In addition to his daily practice of the profession of pharmacy, Thomas Viola also serves the dental professions as a clinical educator, published writer and professional speaker. Tom is a member of the faculty of eight colleges, as well as several national board exam review courses. He is a contributor to several dental professional journals, with pharmacology columns appearing regularly in General Dentistry, AGD Impact, Access Magazine and RDH Magazine. In addition, Tom currently serves on the Advisory Board for General Dentistry and as the Subject Matter Expert for Mosby’s Dental Drug Reference. Tom has presented hundreds of continuing education courses, nationally and internationally, in the areas of dental pharmacology and local anesthesia.
This program will provide participants with an update and overview of the most frequently prescribed FDA-approved brand name medications for the past year. Special emphasis will be given to those medications whose actions, side effects, or interactions with other medications may impact dental therapy. Participants will learn to:

• Identify the most frequently prescribed FDA-approved medications.

• Review the basic mechanism of action, principle therapeutic indications, and potential adverse reactions and drug interactions of these medications. • Discuss the clinical dental considerations of these medications and their potential impact on dental therapy.

I am writing this President’s Message from my family room couch as close to thirty inches of snow is falling on Central New Jersey. I hope everyone weathered storm Jonas well and was able to manage. At first being stuck home for such an extended period of time seemed daunting. After twenty four hours of solitude I actually began to enjoy my time alone to contemplate the year ahead and reevaluate my expectations and hopes for the upcoming year. Everyone starts each year saying they hope this year will be better than last year. I personally expect this year to be a better, less trying year than last year. I think we can all agree that from a business sense this is definitely true. We all hope to be more productive, more profitable and more successful than the previous year. As for the Middlesex County Dental Society we can hope for an increase in membership. I know the year ahead will be a success with the officers that are serving on our board. Dr. Devang Modi, our incoming President will bring strong leadership and ideals to our society and our Educational Coordinator, Dr. Amit Vora will provide for an exceptional year of continuing education programs for us to learn from and gain knowledge in our profession.
Last month was the officer visitation from the New Jersey Dental Association. It is always a pleasure to hear from the Executive Director, Arthur Meisel and the President of the NJDA, This year it is Dr. Gregory LaMorte. We also heard from Dr. Giorgio DeVincenco, the President Elect. Getting the inside “scoop” on what is happening in our field from these professionals is always a treat. Dr. Gregory LaMorte also performed our life member inductions - something for all of us to strive for.
I look forward to seeing everyone at our next meeting and at our full day course in April. Be safe in the snow.

