SDDSNY Bulletin January February 2021

The Second District Dental Society of New York Serving the counties of Kings and Richmond since 1868 VOLUME 38 NUMBER 1 January/February 2021 WWW.SDDSNY.ORG SDD BULLETIN Looking for an Associate? Seeking Employment? See the SDDS Job Board on Page 11. are grateful to SDDS Executive Director Mr. Bernard Hackett and SDDS Immediate Past Presi- dent Dr. Paul Albicocco, who acknowledged the shortage of PPE in the hospitals. They asked our members to donate their PPE to those hospitals where they were desperately needed. The various dental societies set up drop off locations for this purpose and our members generously donated their time and supplies. We thank our members for their generosity in helping with this crisis. Continued on Page 2 » 2021 SDDS President’s Message Dear Colleagues: It is an honor and privilege to serve as your president for 2021. As I was preparing my message, I decided to review the previous presidents’ messages from the past 10 years. I noticed a common theme in all the messages: none of us appreciated the value of becom- ing active in organized dentistry until a great mentor and someone special guided us to the path with his or her mentorship. My story is very similar to those who came before me. For years I was very skeptical about organized den- tistry and it took two legends of organized dentistry, Dr. Anthony DiMango and Dr. Howard Lieb, 15 years to convince me to attend my first meeting. As I started to serve in different Second District Dental Society (SDDS) commit- tees such as the District Claims, Dental Health Planning, Dental Benefit Programs and Continuing Education Committees, I began to realize how much was being done behind the scenes for our profession. I witnessed firsthand how many people volunteered their time and energy to protect our profession. Last year our great nation was hit by one of the worst pandemics that we have experienced through- out our lifetimes: COVID-19. As the number of COVID-19 cases continued to increase, our coun- try came to a halt. At the national level, then ADA President Dr. Chad Gehani and his team worked day and night in collabo- ration with the Centers for Dis- ease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to develop guidelines to keep us and our patients safe in our practices. In New York, which was one of the worse hit states in the country, hospitals were rapidly filling up with COVID-19 patients. Busi- nesses began to close down, and like countless other businesses, non-emergency dentistry was deemed to be a non-essential ser- vice and we were all forced to close our offices. As the director of the general practice residency program at NYU Langone Hospital— Brooklyn, I witnessed our dental residents and attending staff in the hospitals serving in any capacity that they were asked, such as triag- ing patients in the emergency room, running arterial blood gas labs, carrying ventilators and oxy- gen to different units within the hospital or simply just working tirelessly day and night while strug- gling with inadequate personal protective equipment (PPE). This was true in every hospital that has a dental residency program. Additionally, I received daily calls from our local dentists and former residents asking how they could volunteer their services. We Upcoming Events Due to concerns about the spread of COVID-19, all posted events listed below will be held virtually. Virtual meeting via Zoom, visit bit.ly/SDDSInstallation to register SDDS Annual Installation of Officers SUNDAY JAN. 3 SDDS 2021 President Dr. Babak Bina Virtual meeting via Zoom, 7 P.M. SDDS Board of Trustees Meeting MONDAY JAN. 11