by Mark Hartley
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With apologies to Julie Kagan, the author of Mind Your Body and who often signs off correspondence with the line, “mind your body and keep moving,” I have a piece of advice for you.
Don’t move.
An advertisement for RDH Under One Roof 2011, which will be hosted in the potentially coolest temperatures of the three “UOR” locations — Chicago.
As it says about heat-related illnesses on WebMD, avoid extreme physical activity. When it’s 94 degrees outside, reaching for that iced tea constitutes extreme physical movement.
It’s a good thing the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and RDH Under One Roof host their conferences inside air-conditioned buildings, huh? Maybe the ADHA didn’t way back when (for a cute photo of an early ADHA meeting, turn to page 28). Those hygienists covered every inch of skin with clothing and still managed to scrape the plaque off in the middle of summer. Would you trade all of the innovation in dental instrumentation for a little air conditioning, if you had to choose?
The last two dental hygiene conferences I attended were in Las Vegas (RDH Under One Roof in 2009 and ADHA in 2010). They were hosted in the don’t-move-an-inch summer.
I was standing very still 1,200 miles away from Orlando the other day, watching a national news network offer its pick of the day for the city with the worst weather forecast. Orlando won that lottery, since it was supposed to be 94 degrees, humid, and stormy. I was bracing for almost an identical forecast in my neck of the woods, as Al Roker would say. I was contemplating on whether to move my limbs or not, including whether to stoop slightly forward to pick up my car keys off the table.
I called a colleague on the RDH Under One Roof staff. They are busy ironing out (usually a heated endeavor) the last-minute details for next month’s conference in Orlando (www.rdhunderoneroof.com).
“Hot outside, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is.” I could hear computer keys clicking on her end. So I got to the point.
“They haven’t turned off the air conditioning in Orlando, right?”
“Nope, everything still seems to be working. Do you, uh, have something more pertinent that you need to ask? I am kind of working here.”
Dental hygienists meet during the summer. The largest meeting for dentists is in Chicago every February.
As the writer Anton Chekhov observed, “People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy.”
A little truth there, eh? Folks are always happy after attending the “Midwinter,” the ADHA, or UOR.
The best dental meetings for climatic reasons are arguably the Hinman (in Atlanta in March), the California Dental Association (in Anaheim in early May), and the Greater New York (New York City, which always seems to be delightful in late November, if you don’t mind interrupting the Thanksgiving weekend to attend). The ADA usually finds pleasant temperatures at its various locations by hosting its annual session in October.
But I don’t think the weather has much to do with the movement inside dental meetings. The meetings energize you, and the best part of going is seeing old friends and making new ones. So, as you can tell, I really do agree with Kagan’s advice. Keep moving.
