discounts for the new graduates. A:$0, B: 50%, C and D will be eliminated. NJDA will discuss 2021 constituent dues in the next several months.
The next Council on Membership is scheduled for March 16, 2020 at the NJDA Headquarters
Committee Reports:
Oral Cancer Screening & Education – Dr. Constantine Simos
Discussions are being held with Phil Engel ( chair of RWJ Dental Dept) and Judy Lane (Vice President at RWJ ) to approve the oral cancer screening. Once this is complete will work with Jackie Reid (RWJ residency director) to secure the dental clinic for screening at RWJ. Ms. Michele Fisher who is with Marketing and Communications at the Cancer Center has also been contacted for promotion of the event once a date and a venue has been secured.
Hygiene Study Club – Dr. Alyssa Bernstein
The Central New Jersey Dental Hygiene [CNJDH] Study Club met on Wednesday March 4, 2020 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Edison. The speaker was Tracey Delaney and the lecture topic was Instrument Ergonomics and Implant Maintenance. Two CEU credits were awarded to the 20 hygienists that attended this meeting.
This CNJDH study club is available to our hygienists as a Dentist-member benefit of MCDS.
Please contact Stephanie Dowling, our Executive Secretary for MCDS, at 732-764-MCDS(6237) for additional information and registration in advance for the program.
MCDS Study Club - Dr. Nima Mirmadjlessi
On February 19, 2020 we had a great presentation given by Mr. Vito Mazza. He spoke about: 1. Controlling your accounts receivable: 10 TIPS improving cash flow management, 2. Improving your dental communication and effective presentation skills. The presentation was very informative and unique. There were some communication skills offered that can be used in our everyday practices.
The next study club will be given by our own Dr. Steve Susskind on March 25: A review of the Peer Review Process.
The registration form will be available on our website and our face book page. I would like to remind everyone that this Study Club is a Membership Benefit. I am looking forward to seeing everyone. Please note the following changes in the syllabus due to speaker conflicts: April 22: DR. Richard Kahn: Removing Barriers to Incorporate Dental Implants in Your Practice. May 20: DR. Laurence Dobrin: PANDA: Preventing Abuse and Neglect Through Dental Awareness
Editor’s Note: All of the meetings above have subsequently been canceled.
Respectfully submitted, Anil Ardeshna, Secretary

The following Slate of Officers was presented at the February general meeting: President-elect: Dr. Mario Fiorentini, Vice-President: Dr. Anil Ardeshna, Secretary: Dr. Nicholas Diaz, Treasurer: Dr. Christopher Fiorentini. Current President-elect Dr. Antoinette Tauk automatically ascends to the Presidency - this position is not voted upon. There were no nominations from the floor.
Our By-Laws have no provision for the circumstance that we are currently in - that there is no prospect of us being able to have a physical meeting any time in the near future. Given that there were no nominations from the floor (there are no other candidates for any of the positions), the vote that was going to take place at the March General Meeting was going to be a formality. The prospect that there would be enough dissenting votes on any of the positions is essentially zero (each position only requires a majority vote). The Board therefore considers the above slate to be elected, and they will take over as your new officers as of the date that they would have been inducted (4/21/20). Note that the induction ceremony itself is not required by the By-Laws; this is for “show” only. We hope that everyone understands that these are extraordinary circumstances, and your Board of volunteers is taking actions that we feel are an appropriate use of our resources and your dues payments. Over the coming year, your Board plans to both clean up the By-Laws and make changes for this type of situation (these will require 2/3 votes of the General Membership).

There are over 200 of you for whom I have no email address. This may be the last physical mailing that I can do for a long time. Your Board wants to keep you informed. We need your email address in case we can’t do physical mailings.
At this point, everyone who has not registered their email address with us should do so. Go to www.MCDSofNJ.org. Click on the link for NJDA members, then the “Of Current Interest link”. (if you are asked, the username is mcds and the password is mcds1912).
The top link on that page is the one that you should use to submit your email address to me for the first time.
You can also use that same link if you have changed your email address and want to update it (you should do this if you have previously registered your email address with me, but didn’t receive the last email blast that I sent out on 2/19/20 about submitting form 1095B).
The second link on that page (Of Current Interest) is for registering to receive the newsletter electronically instead of in the mail. You don’t have to do this, although I would prefer that you do so. Note that until I am able to do another physical mailing, all communications from MCDS will be done by email blast.

