It’s Membership Renewal time but NO increase to your ADAWA branch fee!

The ADAWA Council recognises the challenging economic conditions ahead for our members and has agreed there will be no increase to the ADAWA branch membership fee for 2023/24.

DPL has similarly agreed not to increase their fees for 2023/24, however there will be a small increase to the ADA Federal fee, and MDA indemnity premiums will increase according to your category.

Trevor Lovelle ADAWA CEO

My ADAWA benefits

Are you aware of the many benefits that come with your ADAWA membership? Here, we feature some of the valuable resources and perks available to our members.

My Source Of Information

We keep our members up to date with information, support and advice. These include:

Emails :

Our fortnightly emails keep you in the loop with important updates, as well as news, events and CPD events.

Western Articulator

The Western Articulator is a high-quality magazine (available in hard copy or digitally), produced exclusively for our members. Here you will find inspiring stories about your peers, CPD information and news. Contributions and editorial ideas from our members are always welcome. As an ADAWA member, you can also list Professional Notices in the magazine free of charge (for three editions). To discuss editorial, clinical articles or Professional Notices, email media@adawa.com.au

Social platforms

Online communities

Our supportive Facebook groups are also available for you to ask questions or network within our private online community. ADAWA members can join our exclusive ADAWA Members Facebook group. Or our ADAWA Partners in Practice group is open to all members of the dental community, including practice staff.

In both the ADAWA Members and ADAWA Partners in Practice groups, members can advertise job opportunities on ‘Job-Day Mondays’. Members can also advertise job opportunities on our website free of charge. adawa.com.au/membership/classifieds

As an ADA member, you also have access to Peer. ada.org.au/Peer

Accreditation support

If you are looking to get your practice accredited, Andrea Andrys at ADA House can offer guidance and support. Contact Andrea andreaa@adawa.com.au

HR advice

Need HR advice? You can access information via ADA’s HR Advisory Service. Call 1300 232 462.

Pharma Advice

Members can access advice regarding prescription, over the counter and nutritional supplements via this service. ada.org.au/pharmaadvice

WA Dental CPD :

The WA Dental CPD program is world-class, with highly respected speakers offering a range of lectures, hands-on, and dinner courses. To find out about upcoming courses, visit adawa.com.au/cpd

New Practitioner Program

This program is specifically for dentists who have graduated within the last five years or dentists who have passed their ADC exam in the last five years, to learn and network in a supportive setting with their peers. The program culminates with the popular all-day education event, the Young Dentists' Conference.

MY DISCOUNTS An added perk is the many discounts you are entitled to as a valued ADAWA member.

Lifestyle Benefits

As an ADAWA member, you can access great discounts with ADA Lifestyle Benefits. Here you can shop by brand (including Apple, Garmin, Samsung, endota spa, Lexus) or save money on gift cards, cars, dining out, fitness, electronics and more. ada.rewards-plus.com.au

Partner benefits

ADAWA also work with a number of partners for additional benefits for our members. These include Bunnings Trade, Dental Stock Photos, AMA Finance, WA Energy, Invedent, ONDA and VPG Property.

Health cover

ADAWA members are entitled to a 12% discount on health cover each year from HIF, when premiums are paid by direct debit. hif.com.au/adawa

Dental Essentials

If an ADAWA member has MDA/DPL through ADAWA, they can activate free Public Liability through Dental Essentials. Call Dental Essentials on (08) 9382 5614 – and let them know you are an ADAWA member. Dental Essentials will contact ADAWA to confirm you are a financial member, before setting up free Public Liability and sending you a Certificate of Insurance.

MY COMMUNITY Our members are the heart of our association, bringing strength and belonging to ADAWA. There are many ways to engage with the ADAWA community.

General meetings

Our general meetings allow our members to keep up-to-date on what is happening behind the scenes at ADAWA. These highly social events start with an ‘Eat and Meet’ to allow members to network with their peers and after the formalities of the general meeting, they can learn from a guest speaker. adawa.com.au/membership/rsvp

Volunteerism opportunities

There are many ways ADAWA members can give back to the community;

• ADHF programs These programs include: Rebuilding Smiles (supporting people who have experienced domestic violence, referred by domestic violence support agencies) Adopt a Patient (matching dentists with patients in need of complex dental treatment) and Dental Rescue Days (allowing a practice to allocate one chair, a half day or a full day to treat referred patients). For details on ADHF programs, contact Andrea Paterson, adminwa@adhf.org.au

• Dental volunteerism programs No matter how much time you have spare to give, there is a volunteerism option to suit! Go to adawa.com.au/our-association/volunteerism to find out about options.

