Dr. Shahid Aziz is a graduate of the Lawrenceville School and Rutgers College. He received his dental degree from Harvard University School of Dental Medicine and medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He completed his general surgery internship and oral/maxillofacial surgery residency at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center.

Since 2002, he has been full time faculty in the Department of Oral/Maxillofacial Surgery and in the Division of Plastic Surgery, UMDNJ.

Currently he is an Associate Professor at UMDNJ. Dr. Aziz is also the co-founder of the Mountainside, NJ non-profit, Smile Bangladesh (www.smilebangladesh.org); as such he leads small teams of surgeons, anesthesiologists, and nurses to rural parts of Bangladesh to treat children and adults with facial cleft deformities twice a year.

Dr. Aziz will update us on current techniques used for cleft repairs. He will also discuss Submucous Fibrosis, a debilitating disease of the oral cavity with a predilection for the South Asian population.

I was going through the MCDS archives because I could not remember the date when I joined the executive board of MCDS. In the January 2003 minutes I found a notation welcoming Dr. Scott Galkin and me to our first meeting. Also, I found the president’s message from Dr. Bruce Huberman. His message was entitled “Who’s on Deck” and this is an excerpt from it:

Fortunately, we’ve had four new members recently join our executive board. Dr.’s Mark Vitale, Scott Galkin, Jim Courey and Constantine Simos make a fine addition to what already is a phenomenal group of individuals. It makes the job of the president a lot smoother when you can receive guidance from experienced past leaders and dedicated individuals. I hope in ten years from now that when I read our newsletter that the future president will be able to report on how our profession remains strong and vibrant as it is today.

Wow. Ten years. It really does seem like yesterday when I attended that first meeting. Of course, it gives me great pleasure to report that our profession and our society are as vibrant and strong as ever. Just in the past year we have seen our state association advocate for us in Trenton with the passage of the General Supervision bill and then swing into action to provide assistance and relief after Hurricane Sandy. The NJDA is also continuously trying to improve the continuing education offerings they provide at the Annual Session as well as the many other venues throughout the year.

On the county level, we celebrated our Centennial last year in a grand style. We also continue to work hard to provide relevant and quality education to our members. For example, on April 17th Dr. Mark Setter will present “Happier Patients and a Healthier Practice.” Being that Dr. Setter is sought after to lecture throughout the whole country, a CE course like this takes over a year to plan. The society spends many hours working with the speaker, our corporate sponsors and the venue to insure that we will have top quality presentation.

I am very grateful to serve as president this year and I am thankful to Dr. Huberman and the board members for welcoming me and mentoring me over the years. And back to that title from 2003, who is on deck?

