April 2007 Newsletter

Featured Speaker:

“Oral Complications of Cancer Therapies: Diagnosis, Prevention, Treatment”
Featured Speaker: Dr. Susan Calderbank
Dr. Susan Calderbank is currently in private practice Greenville, PA. She is a staff dentist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine. She is currently the Chair of the Pennsylvania State Dental Board and a chief examiner for the Northeast Regional Board of Dental Examiners. Dr. Calderbank holds fellowships in the Pierre Fauchard Society, the International College of Dentists and the American College of Dentists. In April of 2003, Dr. Calderbank received the Pennsylvania Dental Association’s Special Public Service Award in recognition of her commitment to raising awareness of the Oral Complication of Cancer Therapies. She has lectured extensively on this topic both nationally and internationally.
Today, every three minutes, someone is diagnosed with cancer. Oral complications resulting from anticancer therapies can significantly affect morbidity, the patient’s tolerance of treatment and their quality of life. Involving the entire dental team in the management of the cancer patient has been a recommendation of the NIH for over 10 years. This course is designated to provide the information that will enable you to effectively give treatment to these medically compromised patients. Topics will include: Acute and chronic treatment induced oral complications (•Mucositis •Radiation Caries •Salivary gland dysfunction •Bacterial, fungal and viral infections) Management and treatment of these patients (•Analyzing blood studies •Timing extractions and dental care •Prevention of mucositis •Treatment Rinses) Caring for your patients in these circumstances requires confidence, knowledge and compassion. This course will give you all three!

President's Message - Dr. Robert Silverstein

What a Stressful Day, part 3 of 3
The “why I think stressful thoughts” is beyond the scope of this forum (the answer to this question is specific to you, and knowing “why” gives you the most power). However, this month I will talk about one thing you can do when you feel stress.
One of the most frequent ways we create stress is from “shoulding” on someone or some situation. “Mrs. X should be more understanding.” “The insurance company should not be asking me to return money.” “She should have closed the window.” The reality of it is that she didn’t close the window. Should she have? No. How do I know this? Because she didn’t. Your thoughts surrounding this fight against reality are what create the stressful feeling in your body. Look at the situation where the insurance company requested that you return money to them. Here is what resistant thoughts look like: “They shouldn’t be asking me for money back; I didn’t do anything wrong; there those !@%#@ insurance companies go again.” These thoughts are creating drama around the situation, serve to keep you in a stressful place and keep you stuck in the problem. This is what he meant when Einstein said, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
How do you move towards peace in these situations? Give up your resistance to what is. When you feel stress coming on, look for the thought that is causing it, and recognize it for the lie that it is. Only then will you be able to find a peaceful solution to the problem. Non-resistant thoughts: “They are asking for money back. OK. I’m going to call Art to find out what my options are.” Now I have the power; I am coming from a peaceful place. The reality of it is that they did ask for you to return money. Either you are going to wind up giving it to them or not. It is your choice to either be miserable along the way or not.
Become aware of your thoughts throughout your practice day. Thoughts are like seeds. What kind of plants will you sow? Cultivate the weeds, or choose flowers to grow. It’s your choice.

