FROM THE EDITOR:
Dear All,
I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during these difficult times. It has been a very challenging time for everyone personally and professionally. However, one thing that has been very reassuring throughout the whole thing is our ability to adapt. As we are slowly returning back to work, there are some changes we are making at our workplaces to keep our patients and staff safe.
We gathered some insights from Dr. Steven Bender, Dr. Jeffery Crandall and Dr. Rich Hisrchinger on some of the safety measures they are taking at their workplaces. Their insights are shared below. ADA approved the new Dental Specialty of Orofacial Pain on March 31st, 2020. A great milestone for the field of Orofacial Pain and many thanks to all those who worked so hard to get us here.
Please find a special report by Dr. Mackman and Dr. Fricton about Orofacial Pain as a specialty.
You will also find the proceedings paper on “Substance Risk Mitigation for Clinicians: An Interprofessional Forum Bringing Together Dentists, Physicians, and Substance Use Disorder Specialists.” We hope you enjoy it.
As always, we welcome your feedback and suggestions.
Regards,
Shuchi Dhadwal, D.M.D.
Chair, AAOP Publications Committee
President Message – Jay Mackman
Dear AAOP Membership,
On behalf of the Executive committee, the Council, and the Executive Director, we want to wish you all the best during these uncharted COVID-19 times. We hope you and your families are safe and in good health. We realize how difficult these times are for everyone, both personally and professionally. With this in mind, we have cosponsored two complimentary webinars dealing with different ways to help you with your practice during this COVID-19 period and hope to sponsor more.As you might imagine the AAOP office and counsel, have been very busy dealing with the fallout from COVID-19. We’ve had to cancel our May 2020 AAOP Annual Meeting at Disney, and as Ken has previously explained we are working on various alternatives: including a possible meeting in September and a new virtual CE portal, which we will keep you all updated on.
THE COVID PARADIGM SHIFT
We asked some of our members about what safety measures are they taking as states allow them to slowly open up their practices. Here are some of the responses:
The Significance of the Specialty of Orofacial Pain
By Jay l. Mackman DDS President, American Academy of Orofacial Pain (AAOP) and James Fricton DDS, MS Chair, AAOP Specialty Committee
AAOP 2020 ANNUAL MEETING UPDATE
The AAOP 2020 Meeting has been rescheduled for September 4-5, 2020 at the Disney Contemporary Hotel and Conference Center. While there is no guarantee that the meeting will take place we are hopeful that the situation will continue to improve in order to allow our members and professional colleagues to come together for continuing education and for an informative update and dialogue on the ADA’s National Commission recognition of Orofacial Pain as the newest dental specialty.
ARTICLE: “Substance Risk Mitigation for Clinicians: An Interprofessional Forum Bringing Together Dentists, Physicians, and Substance Use Disorder Specialists”
The faculty and attendees of this symposium reviewed and discussed a wide range of critical issues relating to the implementation of controlled substance risk assessment and management of the at-risk patient within dental practices.
