I m p ressio n s
Life after 150...
by Dr. Stephen T. Radack III, Editor
Let me start by saying “thank you” to all
those who planned and carried out a
wonderful 150 th anniversary of PDA at
Pennsylvania’s Dental Meeting last month
(April) in Hershey. It was great to see
old friends and colleagues and PDA staff.
Kudos to Rebecca Von Nieda, PDA’s director of meetings and
administration, and to Dr. Lauri Passeri, the chair of the Annual
Meeting Steering Committee, as well as her entire group, for a
job well done. It seemed like everyone who took the time to
attend enjoyed their experience, whether it was the Board
Alumni Dinner, Past Presidents’ Breakfast, continuing education
courses, PADPAC reception, Town Hall Meeting or the 150 th
Anniversary Gala. If you did not attend, please take the time
read the annual report and see what is happening at your PDA
and PDAIS. http://padental.org/annualreport
As Mary and I headed home Sunday, I started thinking about
what life after this momentous 150 th anniversary will be like for
not only PDA and this publication, but for the dental profession
itself. As we saw in the last issue of the PDJ, so many changes
have already occurred in the first 150 years of the PDA and it
seems like changes are occurring at lightning speed in the 21 st
century.
Think about this publication itself. There was considerable
thought that went into some of the finer details of the special
edition that increased the cost. We agreed that the extra
expense was well worth it to enhance the commemorative
edition and I also felt that this could be the last major PDA
anniversary edition that would ever be printed. Think about
who will actually be reading the PDJ when it turns 200 in 2068.
With the trend of more and more print moving to online or
electronic format, I assume that will continue to be the case in
the future.
Think about meetings in general in the future. Will we even see
each other in person or will we be in some digital meeting
room or cloud? Maybe our avatars will hang out together and
do what we do now when we meet. I doubt they will enjoy a
gin and tonic, scotch, bourbon or a beer together like some of
us do when we spend some time together at a meeting.
Think about our profession. Most people my age remember the
Jetsons cartoon and how farfetched that show seemed back
then. Who would have known how much of it has now become
a reality? During the interviews with the past PDA presidents a
question was asked about what had been the most significant
changes in dentistry in 150 years. Local anesthetic? The high
speed handpiece? Community water fluoridation? These are all
great answers and all very close in comparison for their impact
on the profession. If you haven’t had a chance to see excerpts
from those interviews then take a look at the video: https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=og55BrjkUIw&feature=youtu.be
What will a past president say 50, 100 or even 150 years from
now when asked about the most significant changes? Maybe
teledentistry and robotics? They use a DaVinci robotic surgical
robot to do surgery in a hospital operating room now. Surgeons
use joy sticks to control the arms that actually touch the patient
and do what a human had always done. Could this be the
future of dentistry? Could that solve the issues of barriers to care
in remote locations? Who knows? I think it might take some
re-education of a patient to see only a robotic arm coming into
your mouth for a dental procedure. Who knows? Maybe some
virtual reality glasses that shows their friendly dentist in front of
them instead! Maybe the caries vaccine or the ability to just
grow a new tooth and replace the diseased one. Can these things
really be that hard to believe in the future? I don’t think so.
As you can see, there was a lot going on in my mind on that
ride home from Hershey that Sunday. Maybe that’s what
happens when it takes five hours to get home! In closing I want
to go back to the present in 2018 and give my heartfelt thanks
and gratitude for everyone who helped make the PDA 150
edition of the PDJ such a treasure. I hope you enjoyed that and
continue to enjoy your Pennsylvania Dental Journal in the future
no matter what form it comes in.
— STR3
MAY/JU N E 2018 | P EN N SYLVAN IA DEN TAL JOURNAL
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