October 2001 Newsletter

I have served as President of many different organizations, and have had to write many messages. But in light of the events of September 11th, 2001, I am finding it hard to put into words a message that puts into perspective our component dental society, our lives, and our nation. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of those who were injured or perished in these senseless acts of terrorism. I am sure all of us have stories of family or acquaintances who were directly affected by this, one way or the other, and on behalf of the Middlesex County Dental Society Executive Board, I extend my heartfelt sorrow. More than ever, our component must join together and support each other just as our nation stands united to support itself. While issues that affect our dental society pale in comparison to what has occurred in New York, Washington DC, and Pennsylvania, we must continue to stay true to our convictions, remain united, and make this world a better place even if we impact only a small part of the global picture.
Our profession has played a vital role in the healing process of the terrorist attacks on our country in that many dentists trained in forensic techniques have volunteered their services, helping with identification of victims to help bring closure to those families directly affected. The University Hospital and the New Jersey Dental School at UMDNJ in Newark were put on alert as they would serve as a site for transport and care if necessary. Many dental students and faculty stayed into the evening in case their services were needed in any capacity. Our profession remains united and is well respected across all lines of patient care. Middlesex County Dental Society has become a component united and it is because of this that we are a model within our state for organized dentistry.

Faithfully,

Peter L. DeSciscio, D.M.D.

As our communities became engulfed in the tragic events of September 11th, so too did our practices. I’m sure many of you, like myself, found your operatories occupants to be more tense than usual, and in some cases, harder to anesthetize than usual as a result. Soon after the domestic grounding of commercial air traffic, F-16’ s were heard streaking over our office rooftops in South Brunswick. Dentistry can be stressful enough to deliver without the atmosphere of uncertainty and national crisis.
Over the next several days, we were treated to miraculous stories of survival by patients (including one who had a piece from an airline seat land two feet from her!), my receptionist anxiously answering the ringing phone, praying that a request for dental records was not forthcoming. Our office was fortunate and to date have no patients missing. Some of my fellow MCDS friends were not so fortunate and received requests for patient records to assist in identification of remains.
As a member of NJ’s Emergency Forensic Dental Identification Team, I expected to be summoned to assist in the identification of remains and was in fact told to be ready to come. But as the days passed and only dozens of fatalities were discovered each day, it became apparent that at best it might be weeks before the team was activated due to the fact that the top dental forensic experts in the Northeast are already on the job and can handle the present workload; at worst, the future retrievable remains may provide minimal dental evidence and the team may never be activated. Providing closure for the victim’s families through dental identification of remains is not a glamorous job, but a necessary and moral one for ID Team members. The ID Team trains annually at NJDA Headquarters through lecture’s and mock disaster’s sponsored by NJDA’s Council on Dental Health. Many of the teams members completed the annual week long Forensic Dentistry Training Course given in late winter by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, D.C..
As dentists, this tragedy must force us to evaluate our patient records and ask several questions:
1. Are our chartings accurate and up to date?
2. Are our records as detailed as they can be?
3. Do we have a full mouth series on our patients that is current?
4. Have we noted any anomalies in patient charts that may assist in the identification process (retained primary teeth, supernumerary teeth, agenesis, unusual root morphology)?
I sincerely hope that we are never in a position to have to hand over our patient records to assist in mass disaster identification, but at the same time this experience should raise all of our antennae as to the reality of the new world that we live in, and our obligations to the patients that frequent our practices.
-Mitch Weiner

It has become an automatic task every season to block out the third Tuesday every month from September thru May for the MCDS meetings. Most of us do it out of habit, flipping our calendar pages rapidly, without much thought, and without any repercussions. This year turned out to be the exception, as we realized much too late, that this years September meeting fell on the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah. Our Board was to meet to resolve this issue (rescheduling or not) on September 11th, when what turned out to be a major problem was dwarfed by the terrorist attacks on our nation.
The Board will meet on October 9th for its first meeting since May and will get back to the business of making MCDS thrive. Due to the fact that we have not met since May and that many September Council meetings were postponed due to the terrorist attacks, new reports and information out of NJDA/MCDS are at a minimum in this issue. As a result, it was decided by the Editors to make this issue only 6 pages long in order to be fiscally prudent.

-Ms. Ricky Dibofsky was appointed NJDA’s new Director of Meetings and Events.
-NJDA will have NO dues increase for 2002!
-ADA will have a $5 dues increase for 2002.
-The Assignment of Benefits Bill passed in the NJ Legislature BUT was conditionally vetoed by Acting Governor DiFrancesco to provide for “increased safeguards against insurance fraud”. In reality, this bill will never be signed by the present Governor due to vehement opposition and pressure from the insurance industry over their concerns about fraud.
-The “right to sue” legislation, signed by the Governor on July 30, 2001 does include dental plans.
-The Dental Benefits Council reviewed the proposed amendments to the Coordination of Benefits regulation that will clarify its application to various types of managed care arrangements. The proposal reinforces NJDA’s long held position that a PPO plan, when acting as secondary coverage, cannot limit its payment to a scheduled amount as long as the amount it would have paid if primary is more than the patient owes. NJDA is cautiously optimistic that the proposal will be adopted, but in its comments urged the Department of Banking and Insurance to consider an earlier implementation date rather than January 1, 2003 as proposed.
-The 2002 Mid-Atlantic Dental Expo (Annual Session) in Atlantic City will be June 12-14.
-It looks highly likely based on present numbers that there will be a net-increase in NJDA membership this year.
-The new PIP Dental Fee Schedule, according to the Department of Banking and Insurance, should be sent for publication any day now.

