ADA Council Tasked With Fostering Prioritization Of Safety In Dentistry: WebDentistry: Home of SmileFinder!
Summary
Dr. Meeske, as vice chair of the American Dental Association (ADA) Council on Advocacy for Access and Prevention (CAAP), will have a hand in helping member dentists enhance the culture of safety in a new initiative that will bring the issue into the limelight. One of the organizers of the symposium was Dr. Paul Casamassimo, CAAP member, chief policy officer of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and a past AAPD president. The symposium brought to light for many in the audience a false sense of comfort and personal naiveté about the safety of care, as well as assumptions made about the institutions and organizations many believed were watching out for patients and the profession. There was probably a lot of thoughtfulness on the trip home.” Dr. Casamassimo agreed with Dr. Meeske that the dental profession could learn things from the medical community, including a confidential and anonymous registry meant not to be punitive, but educational for others to avoid repeating preventable harms and risks. For example, we do a very good job with radiation hygiene and infection control, but we don’t know the effects of dozens of exposures to strong sterilization agents for years on our staff.” Dr. Charles Czerepak, an Illinois-based pediatric dentist, is an attending at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Childrens Hospital of Chicago and a member of CAAP’s Medicaid Provider Advisory Committee.