Attendance: Drs. Simos, Savage, Krantz, Kahn, Vitale, Fernandes, Prabhu, Villa, Brunsden, Goldstein, Desai, Vora, Satwah, Schambra, Weiner, Bernstein, Rosen, Stein, Mir-Madjlessi, Modi, and Marlene Glickman.
Acceptance of 11/13/12 Minutes-vote unanimous.
President’s Report-Constantine Simos
No report.
Treasurer’s Report-Alyssa Bernstein
See full report on page 3.
Educational Coordinator’s Report-Amit Vora
11 Life members will be honored. 5 are confirmed to attend.
NJDA Trustee’s Report-Mark Vitale
See full report under “NJDA Noteworthy News” on page 7.
NJDA Council Reports:
Annual Session-Nainesh Desai
2013 Annual Session-Advanced Marketing ideas for driving traffic to Annual Session were discussed– A power point presentation showed the logo that was created to ‘brand’ the 2013 annual session. Easy PASSES are being distributed at officer visitations, Dental School visits & CE courses. At meetings of 30 or more, one of the passes will contain a gasoline gift card ($10) to “drive” attendees to the conference. Shopping Lists – Member email blasts are being sent monthly listing vendors as they sign up for the expo. Vendors are also hyperlinked from the NJDA website. The same member blast is being used as a sales tool. Lorraine has sent this to potential vendors.
CE Scheduling: The council reviewed the CE line-up and course charges were reviewed. The council agreed to three (3) pricing structures by general consensus. A formal vote was not taken. Following changes were agreed upon.
· NJ Showcase of Speakers – 1.5 days of courses, maximum of 12 credits. Fee: $260.00
· Dr. Chiche (Friday) and Saturday NJ Speaker Showcase, Sat. max of 4 CEU’s. Fee: $345.00
· All other courses are independent selection and payment.
· Allied Dental course price will be raised since it just covers the expenses. New price $175.00
· The fee for CPR is being lowered to $75.00
Exhibit Hall – The concept & layout of the NJ Dental Office in the Monmouth ballroom was discussed as it is being presented to all potential 2013 partners. Response has been enthusiastic. Only after the partners have been given opportunity to provide products/services for the Dental Office design will other exhibitors be approached to fill in any gaps. Any other exhibitors providing products or services for the NJ Dental Office must purchase a traditional booth in the Atlantic ballroom. As of October 11, one-third of those booths have been sold.
Activities & Events – The following events were selected by the council to be held at the conference: Kids Surf & Turf Camp, Water Sports, Kid’s Beach Blast, Teen Arcade Trip, Cooking Class, Late Night Comedy Club, Wine Tasting, Tasting Tour of Local Restaurants, Walk for GKAS. It was decided not to continue the Beach BBQ and Fitness classes in 2013. Consideration is being given to closing the show floor early on Friday and providing a reception where the exhibitors can mingle with attendees. This would replace the exhibit hall event held from 4:30-6:00pm. March 26th meeting has been changed to March 3 and will be a brunch at Revel.
2014 Annual Session- The council approved relocating 2014 meeting at Revel and the new casino will be contracted for June 27 & 28, 2014. Consideration was given to dates in July to avoid competing with AGD but it was decided that attendance would suffer by moving the conference into the summer months.
The council agreed to the following featured speakers:
Friday, June 27th – Dr. David Garber, full day. Honorarium: $14,800, plus approx. $2,200 in AV expenses and coach travel from Atlanta.
Saturday, June 28th – Dr. Ernesto Lee, full day or two half day sessions. Honorarium: $7,500, plus approx $2,000 in AV expenses and no travel expenses.
Staff has confirmed availability of both speakers on the dates listed above. Give Kids A Smile-Cavan Brunsden
GKAS Day is on 2/1/13. 120 offices have signed up.
Governmental Affairs-Mitch Weiner
The Assignment of Benefits Bill, which will mandate that dental insurance companies such as Horizon and Delta send assigned payments for services directly to non-participating providers, is the Council on Public and Governmental Affairs most important piece of legislation. NJDA has obtained bipartisan sponsorship of the bill (Democratic Assemblyman Schaer and Republican Senator Kean).
In addition, the NJ State Board of Dentistry voted to support the bill. This bill is in the very early stages of its movement and member dentists are encouraged to engage in grassroots efforts to support this piece of legislation through contacting their local state legislators and supporting NJDPAC.
Membership-Tara Savage, Genevieve Fernandes
At the Dec 3, 2012 meeting, the council committed to “staffing” the membership pavilion at the 2013 Garden State Dental Conference and Expo.
2012 was the first time the NJDA focused on membership recruitment and retention at the dental conference. It was a great first year. The pavilion was mainly staffed by representatives from the ADA and Dr. Batastini. Last year, the Council at NJDA had focused on having a presence and being available to answer attendees’ questions. In 2013 however, the Council will expand upon that success by implementing more interactive activities designed to drive attendees to the pavilion.
In that regard, the membership council agreed to staff the pavilion on Friday and Saturday June 28th and 29th, 2013. Each Council member would do a shift on Friday and Saturday, and be available to our attendees to answer any questions regarding membership.
The next meeting for the Council on Membership is scheduled for February 4, 2013.
Peer Review-Sandy Goldstein
There was one new case successfully mediated and one case was scheduled for a plenary hearing.
Committee Reports:
Corporate Sponsorship-Ira Rosen
At every Scientific/ Education meeting, the members in attendance will be given a card with the list of vendors in attendance that evening. The member must go to every vendor and have their card stamped/ hole punched in order to be eligible for one of 2 $50 gift card drawings.
Mentor-Nima Mir-Madjlessi
The 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 November 15, 2012 at St. Peter’s Medical Center, New Brunswick. We had 98 members and staff attending that presentation. Two CEU credits are awarded to the Dentists & staff members attending these 2-hour seminars. These seminars are available to our members & staff for $25/pp as a member benefit of MCDS. A very big “Thank You” to Dr. Joe Fertig, Director of Dental Services for arranging all our room accommodations for the MCDS OSHA-Mentor programs at St. Peter’s Medical Center in New Brunswick. Our next, OSHA course will be held in June, 2013 at JFK Medical Center.
New Dentist Committee-Sanjeev Satwah, Genevieve Fernandes
We are planning a full day Golf Clinic/Implant Course for sometime in either April or May. We are exploring May 1 as well as April 24. Old York Golf Course is a possible venue for the event.
In addition, we are still working on a rotary endo course in Long Branch at the convention. We are projecting to hold the course on Friday, June 28, 2013 from 1pm to 4pm. We are talking to a few sponsors right now, including Sybron and Brassler. We have no confirmation yet on sponsorship.
Membership Hospitality Committee-Genevieve Fernandes
Monthly email blasts to our members of our CE events and holiday greetings in a timely manner have created a great enthusiasm in our membership. Our members have been responding positively with attendance at our Pines Manor meeting. Last year quite a few of our previously inactive members renewed their membership towards the later half of the year. We also gained a few more new members to MCDS as our existing members are beginning to appreciate the value of their membership.
Hygiene Study Club-Alyssa Bernstein
The Central New Jersey Dental Hygiene [CNJDH] Study Club met on Wednesday November 7, 2012 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Edison. The lecture was presented by Annabelle Bacchione, RDH, NTP, on the link between nutrition and depression. Two CEU credits were awarded to the 29 Hygienists that attend this meeting.
The next CNJDH meeting will be on Wednesday January 9, 2013 at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Edison. The speaker will be Dr. Tom Viola and he will be lecturing on street drugs and their relationship to dentistry. 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 see the registration form in the newsletter to register for next year.
Please contact Marlene Glickman, our Executive Secretary for MCDS, at 732-238-1255 for additional information and registration in advance for the program.
Old Business
The Board reviewed, discussed and confirmed that Dr. Ira Clemmons and his wife cannot be a vendor at MCDS to advertise taking images in their office and sending them to Image Dent for interpretation and report.
New Business
Dr. Mitch Weiner will be our next NJDA Trustee and Dr. Maya Prabhu will be our alternate Trustee.
Due to Easter and Passover Holidays, the Board meeting in April 2014 will be 1 week earlier on 4/1/2014. The Scientific lecture will also be moved up 1 week to 4/8/2014.
1/23/13- Council on Nominations meeting (Drs. Simos and Weiner will attend)
1/30/13- Leadership Conference (10-2: Drs. Simos, Desai and Marlene Glickman will attend)
3/29/13- Component Secretary must submit all NJDA Trustee and Council Member appointments for 2013-2014
Good & Welfare- Congratulations to Dr. David Stein for purchasing the 2nd half of the Perio practice from Dr. Lucian Kahan.
Respectfully Submitted,
Devang Modi,
Secretary

