S6 E01: Path Forward for Dentistry

[00:00:00] Wright: Healthcare is a hot topic these days, and the clinical landscape is shifting beneath our feet. Now we don't have a crystal ball to see what the future looks like, but we wanted to talk about the path forward for dentistry and oral health with two people that are leading and shaping the way. I'm Dr. ArNelle Wright.

[00:00:18] Ioannidou: And I'm Dr. Effie Ioannidou. And speak for yourself, ArNelle. I do have a crystal ball.

[00:00:25] Wright: Yes. Oh my gosh.

[00:00:26] Ioannidou: No, I don't. I wish I did. Yeah, I wish I did. It would have been very helpful many times, but I really don't remember any day that healthcare was not a hot topic. And we have the most amazing people, the right people to talk about this today.

We have our very good friends for both of us. The ADA President, Dr. Brett Kessler, and the ADA President Elect, Dr. Richard Rosato. Rich, right? Here to talk about the dentistry today and how we are planning to move into the future. So let's do it.

[00:01:06] Announcer: From the American Dental Association, this is Dental Sound Bites created for dentists by dentists.

Ready? Let's dive right into real talk on dentistry's daily wins and sticky situations.

[00:01:23] Wright: Well, hey hey everyone. Thank you so much to everyone who's been listening to the Dental Sound Bites Podcast. Whether you started in season one or you started in season two. If you are a new listener here on season six, thank you so much for being here. We have so much in store for you this season and beyond.

Ioannidou: Thank you. Thank you.

Wright: This is a big day for dental Sound Bites as we are heading into season six. I cannot believe that we are already on six seasons of this podcast. We are so excited to kick off the season by talking to not one but two of ADA's leaders about some really, really important issues, as Effie said, and topics that are facing dentistry and the whole medical community right now. Let's welcome doctors, Kessler and Rosato to Dental Sound Bites. Thank you so much for joining us.

[00:02:11] Kessler: Thank you for having me. One of my life goal bucket list items now can be checked off. Dental Sound Bites.

[00:02:19] Wright: Oh, goodness.

[00:02:19] Kessler: I know I was on it a little bit at SmileCon, but this is, this is really special and I love what you all do here.

And you know, you're disseminating a great message to the world around what the ADA is.

[00:02:34] Wright: Yeah.

[00:02:34] Rosato: It's awesome to be with you guys today. Thank you so much for having us.

[00:02:38] Ioannidou: So great having you here. Brett and Rich. Why don't you guys a little bit, speak about yourselves, introduce yourselves and so listeners, I mean everybody knows you, but we would like to know something we don't know.

[00:02:49] Kessler: I'll throw rich that bone.

[00:02:51] Rosato: All right. I'm Rich Rosato, I'm your president-elect. I'm a practicing oral maxillofacial surgeon in New Hampshire. My wife's a general dentist. Something you don't know about me. I love ice hockey. I spend my nights, you know, if I'm working, hockey's on. So, I played hockey. I can't remember when I started skating. So two years old, or at least the family history is so I absolutely love it.

[00:03:18] Ioannidou: Oh, that's great. Brett, why don't you introduce yourself more formally?

[00:03:22] Kessler: Oh, Dr. Brett Kessler. You know, I'm from, I live in Denver, Colorado, and I'm a general dentist. My wife is an orthodontist, and we met in dental school, got married our fourth year.

She moved us to Michigan, which then we had our first kid a few weeks later. We moved to Colorado in 1999. And, you all know, you know, I'm, you know, my stance on wellness and my advocacy around that. Many of you know I'm an endurance athlete. I’ve done some stupid and crazy races. But I moved to Colorado to play in the mountains.

And, but, what you don't know about me or may not know about me is I'm a music fanatic.

[00:04:07] Wright: that makes two of us.

[00:04:08] Kessler: I love, I love music. It's, I always have music going. You always see me in headphones. I have music going. I have a soundtrack of my life that is always going on in my head. And, it inspires me. And I always tell my kids, 'cause they love music too, that music is what emotions sound like for me. So, yeah.

[00:04:27] Ioannidou: Oh, that's so beautiful.

[00:04:28] Wright: That's really nice. Yeah.

[00:04:30] Kessler: So that's me.

[00:04:31] Ioannidou: Great. Thank you guys for this. Thank you for this introduction. Yeah. So you guys wrote a very, very interesting editorial in JADA and it was really interesting.

