Week in Review: Burnout among dentists | ADA working to get systems back online | Weakest link in respiratory safety

Dear DrBicuspid Member,

When Dr. Kyle Stanley lectures, he asks his audience of dental professionals if they have known a fellow professional who died by suicide. About 70% of the audience raises their hand. In the top story of the week, Stanley shares statistics to illustrate how prevalent burnout and mental health crises are among dentists, as well as resources where professionals can find support and a community.

Stanley's tips include finding a colleague whom you trust and who can understand what you're going through. He also advised trying to find things you enjoy outside of dentistry to help make the difficult times easier to handle and the good times even better.

ADA working to get systems back online

The ADA is making progress in restoring operations following a cyberattack that left its communication and membership systems paralyzed for nearly three weeks, according to a statement the organization gave DrBicuspid.com. The membership software system the ADA uses to process membership applications, renewals, and product orders has been verified to resume operations.

A banner on the ADA website on May 13 states members can now access their MyADA accounts and the ADA online store. However, the ADA is still using Gmail accounts instead of association accounts.

Time for a new approach to gum disease?

Point-of-care (POC) testing is a medical advancement we're hearing about more frequently, and one group of test developers believe rapid chairside tests are part of the next generation of periodontal disease care and prevention.

In a column in the Journal of the American Dental Association, the authors detailed how POC tests can identify specific salivary markers that put patients at greater risk of periodontal disease progression and an elevated grade of periodontal disease. This type of testing could pave the way for dental professionals to pinpoint patients with active gum disease before there are clinical or radiographic signs.

Masks out, sunglasses in for CDA Presents in Anaheim

Today is the last day of the California Dental Association's (CDA) CDA Presents the Art and Science of Dentistry meeting in Anaheim. The show is the first conference I've attended since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic where masks are optional, following broader rollbacks of mask mandates across the U.S.

There's been many exciting developments at the show, but I want to highlight an interview with Nancy Dewhirst, RDH, who spoke about respiratory safety at the show. In my video interview with her, Dewhirst shared part of her "hit list" of respiratory safety practices, as well as the weakest link in respiratory safety in a dental practice.