“The privilege to join is the privilege to serve”. That is the motto developed for the new dentist manual. It embodies and embraces the spirit of community giving of our organization.

 

This President’s Letter comes from the annual session in San Antonio. At the Board meeting prior this week, the CADS Board of Directors signed on to support a program tentatively called Guardian Angel. The program will be a collaborative effort between CADS, the Capital Area Dental Foundation, The St. David’s Foundation, and AISD to provide year round preventive dental education to all AISD elementary schools. The primary focus will be on the 42 elementary schools which fall under the Title 1 guidelines and are served by the Theo vans. One of the most important functions of the Theo Project is the preventive education effort made at each school served by the vans. The deficiency in the Theo Project is the return interval of 32 months. The goal of the Guardian Angel Project is to place a dentist in each school to act as an educational resource for the entire year.

 

Prevention of dental disease is the only true long-term solution. Education is the only way to break the cycle of generational ignorance that perpetuates this disease process. Dr. Jerry Long, in his address to the House of Delegates, stressed the need for preventive programs to reduce the need for care in the disadvantaged and underserved segments of the populace. I could only smile knowing that CADS has already embarked on this path. The project is ambitious. The idea is bold. It will only succeed with the unwavering support of Capital Area Dental Society volunteers equal to the effort put forth in the past to launch the Theo Project. We created a model project then and I believe that this can also be a model project for community dental education.

 

The Capital Area Dental Foundation is striving to become the leading partner in the collaborative effort to address the dental needs of the underserved in our area. The time has come for us to create our own opportunities rather than waiting for others to present them to us. We as a profession should step forward to address the issues of dental need and access to care in our local community.

 

A curriculum will be developed this summer and volunteers will be assigned to area schools this fall. Please join me and the leadership of this Society in support of this most important project.

 

Stanley A. LaCroix, DDS

President, Capital Area Dental Society