Dr. Alan Farber, a New York Periodontist and Founder of iADS (International Association of Dental Specialists), discusses how iADS has enabled oral specialists globally to come together under one platform and move the industry forward. iADS provides an online community to support dental specialists and help them thrive, especially right now with the significant impact of COVID-19 on patient care. iADS has daily 'Coffee Hour' virtual meetings to discuss ideas, strategy, and patient outreach. iADS is an interdisciplinary community and is constantly analyzing how best to move the dental field forward, particularly with the current landscape in today's uncertain world. Dr. Farber is a big believer in StellaLife's natural products and feels it is important now more than ever to educate the masses about the importance of good oral hygiene and periodontal maintenance in an effort to help aid the body in fighting off disease.
Video transcription:
Liz Lundry, RDH - “Hi, thank you for joining the StellaLife Innovators series. I'm Liz Lundry, a hygienist, and the clinical education manager for StellaLife. Today we're going to be featuring Dr. Alan Farber, who is not only a leader, an educator, but continues to get dentists together. In 2002, he started the Perio Implant Message Board that grew to over 400 specialists. This led to the founding of the iADS, the International Association of Dental Specialists, which was launched this past November. Dr. Farber continues to practice periodontics and is the director of two spear study clubs, a dental hygiene study club, and a Seattle study club, the Long Island Dental Forum. He is a clinical assistant professor at Stony Brook School of Dentistry, and in 2019 became a certified laser instructor for the Institute of Advanced Laser Dentistry. He's a past President of Suffolk County Dental Society and the Northeastern Society of Periodontists. He's a member of numerous associations and a fellow of the Pierre Fauchard Academy. I would like to welcome Dr. Alan Farber.”
Dr. Alan Farber - “Thank you, Liz, and thanks for inviting me to this program. I really appreciate what StellaLife is doing and I want to spend a little time talking about iADS, The International Association of Dental Specialists. It all started back in 2002, when I had a lot of guest speakers, different specialists from across the country, actually from across the world, visiting Long Island and presenting to my study club and I said, "Wouldn't it be great if we had an open platform where people can post their daily questions, patient cases, and get input not only from local people but specialists across the country?", and it grew. In 18 years, it grew to over 400 members, and counting back, we had over 28,000 posts in that time and I realized that there was not an organization anywhere in the United States and actually not anywhere in the world where all specialists are together in one roof, under one roof, in one organization. There are great organizations for general dentists, and there are organizations for dental implants which put some specials together, but not one where we can be totally interdisciplinary and provide this kind of service. So we launched in November, the iADS, International Association of Dental Specialists, and we have an online community to support dental specialists and help them survive, especially now with Covid to help them survive. And so what we started doing, every day at 12:00 New York Time, is having a we call it coffee hour, and we get together, it's kind of like the screen looks like The Brady Bunch and we will see one another and say hello to one another in virtual meeting and we're helping each other get through this by sharing ideas and thoughts. It started with first patient cases and questions about day to day routine, HR issues, staff issues and supporting one another and also helping hygienists and giving them information. But now we've gone into, "What do we do for patients and our staff?" So, today, I'm busier than ever, and that's how I'm coping with it. I get up every morning at 06:00 a.m., I read my emails, I do my exercise in the morning, and now I'm having weekly staff, virtual staff meetings and reaching out to our patients and making sure they're okay and we also have Webinars on our site. iADS is an interdisciplinary organization. Our goal is to help not only our members, but also we plan on reaching out to our general dentist colleagues or restorative colleagues and helping them to be better general dentists. There's a lot of courses out there where dentists can take, a general dentist can take, to learn about specialists or try to become a specialist, but anybody, not anybody but whoever wants to become a specialist, go ahead and do a residency like myself. They can do a periodontal residency for three years or oral surgery or any other residency and become a specialist. But if they want to be an excellent general dentist, the best way for them to do that is to want to work together with specialists, and ultimately the patient wins. And so our program and our organization will be supporting general dentists who want to learn and who want to be better general dentists. Together as a community, iADS, we're really looking and dealing now with COVID. We're really evaluating, how do we move forward now? What do we do with air filtration? Do we need air evacuation? What's with PPE? What changes do we have to make? Of course, we're all waiting to hear what the ADA and CDC guidelines will be. But in the meanwhile, we all as a community are getting together and sharing ideas. From when a patient walks into our practice today, what's going to change? Is there going to be a waiting room? Or will patients be waiting in their cars and then we text them to come in and check their temperature, wipe their hands with disinfectant? What kind of math wash will they rent it for and how long? As a matter of fact, today at 04:00 p.m. We're having a little wine and cheese virtual wine and cheese party for all iADS members to get together and brainstorm and share ideas of how we can change our practices. What do we need to do? I'd like to talk a little bit about periodontal treatment and immune system and for my whole career, going back when I first started practicing 32 years ago, patients would come in, patients that I treated periodontal disease at that time was conventional osseous regenerative therapy and today we're doing more and more laser treatment. Patients will come and say, "Dr. Farber, since I had my treatment, I just feel healthier. My whole body feels healthy," and I would say, "Well, it's all connected, of course. There's no valve, there's no tourniquet here in the neck that stops the blood flow from the mouth with bacteria and disease to get into the rest of the body. And now more than ever, we need to inform our patients and why periodontal treatment is so important. And so by keeping our immune system working on all cylinders, we're going to help fight off other diseases and that's where StellaLife comes in and that's why I'm a big believer in their products and more natural healing. Our country uses way too many antibiotics, as we all know. So, if we can use products that are more natural and help people have a healthier life, I'm in support of that. Pulling it all together, this organization that I've launched is to help dentistry move forward, help more than ever, specialist. And there's been a big changes in our country, and we're all seeing that. There's more dental service organizations, more corporate involvement in dentistry, and they do serve their purpose, but now, more than ever, we need to help not dilute what a specialist does. Together, we can accomplish so much more. Together, will help each other, and dentistry will move forward in the right direction, and patients ultimately will benefit. Thanks again for having me here on your program.”
Liz Lundry, RDH - “Thank you, Dr. Farber, and thank you everybody for spending part of your day with us. Please join us next week on a Friday at 03:00 Eastern 12:00 Pacific, where we're going to have our guest, Michelle Lee, who is the executive director of the Organization for Safety, Asepsis and Prevention. So she's going to be giving us some insight on how we can navigate the uncharted waters of COVID-19 as we're returning to our offices. So have a wonderful week. Stay healthy, stay safe and join us then. Thank you so much.”