Across
1. Pro-pet organization (abrev.)
7. If it breaks down, your hygienist isn’t coming to work.
13. Pointy #11 or smart dog?
17. Poor man’s leaf blower.
18. What an AAA affiliated station may have done today?
19. What your staff may be watching during lunch in the staff lounge?
21. Trying to find a severely calcified canal?
24. ____ the World Turns.
26. You’ll find one in St. Louis or at McDonald’s.
27. Eskimo
29. They made our calculators in the 70’s and 80’s (abrev.)
31. He/she may work for a Congressman.
33. George W. Bush’s favorite country?
35. A poorly done amalgam restoration after a long night of drinking?
38. Computer key (Abrev.)
39. Lawyer Barry Scheck’s obsession.
40. Dr. Benton operates on this show.
41. Christopher Columbus (by birth) or MCDS President DeSciscio in his exam room?
49. What a French dentist may say to promote his practice?
50. Where you’ll find surgeons?
51. Button pushed in a bowling alley.
52. What you may say a periodontist who goes from a 5-day week to a 2-day week is doing?
56. Martini and Rossi’s ________ Spumanti.
57. _____ Na Na
58. Dental fraternity to a dyslexic.
59. School where you’ll find ‘Locust Walk’.
60. One of the Spice Girls.
62. MCDS Oral Surgeon Initials.
63. Popular VH1 show (abrev.)
65. A truck driver rides a big one.
66. A group of male endodontists singing 5-part harmony?
72. Tonight Show bandleader or Newlywed Game host last name.
73. Deadly virus.
75. Olympian Jesse.
78. Implant company (Abrev.)
79. Don’t cough around me if you have this.
80. Another nickname for a group of endodontists?

Down
1. ________ Zeneca- makers of Prilosec.
2. Cable movie channel (abrev.)
3. Chess piece.
4. Dental materials term or Nixon organization from “All the President’s Men”.
5. What every dentist needs to look up drug interactions?
6. Aussie tennis player from yesteryear.
7. What they’d be without Stills and Young?
8. ___&____: “Biography” cable network.
9. Found in a Greek Play: the ________ hero.
10. Eminem’s “art” form.
11. Gives the go ahead.
12. Trenton to NYC NJ Transit Train (Abrev.) __.__. Corridor Line.
14. Vena _______.
15. Drug that might be used on an OD patient.
16. What an orthodontist might call an activated maxillary impacted canine that was recently surgically exposed, or Bill Gates?
19. Original ______.
20. Where the alphabet would stop if you didn’t have v,w,x,y, & z?
22. City in Ukrainian State.
23. Ill-fitting gold onlay or Sophia Coppola in the Godfather III?
25. NY Post Headline if Laurel (of Laurel and Hardy) had been assassinated.
28. ____ _________ of two evils.
30. Moron’s answer to the question, “Do you date Czechs?”
32. Nike AD, “Just ___ It.”
34. Tough ___ Nails.
35. Boston Lead Singer Initials or Las Vegas Institute Founder Initials.
36. Voracious elongate snakelike fish.
37. Choices for president in 1984, either ___. ___. ____ W.M.
42. Physicians Group.
43. Nickname for Madonna’s daughter or Manilow’s “Copacabana” girl.
44. Implant Company (Abrev.)
45. Egg ______.
46. How the word “SAX” may be written in a Jumble puzzle?
47. ________ the Rewards. (gather, harvest)
48. Zit cream component.
53. Michael Jordan’s sneakers.
54. Baseball Legend Ty.
55. Lower extremity of O.J. Simpson House Guest?
57. Actress Initials of The Bob Newhart Show.
61. History and Physical Abbreviation.
62. Organization the Mets, Yankees and Phillies are in.
64. Flick ____ _____.
67. US Commander in Chief during the Gulf War.
68. Billy Joel Album: ___ Innocent Man.
69. Initials of Animated TV Father (“Doh”)
70. Till the _______ with a hoe.
71. Dictator Pol ________
74. Long Island University (abrev.)
76. Lowly TV Network
77. “Senior’s” son. (Abrev.)

ANSWERS

ASPCA•L••CAVITRON
SHARPCANINE••RAKE
TOWEDAVAN••SOAPS•
R•NERVERACKING••B
AS•P•ARCH•INUIT•A
•TI••••AIDE••CHAD
BADLYHUNGOVER•ESC
DNA•••••H••ER•L•A
•ITALIANEXPLORERS
USEMOI•ORS••RESET
•SCALINGBACK•ASTI
SHA•A•I•R•OA•PENN
POSH•MK•A•BTM•RIG
•THEBLEACHBOYS•N•
P••EUBANKS•EBOLA•
OWENS•I•E•J•III••
TB•THEROTARYCLUB•

	(8/15/01)	(8/31/01)	(9/24/01)
CHECKING	17,056.38	17,023.61	17,016.00
Savings	50,785.96	50,962.95	50,962.95
TOTAL	67,842.34	67,986.56	67,978.95

October 2001 Newsletter

President's Message

A Component United

MCDS Board of Trustees Report

Treasurer's Report

NJDA Board of Trustees Report

Membership News

Editorial

Announcements

Annual Crossword Puzzle and answers