CDHA and lucky Friday 13th meeting
The California Dental Hygienists' Association met in Anaheim on May 13th — 'lucky' Friday the 13th! A record number of attendees enjoyed nearly 40 corporate exhibits, fund raising tables, 20 student table clinics, and an outstanding continuing education program.
A standing-room only crowd was "wowed" by Anna Pattison, RDH, MS, as she reviewed, "Advanced Periodontal Instrumentation: What You Didn't Learn in Dental Hygiene School." The day concluded with a panel discussion on "New Horizons for California Dental Hygienists," featuring Katie Dawson, RDH, BS, ADHA President-Elect; Michelle Hurlbutt, RDH, BS, CDHA President; and Paul Glassman, DDS, MA, MBA, Associate Dean at the University of Pacific dental school and co-director of the Pacific Center for Special Care.
The following students won the annual table clinic competition — their topics and creativity added to the continuing education experience:
• Research: first place, Cypress College, "Diamonds on the Cutting Edge of Dental Scaling," Wendy Sheehan, Melina McManis, Kim Cruz, and Jennie Phui; second place, Sacramento City College, "Xylitol The Super Sweetener," Melissa Bohlmann, Sara Pelfanio, and Angie Pechar; third
place, Loma Linda University, "Plaque Removal Methods of the 21st Century," Jacqueline Becerra, Arlen Blandino, and Sheila Alexander
• Informational: first place, West Los Angeles College, "Full Mouth Disinfection: A New Treatment of Periodontal Disease," Courtney Jang and Wei-Ni Huang; second place, Cerritos College, "Periodontal Disease: The Heart Breaker," Heather Martin and Tori Tanner; third place, Cerritos College, "Is Meth Mouth Lurking In Your Dental Chair?" Margarita Gaona and Athena Sack
Many California students will also compete in the ADHA 2005 Annual Session table clinic session as well.
CDHA meets three times a year, with their next event to be the annual session CE featuring Gail Stoops, RDH, on "The Systemic Epidemic" and House of Delegates hosted in San Diego on June 9-11. Log onto www.cdha.org for more information and a listing of future programs. CDHA welcomes and offers a discount to all members of ADHA!
SCN: It's all About Magic!
The SCN (Speaking Consulting Network), founded in 1996 by Linda Miles, hosted its eighth annual meeting in Orlando May 20-23. SCN is a "learning lab" for dental speakers, consultants, and writers who wish to enhance their own business and the business of the clients they serve.
It was an incredible learning weekend filled with like-minded professionals who freely shared their knowledge — a kindred spirit of helping others to be the best they can be and a passion for excellence in dentistry and dental hygiene.
Please go to www.speakingconsultingnetwork.com to find out more about this rapidly growing group and how you can schedule one of its members to consult in your office or speak at a CE meeting!
Spring break in Anaheim
The CDHA program referred to above was a couple of parking lots away from the Anaheim Convention Center, which hosted the California Dental Association's Spring Session on May 12-15. Absolutely perfect spring weather greeted attendees, who listened to Orlando Magic's Pat Williams at the keynote address/breakfast. The long-time NBA executive delivered a presentation titled, "Dentistry is a team sport."
Approximately 650 companies exhibited at the meeting. Some exhibits of interest to dental hygienists included:
• Miras' Mirroscope, an imaging technology driven by an illuminated and magnified dental mirror, www.miras-imaging.com
• The Hydrabrush, a new entry in the powered toothbrush market with an unique "automatic" positioning of bristles, www.hydrabrush.com
• Waiting Room Theater, which combines entertaining programs with dental educational programming for patients in the reception area, www.waitingroomtheater.com
Cologne: The United Nations of dentistry
Yet another odd-numbered year, yet another amazing show in Cologne, Germany. Once again, the IDS meeting lived up to the hype, with 75,000 people attending the five-day event. That's right ... 75,000 people. And those 75,000 people came from 141 different countries. And those 75,000 people from 141 different countries wandered through 107,000 square meters of exhibit space. The numbers are truly mind-boggling, and so is the experience of being a part of IDS.
If you've never been to the IDS show, here are some dates for you to remember — March 20-24, 2007. That's the next time the world will gather in Cologne. Here is one man's opinion of why the 2005 show was so amazing.
• Innovations — If you want a sneak peek of some of the products that will be debuting in the United States over the next six to 12 months, IDS is the place to do it. For example, KaVo unveiled a total of 20 new or updated products at IDS. Not all of them will come into the United States, but quite a few will be here by the time the ADA Annual Session opens its doors in Philadelphia. KaVo is just one example. There are countless other companies that will be following the same plan.
• International presence — Think about it ... 141 different countries being represented in the same building. That's a number that makes this show the United Nations of dentistry. For the first time, representatives from Iraq were in attendance. Some of the newer countries that once comprised the Soviet Union made their presence felt. Everywhere you turned, you were met with someone from a different part of the world. But, most importantly for exhibitors, these people were doing business at IDS. There were plenty of success stories. One of the IDS newcomers won over representatives from 20 countries in which it did not yet have any customers. The Australian manufacturers, who attended the fair with a group participation for the first time, declared that IDS was "an ideal platform for networking the entire international dental sector." A spokesperson from a leading German supplier added, "By the second day of the fair, we had already reached our internal sales goals."
• A focus on exhibits — Customers come to the IDS to look at new products and roam the exhibit hall. There are no lectures. There are no events during the day to distract dental teams from wandering the exhibit hall.
A survey performed during the IDS revealed some interesting statistics. Most of the visitors (77 percent of those surveyed) said that finding out about new products was an important reason for their visit to IDS. A total of 47 percent aimed to make purchases or prepare for purchases; 34 percent were concerned with finding specific solutions; and 49 percent wanted to enter into new business relations. Among the foreign visitors, as many as 71 percent were looking for new suppliers.
In terms of the overall organization of IDS, 96 percent said that it was good or excellent. A total of 83 percent were satisfied or very satisfied with their visit, while 80 percent reported that they would definitely or probably be returning to Cologne for IDS 2007.
Of course, there are some who would say that another great reason to go to Cologne for the IDS is that many booths have beer on tap and smoking is permitted anywhere in the exhibit hall (even in the booths where live dentistry is being performed). Since I don't smoke and I rarely drink beer, I'll let you make your own determination on the importance of those two facets of the show.
Anyway, if you have the chance, make your way to Cologne in 2007. Just make sure you do what you can to battle the jetlag, prepare to eat plenty of pork products (the PennWell crew fell in love with the pork knuckle), and bring along a multilingual dictionary. I am already looking forward to heading back to Germany. I hope I will see you there.
(IDS report compiled by Kevin Henry, editor of Proofs magazine)
