Sorry, there I go again! Back to the message …

I think one of the reasons I have been singing a lot this past year as President is that being a part of this organization has that effect on me! As I mentioned in my live address, several years ago, I was inspired by an AAE Presidential Address given by Dr. Louis Rossman, one of my friends and life mentors. In his address, Dr. Rossman mentioned that his mother was an accomplished pianist, and he grew up listening to music. He then described the AAE as being like a symphony orchestra. Forgive the pun, but this “struck a chord” with me. My parents instilled the love of music in my siblings and me from a young age, and we were encouraged to join music groups. So it was only fitting that my Presidency’s Annual Meeting was one that kept everyone singing.

I started my presidential year talking about the many “teams” I’ve been on in my life. Growing up in a large family, I was always very aware that having lots of people around me at all times helped shape me for the better, and I strongly feel that you can accomplish more as a team than as an individual. I also grew up in a family that enjoyed listening to and playing music. I recalled that impactful message given by Dr. Rossman. His message reminded me of the creative, talented, and symphony-like team of we have in the AAE.

The Musicians

At times last year, I had the privilege of being the vocalist, or frontman, and I’ve used my voice to sing the praises of endodontists and the AAE on many a media stage. My “roadies” on the AAE marketing team, Kim Fitzsimmons, Elisabeth Lisican, and Michael Dobrow, did an amazing job setting up the stage for me. I’m proud to have completed two Satellite Media Tours – composed of several interviews each. But it’s not because I got to be on TV; it’s because I helped put us – endodontists – in the limelight. Those interviews, and others, have generated hundreds of millions of audience impressions. Many more people now can pronounce the word “endodontist” and know who we are and the amazing care we provide.

All these multitudes of successes stem from the effectiveness of our multi-year public relations campaign: Worth Saving. At the AAE Board’s directive, we implemented a multi-year public awareness campaign in early 2019 with the goal that:

“The public will value saving their natural teeth and seek endodontists as the first choice for their care. They will understand what an endodontist does and how they are different from general dentistry providers.”

“Worth Saving” is meant to bring to life that, like your natural teeth, there are things, people and places that are worth revering.

More than three years into the campaign … I’m thrilled to say we have come a long way. Hundreds of millions of people have seen our materials. Hundreds of thousands more have used the FindMyEndodontst.com search tool. And still more see the AAE when they search online for endodontic keywords. Each year, our number of media interviews has quickly risen.

AAE’s Advocacy in general amplifies the voice of endodontists, their patients and helps ensure endodontists have a seat at the table and are active in policy, education and more discussions and meetings!

The Compositions

The AAE’s clinical resources are among our most popular member benefits. During this membership year, the AAE released a new position statement on Vital Pulp Therapy.

The Journal of Endodontics CiteScore rose from 7.1 to 7.8 in 2021, ranking AAE’s Official Journal 6 out of 109 in Dentistry. The latest Impact Factor comes in at a very impressive 4.422! In recent years, the JOE underwent a redesign, and a digital strategy is currently under development to help it appeal to a younger endodontic audience.

Our Strategic Plan is Our Sheet Music

As we know, our oral health is connected to our overall health. So in that sense, as endodontists we all are tuners of the great human body instrument — though we focus on some very small parts.

And in turn, your Association is here to keep you in tune! Our natural teeth are Worth Saving, and this specialty is worth singing about. If saving teeth is our tune, then all of you are the music makers who carry it through time, onward to a bright future. And our new Strategic Plan is like the sheet music blueprinting our way there.

Our strategic planning process started months ago with an environmental scan, and included surveys and discussions with AAE leadership and our corporate partners. Our Board members and staff were asked to identify key drivers of changes – conditions or dynamics that will make our relevant tomorrow very different from today.

With this background, the Board and staff spent hours creating goals and desired outcomes, leading to specific strategies for their achievement. I was impressed by the creativity, commitment, and collegiality of the group as we tackled challenging questions. Our conversations were informed and enhanced by a diversity of opinions and experiences. Allow me to reiterate our plan:

The public will value saving their natural teeth and seek endodontists – the specialists in saving teeth – for their care. We’ve kept to the same language from our previous strategic plan for Goal 1, because its momentum has been so strong. Worth Saving, rooted in research. This evidence-based marketing, as we like to call it, is not unlike evidence-based endodontics. Our expert marketing team has done the research and they’ve solidified their target audience based on DATA -- and not mere buzzwords or anecdotes.

And so here we are now, building on the momentum of a very successful public presence.

Strategic Goal # 2 declares that the dental profession will value endodontists as partners with advanced expertise in restoring oral health. The core outcome of this goal is to increase awareness of, and adherence to, the highest standard of professional practice in Endodontics. We’ll do that with Education, Practice, and Clinical Expertise. We will focus our efforts on educating predoctoral students on case difficulty assessment, treatment planning, and standard of practice. We’ll advocate to insurance, governmental, policy making and regulatory bodies. We’ll develop formal clinical documentation, resources and assessment tools. We’ll also increase awareness of endodontics’ relevance to systemic health.

Strategic Goal 3 follows that the AAE will be recognized for providing an environment that is welcoming and supports the diversity of its members as leaders for the global advancement of endodontics. This is the most introspective we’ve been towards understanding our members.

We’re setting out to better serve you with meetings and education. We’re cultivating leadership and programming that is reflective of the membership at large and we’re ensuring the engagement of all members. We’ll also provide members with resources for critically assessing emerging technologies.

We know the future lies with younger endodontists, especially, and we want to ensure they are well aware of the path to AAE leadership. So, next generation of endodontists: think about the part you play in our big endo band. Think about how you fit into this symphony of endodontics. Think about your theme song.

One thing is certain: we are Endo Strong, and the future is bright!

Boom de Yada, Boom de Yada …