-3/13/07-

Attendance: Ashmen, Brunsden, Chustckie, Courey, Fahsbender, Galkin, Glickman, Krantz, Leizer, Nandra, Prabhu, Rosen, Savage, Silverstein, Simos, Stein, Villa, Vitale, Ziemba, Marlene Glickman (Executive Secretary)
Acceptance of Minutes-vote unanimous.
President’s Report-Bob Silverstein
We received an application to renew our AGD status, and I will be filling this out over the next few weeks. It is due by December of this year.
Treasurer’s Report-Scott Galkin
See full report on page 3.
Website Editor’s Report-Bob Silverstein
I recently discovered that the company that hosts our site, Valueweb, offers a better hosting plan than we are currently receiving for a lower price (12.20/mo vs. 16.95/mo). I will be switching over to the improved plan on 3/14, and this requires that the site be down for about 72 hours.
Program Chairperson’s Report-Bob Ashmen
The Kois lecture was a success and had 140 registrants. Our speaker for this month’s meeting will be Dr. Irv Lubis, speaking on marketing cosmetic, regenerative, and implant dentistry. Also, the final full-day lecture, featuring Dr. Frank Lauciello and Dr. Dean Vafiadis, will be on 4/18/07 at the Pines Manor (registration begins at 8:00 am).
Give Kids a Smile-Cavan Brunsden
The GKAS program was a success. Approximately $750,000 worth of dentistry was done on 3000 children. The Program received a great deal of media coverage including TV time. Apart from the dental school and its auxiliary sites, a great number of private practices reached out to underserved kids as well.
NJDA Council Reports:
Annal Session-Araceli Ziemba
Pre registration for the Annual Convention at Atlantic City is strongly encouraged to avoid a $25 on site registration penalty. Please go to www.NJDA.org for information on the Annual session.
Children’s Dental Health Month-Cavan Brunsden
All the schools of Middlesex County were invited to participate in the Annual Poster Contest. The prizewinners were judged locally at their schools and awarded gift certificates. Reports are still to come in.
Dental Benefits-Mark Vitale
See the Council on Dental Benefits report on page 8.
Membership-Scott Galkin
The membership committee will be hosting a continuing education program entitled “After Dental School 101: What Do I Do Now?” This program was originally given as part of the NJDA’s weekend study club in December 2006. Three of the presenters at his program will be MCDS members; Drs. Cavan Brunsden, Hugh Habas, and Mitch Weiner. This program will be cosponsored by AFTCO, dental practice consultants and Mid-Atlantic Insurance Resources, a provider of all types of insurance for dentists and dental practices. Kim Iannotte of AFTCO will be giving a short presentation as well. This program will be held on Thursday, May 3rd, starting at 6:00 p.m. at the NJDA headquarters in North Brunswick, NJ. The program will be given at no cost to our newer and younger members due to the generosity of the sponsors previously mentioned. The inaugural MCDS new member study club will have their next meeting on Thursday, March 29th. A second study club will be formed since the current club is to capacity. If you are interested please contact our executive secretary, Marlene Glickman at 732-238-1255.
MCDS Study Club Subcommittee Report-Ethan Glickman
The next meeting of the MCDS Study Club will be on Thursday, March 29, 2007. We will be meeting on the main level of the Clarion Hotel on Rte 27, Edison, NJ. This is our 5th meeting of 23 MCDS members. The format is a dinner meeting [each member attending pays for their own meal], starting at 6:30 PM, in a roundtable discussion group. We have had four very animated and enjoyable meetings. The plan is to start a new MCDS Study Club [2] as new MCDS members join the group so that we can have viable group discussions at each meeting in this round table format. We discuss cases that our members are actively treating and share information on everything from starting a dental practice, associating or retirement concepts with everything in between that is informational and practical in running a quality and efficient dental practice. Please consider joining your fellow colleagues in this new type of Study Club at MCDS.
This is a very valuable member benefit for all our members of MCDS. Please contact Marlene Glickman, our Executive Secretary, at 732-238-1255 for additional information and registration in advance.
Peer Review-John Fahsbender, Mark Vitale
The committee is mediating two cases at the present time
Committee Reports:
Corporate Sponsorship-Constantine Simos
The March monthly meeting will be sponsored By Innova Dental Implant Systems and Listerine (Pfizer Pharmaceutical Company). The April meeting will be sponsored by Smith Barney Financial and Colgate.
Mentor-Ethan Glickman
Our next program satisfies the OSHA standard on Occupational Exposure to Blood Borne Pathogens, which is required annually for dentists and staff, will be given on May 17, 2007, Thursday; 6:30 - 8:30PM. Each office person trained will receive certification that they have been properly instructed for this OSHA regulation on Infection Control. Two CEU credits will be awarded to those attending this 2-hour seminar. This seminar is available to our members for $15/pp as a member benefit of MCDS. See the OSHA insert in this Newsletter for additional information and registration. A big “Thank You” to Dr. Joe Fertig for arranging all our room accommodations for the MCDS-OSHA programs at St. Peter’s Medical Center in New Brunswick.
Continuing Education-Mark Schambra
Dr. John Kois presented a course to MCDS on Fri March 9, 2007 on interdisciplinary treatment planning. This course was a must for all restorative dentists, and was rewarding for the specialty disciplines as well. The sponsors for the course were Kuwata Pan Dent Laboratory and Benco dental supply company.
New Business
•A proposal was made to subsidize Kathy Jameson’s course on September 19th for MCDS staff attendees. An “early bird” special would be offered to early applicants.
•The NJDA is sponsoring a course: “Update on Bisphosphonate-Related Osteonecrosis Including Oral Health and the Cancer Patient” on May 2nd at the Pines Manor in Edison. 3 CE credits will be given. More information may be obtained at www.NJDA.org.
•A motion was made by Ira Rosen to form a 3 member IT committee to assist the website editor in computer related issues. The motion was tabled until the next meeting. Volunteers who are familiar with the subject and are willing to offer their services to the Society are actively sought from the membership.
Good and Welfare
Congratulations to Arpan Nandra who recently bought her own practice.
Congratulations to Jason Wasserman and Jamie Leizer who are expecting their first child.
We wish them all success and prosperity!
Respectfully Submitted, Maya Prabhu, Secretary

