First of all, a very big Austin welcome to all our recent CADS members! I once was the new kid on the block and always felt the warm hospitality by CADS members and I hope you have had the same experience.

 

I can tell you too, we are the envy of other societies with our CADS having an increase in new members at a rate of 50-60 dentists a year, unheard of in modern times! Having just attended the TDA’s annual component society meeting (all the presidents and president-elects in the state) with Drs. LaCroix and Peppard, and our Executive Director Nancy Nisbett, we heard a West Texas dental society president say they haven’t had a new dentist move to their society in 3 years, and here we welcome 5 a month!

 

Where are all these new CADS members coming from? With the help of the TDA I was able to group the out-of-state newcomers into five geographic groups. What I found was two of the largest groups came from the Northeast and the Midwest. But the majority of new CADS members came out of our local three dental schools here in Texas with UTHSC San Antonio dental graduates holding a slight edge over Baylor dental graduates.

 

Like most of us who have been blessed to live here for some time, we all think everyone is moving here from California. Surprise! Not one dentist in the last 18 months has left the Golden State to join our CADS. Just like us, they apparently like where they live so why relocate?

 

Why do this survey? I think we all like to know who our new neighbors are and where they are coming from and at the same time, in the back of our minds, wonder about that dental economics course we all took in dental school. I remember at one time the “ideal number” for dentists/population was 1:5000. That would mean our metropolitan area would need to grow an additional 250,000 per year to support our current trend of new CADS members. We are growing in population at a substantial rate compared to the rest of the country but I’m not sure that fast. 

 

Austin is one of the prime spots to live and raise a family, thus why we are here and why more are arriving monthly. We all hope and pray our newly arriving members continue to do well both professionally and economically…only time will tell.

 

So what’s your thoughts on this subject? Please email editor Dr. Kavin Kelp at jk24k@yahoo.com or write him at Kavin Kelp, DDS, 4201 Bee Caves Rd., Suite C208, Austin, Texas 78746

 

Wayne C. Radwanski, DDS

President CADS 2008-2009