Charleston welcomed 180 students from ASDA’s District 4 (Dental College of Georgia, East Carolina University, Meharry Medical College, Medical University of South Carolina, University of North Carolina, University of Tennessee, and Virginia Commonwealth University) to this year’s District 4 Annual Meeting, January 14-16. It was particularly exciting that almost 25% of these attendees were pre-dental students from colleges within this region. A sunny, 70-degree weekend in January helped us welcome everyone to our city of southern hospitality!
We started the conference strong with an ADA Success Seminar by Dr. Alex Barton and concluded the conference strong with a talk from Dr. Kelly from VCU about, “Becoming a Big Deal Dentist.” Highlights of the conference included:
A discussion on corporate dentistry from past AGD President, Dr. Carter Brown
A Q&A panel on organized dentistry with representatives from the GDA, SCDA, and NCDA
A discussion on office design from Patterson Dental
Malpractice discussions from Professional Protector Plan, MedPro, and a CE course on, “Risk Assessment in the Dental Office”
“The Heartland Dental Experience” from Dr. Leo Wheat
A discussion on oral hygiene products from Lenny Barnette with Oral B
Pre-dental focused breakout discussions throughout the weekend for the pre-dental students
Current and past trustees, Shaun O’Neil and Jeremy Jordan discussed licensure exams, GPRs, AEGDs, and specialties. These topics are particularly applicable and concerning to dental students.
MUSC came home with another great set of awards at the second annual Stainless Steel Crown Awards – Excellence in Advocacy and Excellence in Fundraising. There were only 5 chapter-based awards given, and MUSC took home two!
The weekend concluded Sunday evening with a low country boil overlooking the Cooper River Bridge, hosted by Henry Shein. A special thank you to MUSC, Sallie Hutton Sistare, Dr. Vuthiganon, and Dr. Brown for dedicating your time to this conference!