I really love these pieces and I read it very carefully. So, we felt that, it's the right moment for us to have you over, definitely to discuss about our profession. Maybe to discuss a little bit about the editorial too, and you give us your own insights.

[00:05:00] Kessler: The editorial that we published is an extension of the editorial that we published in January in [The] Washington Post.

And we published that the day before the inauguration of President Trump basically saying, Hey, we're the American Dental Association. This is who we are. This is what we stand for. And this is what we need to do to make America healthy again, especially from an oral health perspective.

And then we wanted to put it in our own JADA to expand on some of those topics. And I'm really proud of the article. And, you know, we're, you know, you mentioned, you know, there's never been a day where healthcare hasn't been a hot topic, but when in the history of America has dentistry risen to the level of the President of the United States?

We are in the news every single day. I think our views and our mentions and the periodicals that we've been mentioned, are quoted in, is in the billions right now. We are really driving things forward and it's an exciting time.

[00:06:08] Ioannidou: For sure.

[00:06:09] Rosato: I couldn't have said it better, Brett. That's, that's awesome. Just bringing oral health to the forefront.

There's so much that can divide us. There's so much we can get angry at right now. And Brett and I have shifted the narrative or attempting to say, look, if this is the landscape, where can we find opportunities for the profession? Where can we find opportunities to get patients care in this environment?

And then if we have the chance to slowly educate on the science as quick as we can so that the things we're upset about as dental professionals, maybe, fingers crossed, we can bring them around. And that, and that's what we're hoping for and that's what we talk about every day. I don't think there's a day that goes by that Brett and I aren't talking on the phone, strategizing for our members and for the profession.

[00:06:59] Wright: So good. Yeah. You know what else is really good? I love that you all are here together and that we get to have face time with you both. I'm not sure in my history of being involved that I've seen this much collaboration and so I'm super excited on like the collaboration and how we're teeing up each, you know, year of the presidency. So thank you all for that.

Ioannidou: Oh, that's so great.

Wright: It's also amazing that you are having face time with people, especially our ADA members.

So as we said in the introduction, there's a lot going on in dentistry and in the medical community right now. Can you all tell us, Brett and Rich, what topics you're asked about the most?

[00:07:34] Kessler: Yeah. So, you know, outside of the topics in the media: fluoride, CDC, dismantling NIH, all these things that are really scary to us, you know, we travel around the country and we visit the different state dental meetings. And we hear, you know, what are you doing to help, you know, with the insurance reform? What are you doing about the practice model shifts and some of the trends that are happening with practice models?

You know, how can, you know, how is the ADA helping us with wellness? And, you know, and we are working hard in all three of those areas and many other areas as well. But, but I think. The dental insurance reform is the most pressing topic. And then workforce. Absolutely. Workforce is a big deal.

[00:08:19] Wright: We would love to learn, like, let everybody hear what you're talking about when you're visiting with our members.

[00:08:23] Kessler: So I fully believe that our workforce issues or a direct result of the insurance low reimbursement and of the insurance industry. You know, 10 years ago, the reimbursement fees were a little more manageable. And I'd say 90-95% of our practicing dentists are providers for insurance. We all take it and we know we need to make major changes with it. But we did really well with it for most of our careers. I've been a dentist now for 30 years. And you know, we all did really well with it, but it's not working anymore because the reimbursements have not kept up with the cost of living.

And then as a result, we've not been able to afford our employees the career opportunities that we were able to give even 10 years ago. Now it's a job. Because, you know, and it's more of a commodity. And, you know, so we, I think, and we knew the hygiene shortage was coming and we've been working for the last 10 years to try and stop it.

But the bottom line, we've been training one hygienist per one dentist for a long time now. And in a general practice, the GP, you know, usually has two hygienists, two full hygiene schedules. And so we knew we were heading for this, but then COVID hit and, you know, took out a good percentage of the hygienists out of the game, and they're slowly coming back. But, it is in a different way.

And so that, so I think if we can fix the reimbursement models, I think we can really fix some of our workforce shortages too.

[00:09:58] Ioannidou: This is really a good point, and I think it connects well with, I assume with the rationale behind The Washington Post paper, and the JADA editorial, right?

So these are concerns of our members. And if they, the members are concerned, then this is reflection of society. So I think, you know, can you speak a little bit more like in addition to the workforce and the insurance, I know that you raised some other issues on the editorials, right?

