Opening Doors…

Paving the way for the next generation to find their place in the endodontic community, and supporting educators to ensure the specialty status of the profession, have always been part of the Foundation’s mission.  Now two new Foundation programs are opening doors for residents and their teachers to achieve those goals.

The Foundation’s new Annual Meeting Resident Development Scholarships underwritten by Specialty 1 Partners provides dedicated funding for final-year residents to present their research at AAE annual meetings.  Especially for early career endodontists, the impact of being part of the program is far greater than just adding another entry to their CVs or fulfilling CE requirements.  Gaining the opportunity to interact with luminaries and established clinicians helps form their own professional identity as an active involved member of the community and chart their own future career opportunities.

“The personal interaction at the meetings, being able to meet the people who are writing the articles in JOE, and speakers and endodontic leaders really energizes the residents to want to give back to our specialty,” says Timothy Kirkpatrick, DDS, chair and program director of endodontics at UT Health Houston.  “They want to be fully engaged with our specialty as a result.”

For Mansoor Safder, DDS that means sharing his findings on the biological mechanisms at play between host immune response and the sometimes tricky progression of periapical disease.  His hope is that this work will play a role in paving the way toward the development of a drug therapy for severe cases.

“Every bit of research is based on research that came before it,” says Foundation Trustee Anthony T Borgia DDS MHA, dean emeritus of endodontics for West Virginia University.  “They’re building the steps for improvement of the specialty and methods of treatment…”

“It’s really important to build relationships with endodontists from all over the country to be the best clinicians we all can be,” adds graduating resident Tyler Vogel DDS.

Educators play a pivotal role in shaping how endodontics is practiced, and specialist care is provided, within the broader scope of oral healthcare. A new scholarship to ensure academic endodontists have the leadership skills necessary to retain the specialty status of the profession has also been funded by Specialty 1 through participation in the American Dental Educators Association (ADEA) Leadership Institute.

“One of the Foundation’s goals has always been that endodontists are teaching endodontics,” notes Foundation President Margot Kusienski, DDS.  “If we don’t have specialists teaching the specialty, we lose our specialty and we will be no more than general dentists.”

“There’s critical decisions being made on lots of important issues in institutions,” asserts Dr Kirkpatrick. “If you don’t have a seat at the table, you don’t have your voice heard” about the importance of endodontics and of saving the natural tooth.

Together the two programs are important assets toward the vitality of endodontics into the future.