The NJDA Board of Trustees met on November 28,2012 and the following items are noteworthy.

- Dr. Mitch Weiner (MI), Chair for the Council on Governmental & Public Affairs, reported on the fund raiser for Gary Schaer. Mr. Schaer has supported the Assignment of Benefits Bill. Dr. Weiner would like to see better communication with the Board and leadership to increase attendance at NJDPAC fund raisers. Monmouth-Ocean Legislative Night is well conceived and implemented. We need to expand our relationship with the legislators not just their staff members. It is important for dentists to talk to their legislators and develop relationships that would assist NJPAC in maintaining open lines of communication.

-NJDA had appointed a committee to evaluate the feasibility of expanded functions dental assistants in NJ. We are seeking input from general dentists and the specialty societies.

-The Component Restructuring Committee had it’s first meeting to evaluate the feasibility of changing the structure of the components and the NJDA leadership: ie, councils and committees.

-NJDA has set up a Hurricane Relief Grant Program for member dentists severely affected by the storm. The program information was sent to all members. Anyone who did not receive it and needs the information should call NJDA Headquarters. Many State Dental Societies have provided financial assistance to NJDA for this program.

- Dr. Tom Rossi, Chair of the Committee to Review Continuing Education, reported that this committee has been made a standard committee of the Board of Trustees to develop CE in the future for dentistry. A brief discussion followed about the role of the Council on Dental Education. The Council would like to continue choosing the CE for the Weekend Study Clubs. In addition the Council will continue it’s role regarding programs for dental auxiliaries.

- The Council on Dental Benefits cancelled its November 14th council meeting due to Hurricane Sandy. Dr. Vitale reported that Delta Dental is marketing three new individual dental plan products. Dentists should look into these new plans so that they can educate their patients. Delta is also lowering its fee schedule to achieve an overall savings of 4-5%, but it is not tying the maximum fees to a percentile. The amount of decrease will vary depending upon individual dentists’ current fee structure. Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield is outsourcing administration of its dental plans to a Blue Cross in Wisconsin effective January 1, 2013. Dr. Vitale also reported that Henry Schein (owner of Dentrix) has acquired Exan, the developer of electronic health records software currently being tested in dental schools.

- The Council onAnnual Session reported that the Ocean Place facility in Long Branch did not suffer any damage due to Hurricane Sandy. This year we plan to have the partners on one side of the hall and the other vendors on the opposite side to create a traffic pattern. We will have a “dental office” on the partner’s side, which will be available to dentists to try the latest technology that the profession has to offer.

Office is approximately 2000 sq. ft. located in a strip mall newly constructed in 2009. Great opportunity for new dentist to start up or experienced dentist to own their own practice. Well designed office which includes Receptionist Area, Waiting Room, Doctor’s private Office, 5 Plumbed Operatories of which two are fully equipped, separate sterilization area, lab room, and lunch space for staff. Included in the sale are Dentrix software with associated computers, Two Dental Chairs, Two X-Ray units, Panoramic X-Ray which includes Ceph, and all cabinetry, shelves and desks. *Serious buyers only. Please respond to [email protected]

308 Raritan Ave. (Route 27 at the BUS STOP), Center of Highland Park, NJ 08904
Dental tenant of 11 years retired and the landlord purchased all 3 sets of equipment and furniture for new dentist to use.
Call 973-280-8206 or [email protected]

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 Mary Moskal at 732-821-9400.
This service is provided free to you as a member benefit.