[00:10:31] Kessler: Yeah. So, improving oral health literacy, well, has never been more important than right now. There's a political theme of choice. I want the choice to put fluoride in my water or to give it to my kids, and things like that, you know? And the bottom line is, you know, the lower income demographics are really going to be suffering because they don't have that choice.

And, so we have to raise the oral health literacy with our legislators, our state legislators, our national legislators. We have to raise our oral health literacy with our patients because we're being asked every day from our patients, Hey, I heard fluoride makes my IQ go down. I heard it causes Alzheimer's and cancer and all these crazy, you know, pseudoscience, influencer science, I guess I'll call it. So we have to really do our par. You know the fluoride going away is really concerning to us. And, but if you look at the long game, we're going to see a 25 to 30% increase in caries rates, especially in the low income kids.

And, you know, are they, is the government going to fund the way to fix that with a strong Medicaid program? And that's in jeopardy right now too. And so, there's never been a more important time to educate our patients on the importance of oral health and, you know, and the consequences of these actions, you know, are going to produce major problems.

And we can't ignore the consequences of these actions as they come 2, 3, 4 years from now. And, so we have to raise the literacy and do everything we can to arm our patients with good science so they can make the best choices.

[00:12:12] Wright: Thank you.

[00:12:13] Ioannidou: This is very well said. And you know, both of you, we, Rich and Brett, we had a meeting in New York during the American Association for the Dental, Oral and Craniofacial Research where we spoke about this, right?

We spoke about, and I know you were in the meeting, you saw the vibes there. And then the real need to keep up with the, you know, CDC. To keep up with funding HRSA. To keep up with the appropriate funds for NIH and IDCR, exactly what you just mentioned now.

So these are certainly priorities coming from many organizations, not only the ADA.

[00:12:56] Rosato: Yeah. Well, I'll jump in a little bit and maybe just take a quick step back. You know, I remember I was out to dinner once and somebody asked me, Rich, what is the first domino where things that Brett mentioned, whether it's workforce and insurance reform -- because only half our country is able to see a dentist -- Is thatsuccessful healthcare? Dental, the cost of dental education, and the quality of dental education right now? I would add that to the list and the effect that AI and technology will have on our profession going forward. So all of this is interconnected, right? When you start to think. What could be the first domino that leads to the correction, to dentistry coming into this century and providing the care, driving utilization, controlling the cost and being able to fund the research so we continue to be evidence-based that we don't have Medicaid cuts, as the way to reconciliation. For me, the first domino would be that the government recognizes what Brett mentioned in his editorial, that oral health is essential health. And we need our members, we need dentists around the country, not just to say that we're essential during COVID when we need PPP and PPE, that we're essential all the time.

And once they do that, that has to lead to the funding you're talking about Effie it has to provide funding for research.

[00:14:23] Ioannidou: Exactly.

[00:14:24] Rosato: It has to provide funding for schools that have gone away, where there's been a flip and now it's on the student's back to pay. And I do fear that as we do this, and we have many initiatives to drive people to dentistry, that dental school will become more elitist as we go on, even though that's not what we want. It'll be a profession for the elitist because of the educational cost going so high.

[00:14:50] Wright: While we're talking about our new dentist, is, are we finding that they are as concerned with this or even have a high level of awareness about the implications of all of these changes that you're finding in your visits?

[00:15:02] Kessler: I would say that, I wouldn't, that there's a level of, for lack of a better word, ignorance about what happens if CDC goes away. Okay. Yeah. And, because, you know, many of us are private practice dentists, and we're not in the public health world. And you know, public health accounts for 60% of our patient visits. And our public health dentists are the rock that is you know, providing nourishment to the soul of this country.

Okay. Providing dentistry to the soul of this country and, you know, and many younger dentists or the new dentists, they want to go into public health and give to their communities, especially as they're exiting dental school. But they don't have that choice anymore because of the low reimbursement rates they can't afford to make ends meet.

And so they're very aware of this and, I'm just seeing a perfect storm brewing that 2, 3, 4 years from now, we're gonna have some, some big things to, to fix. And, you know, and hopefully we as a profession will continue to step up. That's why we're driving so hard right now to double down on science and evidence-based, double down on our advocacy, for, you know, strengthening the Medicaid programs, finding access for all Americans who don't have access, strengthening the private practice demographic realm in our profession. And then, you know, what we're doing? How is it helping the world? What about global? The whole world looks to us for resources and guidance and we're the ADA! We're the biggest lever in the profession of dentistry.