Attendance: Drs. Alyssa Bernstein, Devang Modi, Genevieve Fernandes, Richard Kahn, Antoinette Tauk, Ira Rosen, Daniel Krantz, Sunny Satwah, Mitch Weiner, Sandy Goldstein, Nima Mir Madjlessi, Robert Silverstein and Nainesh Desai
Acceptance of 11/10/15 Minutes- vote unanimous.
Treasurer’s Report- Dr. Sunny Satwah
See full report on page 3.
Secretary’s Report- Dr. Genevieve Fernandes
The list of Delegates and alternate Delegates along with our MCDS officers that represent us within each NJDA Council will be updated and provided to all at next board meeting for approval.
Education Coordinator’s Report- Dr. Devang Modi
Dr. LaMaorte, Dr. Giorgio Divincenzo and Art Meisel are confirmed to attend “Officer’s Night” next Tuesday. Jim Schultz is uncertain at this time. Dr. LaMorte has confirmed receiving the bios on all 4 life members to use for their intro. Dr. John McDonougha will attend with 2 guests. Dr. Jayant Patel with 2 guests. Dr. Richard Heinowitz- waiting for reply. Dr. Resnick- not attending.
NJDA Council Reports:
Annual Session- Dr. Nainesh Desai
The Garden State Dental Conference and Expo will be held on May 6th and 7th at the Princeton Marriott. Our featured speaker, Dr. Stanley Malamed will present two separate 3- hour courses on Saturday. Event format has been modified to make it more fiscally efficient for the association and our sponsors. Exhibit floor will be open from 12-6pm on Friday and 8am-4pm on Saturday. Continuing education courses will be conducted from 1pm to 5pm on Friday and from 8:30am to 4pm on Saturday. Online registration will open before the end of the month. There will be a $25 registration fee and all early and online registrants will receive a $25 gift card that can be used to purchase supplies from many exhibitors and for lunch and learn seminars. 3 different dental specialty organizations have partnered with NJDA for this meeting. There will be no private receptions on Friday. Instead, there will be one common event for all attendees called “Dentist Got Talent” from 6-10 pm. Onsite registration will be available for lunch and learn events on Saturday. A residency fair will be held on Saturday and nearly 13 programs from Tri-state region are expected to participate. There will be a Town hall Luncheon, with a Q and A session, partially sponsored by NJDPAC. NJDA is asking each component to contribute $500.00 toward this event. Each supporting component will be given two (2) tickets to attend the luncheon. The tickets will be given to the Component President to invite the member of their choosing. Attendees must register for the conference in order to attend. The 2017 GSDC&E will be held at The Newark Marriott. List of potential featured speakers was discussed. The next council meeting will be a phone conference on March 10th.
Dental Benefits- Dr. Devang Modi, Dr. Antoinette Tauk
Our next meeting is on Wednesday, 2/3/16.
Governmental Affairs – Dr. Mitch Weiner
A new legislative session has just begun and there are dozens of newly introduced bills that the council will begin to track. New legislators are in the process of being contacted so that we can establish relationships with them.
The Dental Director legislation has been passed and is presently on Gov. Christie’s desk. It is likely that the Governor will pocket veto the bill by inaction but we are making a last minute appeal to the Governor’s representatives to not leave much needed grant money for oral health programs in NJ on the table by not acting on the bill.
Out of Network Legislation has been re-introduced in the new legislative session. We have secured amendments in the legislation that exempts private practice dentists. Oral Surgeons that do work in a hospital ER setting can be affected if they are out of network. This Out of Network Legislation will NOT apply to plans governed by ERISA, PIP, Workman’s Compensation, Medicaid, Medicare and Charity Care.
The Council will be moving the draft of our expungement Bill, which would remove minor past board actions from dentists State Board records. In addition, we will continue our work on EOB reform. Dialogue with major carriers is taking place that encourages them to amend their EOB and ID cards to better identify covered members as being in a traditional indemnity plan or a self funded plan, which will assist offices in determining whether the Assignment of Benefits Law and the Non-Covered Services Law applies. United Healthcare is already doing this and their EOB’s provide a template for our discussions with the other carriers.
After reviewing the draft, the Council authorized General Counsel and NJDA Executive Director Art Meisel to submit NJDA comments in regards to the proposed Prescription Monitoring Program regulations to the Division of Consumer Affairs that seeks further clarity on some aspects of the regulations.
Subcommittees were established by the Council to look into amending CBCT regulations set forth by NJDEP, and to investigate ideas for Dental ER diversion programs in NJ. They will report back to the Council at our next meeting in March.
Membership- Dr. Genevieve Fernandes, Dr. Nima Mir-Madjlessi
Our next Council on Membership meeting is scheduled for January 20th. This will be a conference call and details will be provided in the next newsletter.
Peer Review- Dr. Sandy Goldstein
There were no new peer review cases assigned or mediated during the last month.
Committee Reports:
Corporate Sponsorship-Dr. Ira Rosen
At the January General Membership meeting, we are expecting two corporate sponsors: Bank of America and Anthony Smith from AXA Financial. We are getting a lot of interest from some new potential corporate sponsors; stay tuned for updated information.
Mentor-Dr. Nima Mir Madjlessi
We are in the process of finalizing 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 for this summer. 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.
I am in the process of setting up an Insurance workshop for our members with Mrs. Joan Monaco. NJDA and Bank of America will be sponsoring that course for all of the components that are interested. I will keep membership apprised of the details as soon as possible.
New Dentist Committee- Dr. Sanjeev Satwah
Committee is planning to incorporate a local social event for each component. To be discussed further at our upcoming meeting which is to be determined.
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. Please visit our website for updated links and further details.
Hygiene Study Club- Dr. Alyssa Bernstein
The Central New Jersey Dental Hygiene [CNJDH] Study Club met on Wednesday, January 6, 2016 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Edison. The speaker was Tom Viola. Two CEU credits were awarded to the 24 hygienists that attended this meeting. The following CNJDH meeting will be on Wednesday March 9, 2016 the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Edison. The speaker will be Dr. James Albani and the topic will be, “Exploring New Horizons in Implant Dentistry; Materials and Methods.” 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
Unfortunately, we were not able to have our course in December of 2015. We will be having a presentation by Dr. Nima Mir-Madjlessi on Periodontal Diagnosis, Treatment Planning and Treatment Modalities on January 13th, 2016.
Our next presentation is going to be given on February 17th, 2016 by Dr Scott Galkin - “Invisalign Basics: What you need to know.” This is another reminder to all of our members to take advantage of this free CE opportunity which is one of the many benefits of membership.
New Business
Dr. Mitch Weiner brought to our attention that Rutgers School of Dental Medicine is setting up a faculty practice in New Brunswick. MCDS and NJDA will be having discussions on its impact within the MCDS dental community.
The Board approved the following slate of officers for 2016-2017: President: Dr. Devang Modi, President Elect: Dr. Amit Vora, Vice President: Dr. Genevieve Fernandes, Secretary: Dr. Antionette Tauk, Treasurer: Dr. Sanjeev Satwah, Education Coordinator: Dr. Amit Vora
Respectfully Submitted,
Dr. Genevieve Fernandes,
Secretary