Or for information about volunteering with Healing Smiles (treating female domestic violence survivors) email healingsmileswa@gmail.com

MY FUTURE ADAWA supports dental students to give them a smooth transition into practice. This includes:

ADAWA awards :

ADAWA is proud to sponsor leadership and academic excellence awards for dental students at UWA.

Graduate Guide

A compilation of a Graduate Guide for final year students introduces the newest dentists to the profession. This is also a valuable resource for practices looking to hire new graduates.

Yearbook

ADAWA produces a keepsake yearbook for graduating students.

Welcome to the Profession

ADAWA hosts a dinner to welcome newly graduated dentists into the profession and into the association.

MY VOICE

Whether it is meeting with the Minister for Health and Mental Health, teaming with affiliated organisations such as the Cancer Council of WA, or our Oral Health and Education Committee spreading the oral health message to the public, ADAWA is active in advocacy and ensuring the voice of each member is heard.

50-year reflections

Dr Michael Poli says he and brother (and fellow dentist) Anthony initially wanted to study medicine. “However, being in the UK and under the famous NHS, Dad (a GP), said: ‘Don’t do medicine, do dentistry – 9 to 5, no home visits, no emergencies, no out of hours work’,” he recalls. “It was usual for him to have to see up to 60 patients in the morning, then house calls in the afternoon and then back for the evening session. He said that most of the time he would be writing out the scripts for the patient as they were walking into the room. He felt he was just a glorified clerk, not medicine at all. It was the main reason we moved to Australia.” Michael took his father’s advice and studied dentistry – and has always been an active and engaged member of the dental community. Michael was one of the dentists who set up the South West Dental Convocation, after he and the late Dr John Mathieson (Matho) started talking about the possibility of getting one or two specialists down to Bunbury to give a lecture.

“I think at the time there were five of us (not a big audience),” Mike recalls.

“However, I was allotted the job of asking the specialists, because I was able to successfully coax them down to Bunbury and the others made me the chairman. “

“We did speak with ADA about our scheme and at the time they preferred us to use the name that it now bears,” he says, adding that as more dentists came to practice in Bunbury, they expanded their thinking.

“We decided that we had better do more for the lecturers than a bottle of wine.”

“Fees had to be considered for venue hire and reimbursement for the lecturers’ time and expenses. So, we arranged overnight accommodation for them and fed them and still managed to present them with a bottle of two of the famed Margaret River wines. After a few years of ‘one-night stands’ and having attended several weekend conferences I put forward the idea of running a similar event.”

Michael also served as the ADAWA Country Councillor for a number of years. “Kim Mezger was executive officer at the time and I was almost always attending the General Meetings, coming up from Bunbury,” he says.

“He put me forward to be nominated for Country Councillor and I decided that it would be a great way to learn how ADAWA worked and what it did. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and the insights I gleaned.

"When Brian Atkinson was the President, I had to help organise a country weekend conference in Bunbury with Dr Jim Ironside as the guest lecturer. That was a steep learning curve, but great experience. I was also involved in the initial liaison with the Dental Nursing Australia training organisation, founded by Sue Lawton.”

Highlights

“Highlights of my career would have to be being able to associate with so many great specialists, who are always so helpful and other dentists that I was able to talk with at lectures/conferences and exchange experiences,” Michael says. There were also some memorable days in clinic. “Whilst in my second year of graduation, working for DHS in Paraburdoo, a frantic father on a Saturday afternoon, came to my house with his five-year-old child with a 10cm long chair spring – the hooked end of which was firmly caught between his upper centrals,” Michael recalls. “The father had not been able to remove it and was quite desperate. I took them to the surgery in the new hospital and successfully removed it without any trauma to the child. That was such an amazing realisation – being able to help people. Similarly, being able to use Relative Analgesia – I converted a lot of absolute dental phobics into normal fearless dental patients. That was so rewarding.

“Another highlight was the many years I spent as Dr Ian Rosenberg’s assistant each week for the whole of each Thursday –learning so much from him and getting to know Evan Kakulas doing the same thing in Perth. “I was (also) so very proud of my brother Tony when he became ADAWA President a few years ago,” he adds.