And as my friend Jim Schultz always says, if we are to be thought leaders, we must provide thoughts. And that's where these editorials are coming from. We can drive the future in the best possible way, and we can only do that if we stick our neck out and say, what, you know, like I said, we are the ADA. This is who we are and this is what we stand for, and this is what we need to do to make America healthy again from an oral health perspective.

[00:17:11] Ioannidou: Yeah, you're absolutely right. And I would add that not only the early career dentist, or the new dentist, should be concerned, I would say that the pre-dental students should be concerned too because as, as the funding, the federal funding of dental schools, is limited, it gets limited and pushed away day by day, right? Those schools would need funds to run. And tuition, especially in the private sector, tuition will go high. I mean, already the dental students graduate with a tremendous debt. How more can we raise this debt? Right. And I mean, how can you start a career?

And, very well said earlier by both of you, the concerns in the workforce in addition to the insurance is the magnitude of the loans that people carry as they enter private practice. So there will be an effect on all this. And it's important, the impact that the A DA has, and the influence that the ADA has in the dental profession is tremendous.

And do you find that recently while all these things are happening, do you feel a shifting on this influence? How are you greeted in the, in your visits and how are members and fellow dentists reacting?

[00:18:38] Kessler: You know, in the past we've been very reactionary with our endeavors and, you know, and Dr. Rosato and myself are very forward thinking and, you know, and we talk about as we expand what we can do and what we can do to help in the delivery of primary care with screenings, A1C testing, genetic testings, inflammatory testings, the use of technology to accelerate and have better efficacy and better efficiency with our care, you know, I think the golden age of dentistry is right in front of us.

And when we talk about that, you know, I feel, you know, the energy in the room shifts to excitement and you know, start living in the possibilities. And instead of trying to preserve this cottage industry that has been amazing to us, but how can, we can enhance this cottage in cottage industry to expand our, our reach.

You know, and Dr. Rosato has an amazing project ahead that, I'll again pass the ball to my left over here and, Rich, talk about that because it's so amazing.

[00:19:49] Rosato: So my visits have echoed what Brett just said. I will tell you, I usually start with the trends, what we just talked about, and as expected, there's a, there's a negative vibe. You can see it. I'm looking out at the audience. I can see the concern on people's faces. And then what starts to happen is when you tell them that we're going to plan ahead, that we're going to be thought leaders, that we're going to use advocacy to begin to put steps in place to shape the future, the excitement starts to rise in the room.

People often come up afterwards and say thank you. Instead of being reactionary, we're going to be forward thinking. So, you know, Brett mentioned this Oral Health 2050. I am so committed to this project. We are going to look at the panels I talked about. So we're going to look at what will insurance look like? Not insurance reform. Let me word it differently. In 25 years, what will insurance look like in the dental healthcare sphere? What will providing dentistry look like? What, Effie, ArNelle, you brought up, how will it interconnect with the cost of becoming a dentist and becoming a dental professional, and a dental team member?

What will that look like? Will the team make up change if we are able to drive utilization from 49% to 70%? What will AI look like at the front desk, at the back, in our every day, right, with an AI personal assistant? Where you say, Hey, book me this flight to Chicago. Brett will say that into his phone and everything, all the confirmation numbers come up, but most importantly, in the clinic, right, in the treatment area, watching at AFI, right?

ADA's made a commitment to shaping the future. So through AFI, I watched a robot prep a tooth, scan a tooth, make a crown all in 15 to 20 minutes. I don't know how long that will take to come to clinical practice, but those are the things on the horizon and you know, wellness, not just wellness for ourselves as providers, but wellness for our patients to be a part of helping, as a healthcare industry, help out with the diagnosis and referral of the mental health crisis that's happening in our country. These things are all so important. Think about how quickly we went from the year 2000 to 2025.

[00:22:21] Wright: Yeah.

[00:22:22] Rosato: And what has happened. Some of the things we talked about tonight. Maybe I, I don't want to have 2020 hindsight, but maybe if we knew these things were coming, we could have put steps in place. We could have been proactive to take care of some of the things that are popping up. My hope is, Brett and I share this passion, that if we can begin to plan and look out 25 years and put things into place now, dentistry will remain one of the best professions that you could be a part of in serving people.

