The President's Letter

I went to my first PCSP meeting in June, 1989 at the invitation of then president Ward Noble. It took place at the Silverado Country Club and Resort in the Napa Valley. At the time I knew nothing about this organization so I decided to drive up from San Francisco each morning to go only to the scientific session. I entered the session area to an environment of members and guest renewing their friendships and thought, wow; these people really know and like each other very much. I was amazed at the conviviality that was palpable in that room. Then I saw the first presentation and the rest is history.

I’m such a crazed urbanist that if I were in the market for a vacation home, I would pick Portland. It’s like a mini San Francisco with its streetcars, Chinatown and restored industrial districts. The scale and ambiance of this city is near perfect. Perfect like our 71st PCSP meeting at the Portland Hilton. We need to first thank Baron Barnett for his sublime leadership in creating a wonderful social and educational experience. His Scientific Program Chair Rodger Lawton and his members Glen Johnson, John Sorenson and Jim Weaver gave us a good taste of the “… future course of dentistry.” Local Arrangements Chair Ted Depew and his members Dave Carsten, Larry Over, Mike Racich and David Wands conspired to put us all in a good mood. I especially enjoyed the street card ride to the president's reception. Streetcars are being put back into cities like London, Paris, Portland and San Francisco. Should lab techs be put back into dental schools as teachers? More on this later.

Speaking of Ted Depew, he has stepped down as Chair of the Undergraduate Prosthodontic Awards Ad Hoc Committee and Sheila Brear is the new Chair. Chris Travis has assumed the responsibility of Secretary –Treasurer.

Reviewing the Portland meeting would not be complete without mentioning Arun Sharma. Although his title was Secretary- Treasurer he really functioned like an executive director. He did everything asked of him and more. He will be stepping aside to become an executive councilor and our president in 2010. The executive council’s loss is my gain however because he’s my Local Arrangements Chair for our 2007 meeting in San Francisco. And I can say he’s a joy to work with.

As you all know, dental laboratory technicians are now officially invited to become Affiliate Members of the PCSP. They have to jump through all the same hoops that we do but will not have the option to become officers or have voting rights. I feel this was long overdue and a step in the right direction. In fact I personally consider it to be one of two steps. The second step being one in which they are allowed to become Active Members at some time in the future when the membership reconsiders this issue (if the members vote this in). Let’s all talk to the laboratory technicians that we work with and invite them to the meeting in San Francisco. Then help them find a subject for that “publishable paper” and a 20 minute presentation. Let’s re-establish the conjoint educational process and build a lasting mutually beneficial relationship and camaraderie. The meeting in San Francisco in 2007 will have a theme that emphasizes dentist-technician relationships. The title is “Partners in excellence: merging dentistry and dental technology.”

Events are moving very quickly in the world today and with considerable concern. The outsourcing of dental laboratory production to off shore sources is creating interesting problems. Do we tell our patients where the crowns were fabricated? Do we even know? Does the lab have to tell us? According to Federal Law we have to be told. Accredited dental technology schools are closing. Dentists are graduating that have essentially never completed any laboratory work. Will these “clinicians” know the difference between an excellent, average or terrible fixed or removable prosthesis? The list goes on and on and I would like to see us create a forum for the thoughts we all have on this subject. I want to throw out some of my thoughts and those of Burney Croll, a prosthodontist in New York, to get the ideas started. This following is a small part of the results of a meeting held in Chicago, February 2005 and 2006, called the “Lab Summit”. It was started by Gordon Christensen and Bill Yancey from UCLA as a forum for ideas on dealing with the problems in the dental laboratory industry. The PCSP is not officially associated with them but I thought it would be material that could help us start our own forum on our web site. Please read the attachments located under Dental Technology Forum on the web site and email us your ideas, thoughts and criticisms. Go to our web site at pcsp.org and familiarize yourself with all aspects of it. Next spring pull up the registration form and register online. It’s fast and easy and it will ultimately save our organization money. We will require online registration in 2007.

The first presentations I attended at the 1988 meeting were excellent but what really got to me was how well put together they all were. I was sold on the PCSP then and I am even more so today. I’m honored to be your new president and I know this will be an educational and fun year because I’m following the footsteps of some really great teachers and friends.

Bruce Marcucci, DDS

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