NJDA BOT meeting was held on January 15th. The following are highlights.
COUNCIL ON NOMINATIONS: As we have only one nominee for each office, the following is the slate of officers for the administrative year 2020- 2021. President-Elect, Luciano Ghisalberti; Vice-President, Peter DeSciscio; Treasurer, Renee Arace; Secretary, Elisa Velazquez; and Edward Tirpack, Speaker of the House. According to the Bylaws, candidates can be nominated by personal petition up to 90 days before the annual House of Delegates meeting. Anyone wishing to become a candidate should inform the NJDA Executive Director. The deadline date for nominations by personal petition or by component society is March 5, 2020. He congratulated all the nominees.
Council on Governmental & Public Affairs: Dr. Elisa Velazquez reported on the 2019 elections. District 1 flipped from Blue to Red and there were other tight races. She pointed out that our member, Dr. Jeffrey Van Drew, switched from Democrat to Republican. The Republicans held a lot of key elections and the new legislature began yesterday. The bills that were not passed have to be reintroduced in the new legislature. The SPA Grant has been again approved. $42,000 has been earmarked for Government & Public Affairs. The $250,000 bill toward staffing the special care treatment center at RSDM was vetoed by the governor, claiming proper channels were not followed. Dr. Mark Vitale reported that many dentists do not understand what political action is and how important it is. He and Jim Schulz are going to all the components to educate the members on PAC. PAC starts and ends with relationship
CE: The committee has been discussing introducing a HIPAA compliance class that ultimately would go on rotation like the CPR/ Bloodborne Pathogen courses, held at the NJDA Headquarters. A course will be given in conjunction with Horizon, titled Medical/Dental Integration. Joan Monaco will be giving the course March 19th in Wall township, and June 24th in Mt. Laurel. Dr. Lawyer was pleased to announce that funding has been added back for Donated Dental Services (DDS) and they are able to increase the hours for the coordinator so that she can get patients off the waiting list, however, funding is not guaranteed. Dr. Lawyer stated that they still need more volunteers. It is very easy to be a volunteer. You are assigned one or two patients a year. Labs donate its fees and you receive a ½ hour CE for every hour you donate. Middlesex reported that it submitted a $1,000.00 contribution towards DDS.
Mrs. Maureen Barlow reported that the committee met after the last Board meeting in November and set the guidelines for use of NJDA Headquarters meeting spaces. Component Societies have access to the building for component member meetings as well as board meetings. The committee agreed to the guidelines for non-member groups using the facility. These guidelines will be published soon.
State Board Regulations: Mr. Arthur Meisel reported that we have until Friday to address the State Board regulatory proposal. The rules proposed appeared in the New Jersey Registry on November 18, 2019 and there are 60 days to comment in writing. Mr. Meisel asked and answered questions regarding the proposals and went through each proposal one by one. The NJDA Board determined the proposals upon which it wanted to comment and the substance of each comment it decided to make. Mr. Meisel stated that a comment would be submitted on or before Friday.
Executive Director’s report: Mr. Arthur Meisel reported that the litigation involving Smile Direct Club would be discussed in Executive Session. He reported that the Attorney General’s office intends to make a motion to dismiss the injectable pharmaceutical appeal and have it remanded to the State Board. The NJDA will oppose the motion.
President’s Report: Dr. Thomas Rossi reported that on January 8th, he, Jim Schulz, Art Meisel and Maureen Barlow met with Darwin Hayes, the State Dental Director, so that NJDA and the State Department of Health can work together to promote oral health issues.
President-Elect’s Report: Dr. Mitch Weiner announced that nine component officer visitations have been completed and just three more remain. He reported that at AMT’S November meeting, the 2020 budget was reviewed and approved by the AMT BOT. In addition, due to the rise in cybercrime and ransomware attacks, AMT is contracting out with a cybersecurity firm to enhance its security and HIPPA compliance.
Treasurer’s Report: Dr. Peter DeSciscio reported that the final 4th Quarter report should be distributed by the end of the month. 2019 ended with receiving $1,672,432 in dues and by December 31st we had already receive $487,773 in 2020 dues. Renovation expenses were approximately $572,000. We paid $79,900 in 2018 and $493,000 in 2019. That breaks down to $453,774 in construction; $85,992 for furniture in conference rooms; $26,994 for A/V equipment, wiring plus the lobby monitor; $5,506 for new kitchen appliances. Currently there is an outstanding balance of $52,000 on the LOC which will be paid off by the end of this month to avoid additional interest. The Capital Campaign pledges are just over $452,000 with approximately $125,000 already received and used toward the project. We will receive more than $325,000 over the next 3-4 years. He urged members to follow through with their pledges sooner than later.
NEW BUSINESS: There was discussion on the dues structure for Active Life Members. The ADA passed a resolution stating that Active Life members will pay full dues, however Connecticut and New York are not going to follow the ADA on this. There were comments on the pros and cons of following the ADA or staying with the 75%. A motion was made, seconded and APPROVED by the Board {Vote #1 BT-20-1-1) to Table the motion that NJDA provide a dues structure of 75% for Active Life members and not follow the ADA structure. It passed with 5 against.

The Board would like to remind you that Claims Resolution Service is available through the NJDA to help you resolve any dental claim issue. Please contact Dr. Joan Monaco at 732-821-9400. This service is provided free to you as a member benefit.

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Long established general dental practice in the Southern end of Middlesex County. It is located on a busy corner with a traffic light. The office has 2 operatories, Dentrix software / new computers and Visix x-ray system. This beautifully landscaped commercial property includes an occupied rental apartment above the office, a new roof with solar panels and a fenced in yard with an underground sprinkler system. There is an attached oversized one car garage as well as 5 outdoor patient parking spots. The dental practice and associated real estate must be purchased together. All inquiries should be directed to: Ellen Newman (H) 828-435-0227 (C) 415-328-2049 (please try the home number first) and/or email: [email protected]