[00:22:54] Wright: So good. For sure. I want to remind our listeners, if you want to be part of our Dental Sound Bites community, please take a moment to subscribe wherever you listen and stay updated with every episode. We'll be right back.

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[00:24:05] Wright: Welcome back to Dental Sound Bites. We are joined by ADA President, Dr. Brett Kessler, and ADA President-elect, Dr. Richard Rosato, to talk about dentistry today and how we move into the future.

[00:24:18] Ioannidou: Let's do it.

[00:24:19] Wright: Can you talk about what does it look like to plan and step ahead? Like what are those things? Is it just having the conversations? Is it making sure that you are, you know, in meetings and having connections and relationships with the industries that are bringing this forward into our field?

[00:24:36] Kessler: Thank you for bringing that up because this is not just the ADA, this is the profession of dentistry. And so we've asked every audience that we've been in front of help us, you know, especially the specialty groups, the heritage groups, all, we need to play, we need to play a part in, you know, this preferred future and, you know, we have trends absolutely. And that's reading the past and the present. But we have to, you know, kind of put those trends aside and put our imagination mindset in place and, and start thinking about, you know, very creatively. What would, you know, if dentistry were the best it can possibly be in 25 years, what would that look like?

And so I'll share, you know, a creative way. AI right now, AI is being utilized pretty heavily in the reading of radiographs and so, but what if you can program AI to be the most amazing digital assistant that you could ever imagine. So as I'm walking from Op two to Op three, I've got a little earphone in my ear and as I'm walking in and it's telling me, Hey, you saw Mrs. Jones six months ago for a cleaning. At that time you did two fillings. One of the teeth had sensitivity. She came back twice for adjustments. We haven't seen her since. She's got three kids. They went to Disney. They were supposed to go to Disney, and they've got a dog named spot. That's all as I'm walking in to talk to the patient.

And those are the things that I would write in my patient chart. But I would have to run back to my office, you know, find, you know, funnel through the notes, come back, read it, and then act like I remembered all that and but the bottom line is. You know, it's going to be an accelerator of trust, and I think everybody agrees who's practicing dentistry, that the doctor patient relationship is our sacred cow.

And how can we use that to leverage that relationship, and improve, and accelerate the trust that we need between our patients and ourselves so that they do choose our finest care. And, so as I'm, you know, talking with my patient, the AI assistant is now taking notes okay. Of our conversation and, you know, and correlating those notes for me to review later.

And you know, what an accelerator of time that is. Utilization of efficiency. Okay. And efficacy because, you know, pertinent things are now being recorded that I don't have to think about. It's just happening. And so we can leverage technology to really improve our lives.

And it's happening right now. It's happening right now on these things, whether we like it or not, whether we know it or not. You know, I picked up my phone for those of you on the audio side. But you know, it's going to be part of our lives if it isn't already.

[00:27:30] Rosato: Yeah. And each one, each one of these panels will have, like Brett mentioned, experts in that field.

Not just, you know, ADA. So to Dr. Wright, to your point, that's really important that everybody in the, or in the oral health sphere, has a role, has a say in shaping the future.

[00:27:50] Ioannidou: With the central goal to put the dentistry back where it's, I like this, put the mouth back in the body. I love this.

This was so good. It was so good. Put the mouth back in the body. You know, imagine that, surprisingly, because it seems like it departed. So we have to remind people, you know, about the, this holistic view. I really like this. I really like the, you know, the bringing oral health to systemic health and bringing wellness and these coming, looking at the patient holistically.

I think this would be a turning point for our profession.

[00:28:31] Kessler: I think it's, like I said before, the the biggest opportunity, the golden era of dentistry is right in front of us. And it's going to be different, but it's going to be amazing.

[00:28:42] Wright: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:28:44] Ioannidou: And how much of this has to enter dental education, by the way. Because dental education is still designed in a very traditional model, you know?

[00:28:51] Kessler: Yeah. But, but you are in education, you are teaching that the mouth is connected to the body. It's when you graduate, is when the systems that pay for it disconnect it. And, and so and we're not going to change the current practicing dentist to look at this.

They may expand some of this because it's working still to an extent. It's not working as well as we like, and that's why we're pushing to make it better for those that are in practice now. But as we build this new generation of dentists to be, you know, open to the possibilities of what dentistry could be like.