General Membership Meeting Business

The 2016-2017 slate of officers that was approved by the Board was presented to the membership (see New Business in the minutes of this newsletter). The floor was opened to nominations, and there being none, nominations were closed.
The slate will be voted upon at the February General Meeting.

MCDS Newsletter Online

To receive the newsletter electronically in lieu of receiving a printed copy, please visit our web site, at www.MCDSofNJ.org.
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.

Insurance Claims Problems?

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.

Worst Passwords of 2015, by Bob Silverstein

People continue to use weak passwords, putting themselves at risk of being hacked and experiencing identity theft. Splashdata recently published their 2015 list of the most easily guessable, weak passwords. The top 25, with the weakest first, are: 123456, password, 12345678, qwerty, 12345, 123456789, football, 1234, 1234567, baseball, welcome, 1234567890, abc123, 111111, 1qaz2wsx, dragon, master, monkey, letmein, login, princess, qwertyuiop, solo, passw0rd, and starwars.
They found that although people are using longer passwords, which is good, they are simple and not random, so they are still easily hackable. In addition, people continue to use the same passwords for multiple accounts, including banks, email, social networks, credit card companies, and online shopping accounts that store your credit card data. If one of your email accounts, like gmail or yahoo gets hacked (which is common), and you have used the same password on your more sensitive accounts, you run the risk of having money stolen, and worse, you could become the victim of identity theft.
You should have a unique password for every login. The passwords should be long, and random so they are not subject to dictionary attacks (where hackers use a password guessing program that uses a “dictionary” of known passwords to crack yours). The passwords should use a combination of letters (including different cases), numbers and symbols.
Of course, the reason why people use such weak passwords is that it’s impossible to memorize and keep track of the secure ones on their own. That’s where password managers come in. For PCs, there’s KeePass. LassPass, Dashlane and SplashID can be used with PCs or Macs. You can research each of these and figure out which fits your situation the best - they offer different features, including what is included with free/basic accounts, and what you have to pay for with a “pro” account. A couple of years ago, I had my PayPal account hacked. I now use an app/service called 1Password, after it got the highest rated reviews. It works with Macs, PCs, Android and iOS. All my passwords are synced between my computer and iPhone, and it generates strong passwords for me. It integrates with my web browser so when I need to login to a site my passwords are easily accessible, and on my phone, I can copy and paste in the passwords when I need them.
You can also make it harder for hackers by enabling two factor authorization on accounts that offer it (like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon). This increases security by requiring you to enter a unique passcode that is sent to another one of your devices when you want to make any changes to your account. So, for example, if I want to change my gmail password, Google will request a PIN that is sent to my iPhone to confirm that it is me making the request.
Keeping all of your accounts secure is not easily, but it is worth the extra work to keep hackers at bay.

Highlights from the January Meeting