Page 5 - GP Fall 2020

From the National Trustee

Ira Levine, DDS, MAGD places, especially the metropolitan area. Errors were made in the
absence of science. The country found itself with a major short-
“It was the best of times, it was the worst age of supplies, largely due to a lack of governmental stockpiling.
of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the 75% of the PPE that we need is manufactured in China and has
age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, been practically unattainable.
it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the sea-
son of light, it was the season of darkness, it Hopefully, you have found the information published by the AGD
was the spring of hope, it was the winter of useful. It has been our philosophy that we would rather be a little
despair.” – Charles Dickens slower distributing information than giving false information. I
don’t know about you, but the amount of messaging from various
In the age of Covid-19, we have found much sources has been somewhat overwhelming.
to be happy about and much to be sad about. Nobody could have
predicted how all of us would be affected. I hope this editori- This has been a time for dentistry to be advocates for ourselves.
al finds you and your family happy and healthy. My grandfather It is remarkable that we have been considered essential, but been
always said, as long as you have health, family, and friends you treated as if we were the forgotten step child. We have been mar-
don’t really need anything else. ginalized by the medical community. A community that has little
idea of what we do and our role in healthcare. I think that dentistry
Well, it would be nice to be able to make a living and do what we has learned a lot from this. We will strive to make sure that we
love. New York has had a harder burden to bear than most other continued on page 14
From the Regional Director

Seung-Hee Rhee, DDS, MAGD increased daily. But you know what? I am a New Yorker. We are
a resilient lot – we went through and survived 9/11, Hurricane
Spanish Flu, Netflix, and Hope Sandy, NYC black-out of 2003 to name a few. Even if I got the
Corona virus, I wasn’t going down without a fight. So, to quote a
Like many New Yorkers, the Covid-19 line from my favorite movie Shawshank Redemption, “Get busy
pandemic caught me completely off guard. living or get busy dying”.
Never would I have predicted I would
close my office for three months and phys- So I got busy living. I did Zoom lectures for my NYU Dental stu-
ically distance myself from everyone. Ini- dents, attended countless webinars and Zoom meetings for AGD
tially, I welcomed the time off and thought and NYSAGD, clapped for all the health care and essential work-
it would be a nice two-week break from my busy life. But weeks ers every night at 7:00pm, did teledentistry to help my patients
turned to months. Six feet apart, Zoom conferencing, wearing remotely the best I could, learned to cook a few recipes, kept in
masks and gloves everywhere, washing my hands religiously, touch with my patients young and old, kept in touch with my fam-
and anxiously watching the growing number of Covid-19 cases ily and friends via every method known to mankind, and I grieved
became the daily norm. for my dear friend Dr. Tom Wong, my dear dental school buddy
and an amazing friend these past 28 years, who passed away sud-
It would have been so easy to fall into despair, being trapped denly from heart attack on April 7, 2020. He just turned 54.
in my small apartment, and become depressed as the death toll continued on page 14

From the Executive Director

Paula Bostick, Executive Director Our goals are simply that we intend to work closely with the na-
tional AGD to help address the issues that have affected us during
2020, The Year of Change this economy. We all have experienced change that has modified
the way we operated in the past. I am confident that we can re-
Who would have thought when we counted main the organization that puts the needs of our members at the
down into the new decade that within less than forefront and continues to provide quality education to our mem-
90 days our world be would be turned upside bership with the use of online learning, along with benefits that are
down? Believe me, I will forever and a day useful to your daily practice of dentistry and advocate on critical
remember 2020. issues on behalf of the profession.

With the current “new way of life”, the New The pandemic of 2020 has changed dentistry, but our organization
York AGD will be steadfast in providing ser- is quickly adapting to these changes. Gathering bans and social
vice and benefits to our members. We prom- distancing will not get in the way. We will keep our membership
ise to continue the same level of service that our members have re- moving forward with innovative ways to stay relevant.
ceived throughout the years and will improve on areas that would
allow us to have more interaction with the membership despite All For The Good of Dentistry!
social distancing rules.
www.nysagd.org l Fall 2020 l GP 5