Because look at, okay, 25 years from now, I've been practicing for 30 years. When I first started practicing, we had film X-rays. Okay. And, you know, we had that little film that we put in the mouth. And then I'd go for a seven-minute meditation in a dark, smelly room, okay. And, to develop that.

And when I went to Colorado and opened up my office, we were one of the first to have digital x-rays. Now, it was very expensive back then, but now it's like, how can you work without digital x-rays? Okay. Technology will drive efficiency, and it will drive efficacy.

[00:30:00] Ioannidou: A hundred percent.

[00:30:01] Kessler: Absolutely.

[00:30:02] Ioannidou: Is there anything that we haven't discussed about the editorial?

[00:30:05] Kessler: You know, the bottom line is we're in a very volatile political environment right now, and so we're trying to navigate our way around this volatility, as Dr. Rosato said, as Rich said, you know, where are the opportunities?

Okay, so right now, you know, we're fighting the removal of fluoride and we're fighting the dismantling of the CDC and basically public health infrastructure. Okay? But, you know, where can we align with the current administration, you know, and they're very anti-sugar. Dentists can get behind the anti-sugar movement really easy.

Okay? That's an easy conversation for a dentist to have with their patients, okay? And we're very against ultra processed foods and the damage it's doing to our bodies and forming chronic diseases that we could be the first people, first practitioners, healthcare practitioners, to spot these problems at the earliest stages and thereby help our patients live longer lives and live better lives.

And that's, you know, and so, so there are huge opportunities in this political volatility and we got to capitalize on them. So that's what the editorial is about.

[00:31:21] Ioannidou: Absolutely. And I think what the ADA has done with advocacy on the hill. And again, as the president of ADOCR, I was also there a few days after you, I think, Brett and Rich, at the same, very same week together with ADEA, the American Dental Education Association. And all of us, the three organizations, delivering the very same consistent message of maintaining focus on oral health, maintaining the funding for HRSA, CDC and IDCR, you know, deferring the interest rate for during residency.

So there were certain acts that we all, supported and we together, we discussed with representatives. What I found interesting, you know, in this conversation is that, talking to staffers and when you bring the importance of oral health, I didn't see anybody arguing this, everybody was very open and very positive and understood.

Everybody had to share a little experience of their childhood with a local dentist, right? So these are things that, we have in common. And these are things that we have to capitalize on. We, we didn't go there to antagonize anybody. We get, we went there to advocate for our profession and find commonalities with the people that we are engaging, right?

[00:32:50] Kessler: Yeah. And we're getting wins. You know, we have our champions in Congress, not enough of them, but we have them, and they are being outspoken and doubling down on the ADA as being the preeminent resource and you know, guarder of the science for the profession. And, you know, and we're getting some traction at the city level and the state level as well.

You know, we're winning in the fluoride battles in Nebraska. We just won New Hampshire. We won Miami Dade County, Florida. Their city council said, get it out of there. And the mayor said, no. ADA says this is good science. This is, we cannot fall prey to the politics here. So we are winning.

We had a candidate for one of the highest ranking, you know, public health positions in this country call us today to ask us our advice on fluoride. Okay. And, we're, you know, we are we making our way into influence and we're not going to win every battle, but we're going to be there.

Yeah. And constantly be there. Promoting our, one of two of our core values, science and evidence-based. I'm proud of that fact.

[00:34:03] Wright: Oh, so good.

[00:34:04] Ioannidou: Yeah. That's so, so well said. So well said.

[00:34:08] Wright: Now I know we have to wrap but I do have two additional questions. They're very quick. What would you say to our members about how they can also be involved?

Like what should they be on the lookout for? How can we follow along? How can we be there? And I'm speaking in particular about an upcoming event in Chicago in June. So if you can talk about that. I would love for you to just talk to our members, non-members, anybody who wants to be involved because now is the time to be involved if you haven't been already.

[00:34:41] Kessler: We are having our Second Annual Oral Systemic Summit at our new headquarters in Chicago. And some of the preeminent leaders in medicine and dentistry will talk about, you know, how we are playing together in the sandbox, how we are leveraging each other's expertise in the best interest of our patients.

We had it last year and it was an amazing event, and this year we're going to grow it even bigger. And from what I understand there, you know, we obviously, we want everyone to come to that. It's June 13th and 14th or 14th and 15th. I, I forgot somewhere around there. We'll, we'll post it.

[00:35:18] Wright: Yes, it'll be in the show notes.