Council on Dental Benefits

- CRP Statistics was reviewed by the council with cumulative statistics from January 1, 2006 through December 31, 2006 indicating a total of 118 complaints submitted to NJDA for the year. Of that number, NJDA successfully resolved 62, 22 were for data purposes, 8 were not resolvable, and 26 are still pending. The council also discussed common contract exclusions and limitations (e.g., treatment of a family member), and the fact that this type of complaint cannot be resolved by NJDA, but must be pursued by the beneficiary/group through an amendment to the group policy.
- ADA Report on Pay for Performance Dentistry: The council discussed, the report to the ADA House of Delegates on “pay for performance”, which included recommended guidelines for these programs if implemented by dental care plans. While “pay for performance” is the current trend for Medicare and other types of medical plans, there have only been a few incentive based dental projects, which have been implemented by Delta plans in Minnesota, Rhode Island and Colorado, none of which related to quality of care but seemed to be focused on costs. In order for quality-based pay for performance programs to be developed for dentistry, credible quality guidelines must be established.
- Letter to DOBI concerning Carrier Refund Requests: The council discussed, NJDA’s letter to the Department of Banking and Insurance that requested an opinion on Horizon’s practice of recouping money paid in error to a non-participating practitioner by withholding monies due from unrelated patients’ claims. To support its position, Horizon is relying on a provision of the recently enacted Health Claims Authorization Processing and Payment Act, which was actually intended to limit carriers’ ability to withhold monies. Staff will keep the council updated on this issue when the Department’s response is received.
- Institute for Oral Health: The council reviewed a press release announcing the formation of the “Institute for Oral Health”, intended to “accelerate the development and adoption of progressive treatment guidelines and delivery methods for healthcare policy makers, the dental profession and the public.” Said to be a landmark effort to bring together academia, dental research, public health, commercial dental carriers and purchasers to “advance how dental care is delivered”, the initial funding for the institute was provided through a grant from Washington Dental Service Plan (Delta).
- Carrier Response to Top Concerns of Dentists: The council reviewed an ADA report of dentists’ most frequent complaints concerning dental plans, together with the insurance industry perspective. Some of the issues outlined in the report dealt with claim denials for certain periodontal procedures as well as core buildups. Staff reported that her contacts with dental offices seem to indicate that it is increasingly difficult to obtain reimbursement for a core buildup, despite documentation, with many carriers determining that it is “part of the crown procedure.”
- Revisions to Delta Dental ByLaws and Rules: The council reviewed Delta Dental Plan’s December 2006 newsletter, which served as formal notice to Delta participating dentists of revisions to its Bylaws and Participating Dentist Rules. Changes and additions include (but are not limited to) eliminating the “UCR” terminology in favor of “approved fee”, allowing Delta the right to require exceptional detailed recording and documentation of treatment, detailing when and to what extent a patient may be charged a “service fee”, and establishing a $.15 per page copy fee that Delta may pay for production of certain records.
- Universal Health Care – Meeting With Senator Vitale: Mary Moskal, Jim Schulz, Art Meisel and Dr. Sidney Whitman met with Sen. Vitale to discuss his evolving plans to introduce universal health coverage legislation. The current idea is to require all residents of New Jersey to purchase health coverage, similar to the auto insurance mandate, without assessing employers but providing subsidies for those individuals who cannot afford the premium. Benefits of the plan would be based on the mid-range standard plan in New Jersey, which means that dental treatment would be limited to extraction of impacted wisdom teeth, accidental injury of teeth and jaw not caused by biting or chewing, and surgical and non-surgical treatment of TMD. Eligibility for Medicaid/FamilyCare would also be expanded, which gave NJDA entrée to discuss the deplorable state of the Medicaid dental program, as well as the treatment fees that could be saved through fluoridation of drinking water.
The council also briefly reviewed a universal coverage plan being proposed by the Governor in California, which would require practitioners to pay 2 percent and hospitals 4 percent of their revenues to help cover higher reimbursements for those that treat patients enrolled in Medicaid.