Changes

“The biggest changes that I have perceived are the almost total rejection of amalgam as a restorative material, one which has served the patients so well for so many years,” he says. “Another would be the more predictable use of implants in the right hands – and another really exciting one is the 3D printing of titanium for replacement of destroyed parts of the skeleton.”

ADAWA has also always been supportive along the way, with Michael choosing to keep his ADAWA membership even after moving interstate. ‘It is amazing to be part of a group that sticks together so well,” he says. “I have been over in Canberra since 2011 and I stayed an ADAWA member because I was so impressed the way the ADAWA functioned.

“On the occasion I have had to seek advice, either the office, CEO or President have been so easy to talk to, discuss the issues and help find a solution.”

What’s next for Michael?

“At present, I am working full-time in Defence and will eventually cut down to four days, then three days and then retired, but as to the timeframe – I don’t really have one,” he says. “My father was still in full-time medical General Practice at 80.”

50-year reflections

After half a decade as an ADAWA member, we spoke to Dr Peter Froud about his career.

When Dr Peter Froud graduated in December 1966 he had already joined the army as an undergraduate two years prior so he had some money to marry the love of his life.

Joining the army committed him to serving for four years, which he extended to six years to obtain a two-year posting in Singapore, before taking a discharge in Perth.

“I am originally from Victoria, but we decided to come to Perth because we had a child with cerebral palsy and he had problems with bronchitis,” he recalls. “This was a nice, dry climate and seemed like it was going to be the best for him. We came here in 1972 and never left.”

Peter went into private practice in the King’s Hotel Building in 1974 and bought Dr Rob Bower’s practice when he went to specialise in periodontics. He was in the CBD for the best part of 25 years, and after selling that practice at 55-years-old went to Collie with the intention of practicing there for 10 years until he retired. More than 20 years later, Peter is still there working two or three days a month to fill in for dentists when they are away and still enjoys it.

Highlights

Over 50 years Peter says there have been a few highlights:

The army A memorable time with the army was the time he spent in Puckapunyal Victoria, treating the 20-year-old recruits. “There were four intakes of around 1200 young men each year and I think the average for each intake was about 3500 extractions,” he recalls. “In each intake there were four or five people that needed 32 extractions. Times have changed.”

Vietnam Peter spent time in Vietnam where he treated the teeth of locals, as well as army personnel. “Every week we would go to the local village, and people would line up,” he says. “You would inject 15-20 people along a bench and would start extractions along the other end. On the alternate weeks I used to go along to the local orphanage, which was run by an order of French nuns.”

Peter later went back to Vietnam with friend and orthodontist, Colin Twelftree, who had set up a dental project in Long Tan to provide dental care to the locals.

“Colin walked up the road to the nearby day care centre and when he came back his face was white as snow, all the kids were drinking cordial out of bottles and had rotten teeth. So with the help of the local health service, working with Australian volunteers, I believe things have improved considerably and Colin should get praise for setting that up.”

Volunteerism dental clinic Peter was also involved in volunteerism on home soil, and with the support of ADAWA, helped set up a dental clinic for children with cerebral palsy at the now Ability Centre, which operated for many years. “We called for volunteers, and had a therapist and volunteer dentists – we did a lot of good there,” he says.

Changes

Peter says composite is probably the biggest change he has seen over 50 years in dentistry.

“Composite came out in the mid-60s and it was rubbish but eventually got better,” he recalls. “Certainly, endodontics has come a long way with rotary instruments. Implants and ceramics have also become much more important. Another big change was overnight wearing gloves and masks; it was a huge change.”

Throughout the changes and challenges, Peter says ADAWA has always been supportive. What’s next for Peter? He is registered until November, which will take him to 80-years-old – and he is still enjoying dentistry.

Why did you initially decide to join ADAWA Council 13 years ago as the DHS representative?

It was a combination of two things; one being that at the time the Director of Dental Health Services (DHS) was an ex officio member of the ADAWA Council and that arrangement had been in place for many years. Secondly, it was a great opportunity to continue on the good work that previous DHS Directors had done in forming very collegial relationships with ADAWA members, Council and Executive to progress the advancement of dentistry in WA, in the many forms that this takes.

What have been some of the highlights during your time on Council?

A main highlight was the way in which the ADAWA Council and Executive worked with DHS during the COVID pandemic. There was a significant body of work done by many people to assist those practitioners in private practice and DHS to understand what the COVID rules were at any