[00:35:19] Kessler: You know, to be part of that conversation is something that you don't want to miss. And it's the first of many.

[00:35:27] Announcer: On the next Dental Sound Bites.

[00:35:29] Ioannidou: Fluoridation is all over the news these days.

[00:35:33] Wright: We are diving into a conversation about recent developments, what it means for public health and what's being done to support our dental communities.

I have one final question. I know we have to wrap, but I would like for you to share with our listeners and our community, how can they follow along and keep up with all of the things that's happening. So the, this is moving really fast but we are ahead of the game and you all are, you know, leading the pack.

So tell them what they could do to keep up with all the things that are moving so fast.

[00:36:07] Rosato: Thank you for that. One of the first things you'll find is that Brett and I are incredibly committed to getting the message out. So you're going to see lots of videos with us. I mean, we were at the new building this past Monday, checking out the new green room, and we made a video.

You can go to ada.org and look all through there. You can find us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, we are trying to be on every platform, reach every member. Motivate members and patients alike. So please look for us, search us and hear our message.

[00:36:43] Kessler: And find ways to get involved. Your voice matters and, and it, it really matters in real life.

Show up. You know, we hear the noise on Facebook and we hear, you know, a lot of noise, a lot of chatter. But you know, where the rubber hits the road is at the local component. And if you're looking to get involved, you know, just call your local component and ask how you can get involved.

And if they don't have any place for you, call the state or call Rich, his number is, no, I'm just kidding. And he'll get you involved. But, honestly, there's never been a more important time in our history for us to be unified in voice. And we may not all agree on everything. But there's so much that we do agree on, and let's not let those things that we don't agree on, you know, hold us back. We need to be unified in voice if we are to, to really make the impact that we know, we can.

[00:37:41] Wright: Thank you so much.

[00:37:43] Rosato: Yeah, well said, well said. I would say that over the last 25 years, I think a lot of people feel that dentistry's been left behind a little bit on some of the issues we talked about tonight.

Join Brett and working hard, relentless in being creative to make dentistry relevant and really a part of health in this country. Please join us.

[00:38:06] Wright: Wow. Well, thank you so much for being on season six. Thank you so much for all of the information that you all have shared. I was over here taking notes, a lot and taking things that I can take back to my local component and to my colleagues. So I appreciate you. I know Effie does too.

[00:38:24] Ioannidou: I mean it's like one of my favorites, one of my favorite episodes. I love that.

[00:38:31] Wright: So can you please tell our listeners where they can follow you and learn more about your work? Doctors Kessler and Rosato?

[00:38:38] Kessler: Sure you can follow me on all the social media platforms, on Facebook. I'm Brett Kessler, DDS on LinkedIn. The same thing on Instagram. I am B-I-K-O-D-D-S and that's a subject for another time. And I also have a website, uh, www.bikodds.com.

[00:38:59] Rosato: Oh, thank you.

[00:39:00] Rosato: Yeah. And, and, and for me, I'm on all the platforms.

Please go to Facebook, um, Google, rich Rosato, President-Elect. Um, you could go on my private page. You can go to the public, um, page at Doc Rosato Instagram and, um, and Dr. Richard Rosato LinkedIn. And you will, uh, I, I look forward to connecting with you.

[00:39:21] Kessler: You can also catch us both by our email, so, you know, kesslerb@aada.org and

[00:39:28] Rosato: Rosato R or rosator@ada.org.

[00:39:34] Kessler: Rosator.

[00:39:36] Wright: I love it Rosator. We will have all the resources and information mentioned in this episode linked for you in the show notes on ada.org/podcast.

[00:39:48] Ioannidou: For sure.

[00:39:49] Wright: Oh, you all were phenomenal to chat with today. Thank you so much for being here once again. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And I hope to see you soon in person.

[00:39:57] Kessler: Likewise. Thank you, Effie. Thank you. ArNelle.

[00:39:59] Rosato: Yeah, thank you.

[00:40:00] Wright: And if you like this episode, please, please share it with a friend. Then we want to make sure that you are subscribed wherever you're listening so that you can get the latest episodes. You can also rate it, you can write a review and follow us on social media.

[00:40:15] Kessler: Take care, everybody.

[00:40:17] Wright: Bye.

[00:40:18] Announcer: Thank you for joining us. Dental Sound Bites is an American Dental Association podcast. You can also find this show resources and more on the ADA member app and online at ada.org/podcast.