NMDA Journal Winter 2019

10 New Mexico Dental Journal, Winter 2019 Our Dental Associations: Making a Difference Through Synergy By David J. Manzanares, DDS Teamwork People frequently ask me why I am so active in my involvement with the dental associa- tion. It’s a good question—I don’t get paid for it, and it takes a lot of time out of my sched- ule, something that is tough when you are a new dentist. However, the ultimate answer is best told through an experience that I had that spanned all three levels of the tripartite. I have long struggled with the concept of antibiotic prophylaxis. It seemed to go against everything that we have been taught about the use of antibiotics, and it seemed arbitrary in the circumstances in which it was required. Nevertheless, on solely a medical- legal basis, I followed the ever-changing recommendations. One day, things really changed for me. I had a patient who had a failed knee transplant call up and tell me that his orthopedic surgeon said that the joint failed because of a “dental infection.”The patient came in and had an immaculately healthy mouth. There was abso- lutely no infection to speak of—the surgeon had no basis for his claim. This situation was resolved without incident, but it led me to wonder something: If the orthopedic sur- geons were willing to scapegoat us for their failures, why didn’t they ensure that the pa- tients were free of infection or dental disease before they operated? I asked that question at a meeting of my lo- cal dental society—the Albuquerque District Dental Society and found that no one had a good answer. At the time, I was a delegate to the New Mexico Dental Association House of Delegates, the governing body of my state dental association. I wrote a resolution ask- ing that we petition the ADA to study this issue, and if appropriate, issue guidelines to the orthopedic surgeons requiring a dental clearance prior to joint replacement surgery. During deliberations in the House, this resolu- tion was expanded to explore what medical procedures required dental health optimiza- tion. Our ADA Delegates then took this reso- lution to the ADA House of Delegates, where it passed and the Council on Scientific Affairs was directed to explore this issue. The Council convened several expert panels and did a great deal of research on this topic. I recently, spoke with Marcelo Araujo, DDS, PhD, Vice- President of the ADA Science Institute and our Association’s head scientist, who told me that this is one of the most important projects that he’s ever worked on, and that the first paper will be released at the end of 2018, concerning dental clearance for cardiac is- sues. He also said that future manuscripts are under preparation and will be released in the upcoming years. This process isn’t fast—the original resolution was submitted five years ago; but ensuring that the ADA issues proper recommendations is more important than do- ing something that is quick, but inaccurate. This project came about from a question asked by a new dentist who was working on a patient who was covered by Medicaid in rural New Mexico. It was improved by the contri- butions from dentists at the local, state and national levels of the ADA. And, hopefully, it will help our profession demonstrate the importance of oral health to our colleagues in medicine. Despite what my mother might say, I’m not that special. Every single dentist has ideas that could improve the profession— they are the things that we talk about when we go out to dinner with our colleagues; they are the things that frustrate us as we drive to and from the office each day. Involvement in our Association can foster these important discussions and help make these ideas into a reality. So why am I so active in the dental associa- tion? Because we can make a greater differ- ence in our profession and the patients we serve when we work together than we ever can when we work alone.