Be Part of a New Information Technology Committee
The MCDS Board of Trustees is establishing a new IT Committee, and we are looking for someone who has not been on the Board before to participate. This committee will be charged with reviewing new technologies that MCDS may want to incorporate and reporting back to the Board. Requirements are that you are computer savvy and interested in new technologies. If you are interested, please email Robert Silverstein at [email protected].

MCDS Elections 2007–2008
The following slate was approved by a majority vote of our membership at the meeting on 3/20/07:

MCDS OFFICERS
President - Elect Mark Vitale
Vice - President Scott Galkin
Treasurer Bob Ashmen
Secretary Maya Prabhu
ADA DELEGATE
Peter Clemente
ADA ALTERNATE DELEGATE
Daniel Krantz
NJDA TRUSTEE
Nancy Villa
NJDA ALTERNATE TRUSTEE
Mitch Weiner
NJDA DELEGATES
James Courey (Chair) George McLaughlin
Cavan Brunsden Robert Ashmen
Peter DeSciscio Robert Silverstein
Mark Vitale Arnold Rosenheck
Richard Kahn Scott Galkin
Daniel Krantz Constantine Simos
Joel Leizer Maya Prabhu
NJDA ALT. DELEGATES
Arpan Nandra Wael Ibrahim
Jason Wasserman Ira Rosen
Joseph Fertig Stephen Lawson
Mitch Weiner Mark Schambra
Araceli Ziemba
APPOINTMENTS AND SUCCESSION
ADPAC
Mark Vitale
Program Chairperson
Constantine Simos
PRESIDENT
James Courey

MCDS member seeking part-time associate position in and around Woodbridge,NJ area.
Please contact:
Sumathi Chandrashekhar, DMD
Phone: 607-341-1172(Cell)
email: [email protected]

MCDS Newsletter Online
If you would like to receive the newsletter electronically in lieu of receiving a printed copy, please visit our web site. Click on the “Member” link, then the “Of Current Interest” Link. By registering for this, you will be able to view the newsletter about a week before it would get to you in the mail, and this will also be saving us money.

Please register your email address with us!

If you have not done so already, go to our web site and register under the “Membership Info” link.

Great Member Benefits:

MCDS Video Library — at St. Peter’s Hospital. All you need is a valid ADA membership card to access the extensive video collection.
Lawline — Remember LAWLINE if you have a legal question related to your dental practice. As a continuing member benefit, NJDA’s General Counsel, Arthur Meisel, Esq. and Assistant Counsel Patricia DeCotiis are always available to confer, at no cost, with members. If you have a question or need assistance, call Mr. Meisel at (732) 422-2730 or Patricia DeCotiis at (732) 422-2717 or send them a fax at (732) 821-1082.

St. Peter's Medical Library
Members of the Middlesex County Dental Society are allowed to borrow dental materials from the Medical Library at Saint Peter’s University Hospital. A valid ADA ID must be presented in order to borrow materials. Here is a list of some of the materials in the dental collection:
• Excellence in Cosmetic Dentistry-Video Series; • Gordon Christensen Video Tapes;
• Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery; • Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Oral Radiology, and Endodontics.
Information about the Medical Library,
including hours of operation, can be found at www.stpeterslibrary.com

April 2007 Newsletter

Featured Speaker:

President's Message - Dr. Robert Silverstein

MCDS Board of Trustees Report

Treasurer's Report

Announcements/Articles