AAE District II Director Report

Greetings and I wish each of you a safe and joyous holiday season. The following information is provided to update the NJAE membership on issues from my previous report and to note AAE Board of Directors actions that may impact our affiliate organization and each of you, as individual endodontists. Included will also be an update on activities related to the Postgraduate Endodontic Program at UMDNJ.

1. AAE Election and Nominating Process – In order to nominate an individual not chosen by the AAE Nominating Committee for a national office, it will now require 50 signatures rather 25.  Another change also affects the number of active and life, voting members who must be present during the General Assembly Meeting in order to establish a quorum. The new number is now 100 rather than 50. These increases reflect the increase in AAE membership since these two by-laws were originally enacted.
2. District Election Guidelines – It appears that the special AAE committee appointed to study this problem will soon have some recommendations based upon the results of a knowledge-based governance paper. The goals were to develop a standardized nominating process at the District level and to provide a fair and open nomination process for AAE officers and AAE Foundation Trustees.
3. AAE Annual Session – April 14 – April 17, 2010 – Registration packets will be mailed and members can register on-line, by fax or mail. This year there will be no Pre-session Symposium as the new meeting format will provide four full days of continuing education opportunities. The meeting will be held at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. The AAE Board of Directors voted to offer first-year active members of the AAE a 50% reduction in the professional member fee for attending the Annual Session. This reduction will be effective with the 2010 Annual Session.
4. AAE 2009 Fall Conference – The 2009 conference was held at the J W Marriott Resort in Cancun, Mexico from October 20-31 and the topic was “Differential Diagnosis of Orofacial Pain”. The presentations, accommodations and attendance were outstanding. Three of the endodontic faculty and six of our Postgraduate Endodontic students from UMDNJ were in attendance.
5. Recruitment and Retention of Endodontic Faculty – This continues to be a major issue for many of the endodontic departments and postgraduate programs in the USA. At the present time the UMDNJ Endodontic Department is very fortunate to have an adequate number of outstanding, dedicated and loyal full-time and part-time faculty. We were fortunate this past July to welcome Dr. Jeffery Steward as a full-time, Assistant Professor in the Department. Jeff’s primary duties are as an instructor in both the didactic and clinical portions of the endodontic portion of the dental student program. 
6. Education of General Dentists, Dental Students and Other Specialists – The AAE continues to address the problem of how to better educate our membership about the potential impact of implants on our specialty. A recent membership survey noted that 24% of AAE members under the age of 35 responded that they plan to place implants in their practices. This points out the importance of assuring that our postgraduate students receive adequate training in this area of their endodontic education. It has also been noted that it is important that AAE members understand the importance of educating their referring dentists as to what can be accomplished with endodontic procedures to aid is the retention of the natural dentition. Our endodontic faculty members must also not take a backseat in the education of our dental students in order to assure that endodontic procedures are not eliminated from the treatment planning process.
7. UMDNJ Endodontic Program Update – Our new class of residents will start the program on July 1, 2010. We again have five outstanding individuals who will become members of the Class of 2012. Two are graduates of UMDNJ, one from PENN, one from the University of Florida and one an international graduate who is currently enrolled in a one-year endodontic fellowship at the University of Florida. Four of the five will have one or more years of general dentistry experience before entering the program and all of their academic records are outstanding.

- All of the current second-year residents achieved a passing grade on the semiannual comprehensive oral and written endodontic examinations administered in June 2009.

- All of the second-year residents have completed their research projects and their abstracts are currently being reviewed by the AAE. Those that are accepted will be presented at the AAE Annual Session in San Diego. Please stop by and congratulate them for their accomplishments and for their positive representation of UNDNJ and the state of New Jersey. The three manuscripts from the projects of those who completed the program in June 2009 were submitted for publication and two of the three have been accepted for publication. One will be published in the Journal of Endodontics and the other in Quintessence International. The third paper is currently being revised and will be resubmitted. All five of the postgraduate students completing the program plan to take the written part of the ABE examination in June 2010. Of the nineteen graduates from the last four classes all but one have successfully passed the ABE written examination on the first try.

-         At this point none of the five graduates of 2010 have finalized their practice plans following graduation.

1. Endodontic Winter Symposium 2010 – Very soon you will receive your brochure regarding the 2010 New Jersey Association of Endodontists Winter Symposium. The Symposium will be held on Saturday, February 6, 2010. Please register early for this exciting program featuring two outstanding speakers, Dr. Kenneth Hargreaves and Dr. Gilberto Debelian. Dr. Clara Spatafore, the AAE President-Elect will provide an update on AAE matters.

 I hope to see you there.

Gary Hartwell, District II AAE Director