Association Activities

NYSDA Hopes New App Will Lead to Healthy Smiles

ANYONE who hasn’t done so already, really does need to check out the NYSDA-created app “My HealthySmileNY.” Free to download, and available in both Spanish and English, it’s a platform for all kinds of helpful data, including:

• Find a Dentist

• Appointment Reminders

• Tooth Talk—information on a variety of oral hygiene subjects

• A quiz to test the user’s dental IQ

There’s even a game to help improve a person’s toothbrushing technique.

The app was designed by NYSDA Director of Health Affairs Betsy Bray. She received help with content formatting from Stephanie Allen, RDH, a certified dental health coordinator, who has been contracted by NYSDA and is working under a collaborative agreement with Finger Lakes Community Health. Ms. Allen’s role is to increase home utilization, health literacy and decrease no-show rates with caregivers and children enrolled in HeadStart. She is using the app when working one-on-one with families.

NYSDA Joins Multistate Effort to Reduce Opioid-related Deaths

NYSDA’S CHEMICAL DEPENDENCY COMMITTEE is participating in a multistate initiative to reduce opioid-related deaths, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The HEALing (Helping to End Addiction Long-term) Communities Study (HCS) is a four-year initiative that strives to reduce opioid deaths by 40 percent in communities acutely affected by the opioid crisis across four states—New York, Kentucky, Ohio and Massachusetts.

Don Safferstein, the committee’s representative from the Bronx County Dental Society, has been chosen to represent NYSDA on the HCS Community Advisory Board. Membership on the advisory board consists of diverse stakeholders, such as the New York State Department of Health, Office of Substance Abuse Services; New York State Office of Mental Health; and the New York State Assembly.

The collaborative effort is designed to implement evidence-based practices aimed at increasing medication-assisted treatment, expanding naloxone distribution and promoting safer prescribing. Local coalitions receive technical assistance to support planning and implementation of evidence-based practices in their communities to achieve the HCS goals. The project will be implemented in two waves, focused on counties with the highest death rates. Chemical Dependency Committee members are currently engaged in promoting the initiative in the targeted 16 counties throughout the state.

For more information on the project and the targeted counties, visit: https://heal.nih.gov/research/research-to-practice/healing-communities.

NYSDF Unveils Updated Ethics Course

AN UPDATED VERSION of the NYSDA ethics course is now available on the New York State Dental Foundation website www.nysdentalfoundation.org. The course, “Educating the Educated: Ethics & Jurisprudence for the Dental Practitioner,” satisfies the New York State-imposed licensure mandate. Dentists are required to take the course just once in their career.

Course instructors are Dr. Frederick Moore and attorneys Carla Hogan and Lance Plunkett. It is recommended especially for dentists who are moving into New York State who did not fulfill the ethics requirement within their own states or dental residency programs.

Those successfully completing the course earn 3 MCE credits. The cost to take it is $30 for residents, $60 NYSDA members and $120 nonmembers.

In Memoriam

NEW YORK COUNTY

Esther Lim

Foreign Dental School 20 West Street, #11J New York, NY 10004 August 1, 2020

FIFTH DISTRICT

Robert Callahan

St. Louis University ‘55 115 Freedom Boulevard Coatesville, PA 19320 February 15, 2019

Ira Domser

Georgetown University ‘47 458 Larchmont Avenue Utica, NY 13502 January 26, 2021 SEVENTH DISTRICT

Anthony Strazzeri

Tufts College ‘54 147 Courtney Drive Fairport, NY 14450 January 18, 2021

Bernard Zeifang

University of Pennsylvania ‘59 23 Bromley Road Pittsford, NY 14534 February 18, 2021

EIGHTH DISTRICT

Melvin Block

University at Buffalo ‘59 198 Surrey Run Buffalo, NY 14221 September 5, 2020

Salvatore Chiappone

University at Buffalo ‘44 4872 W. Eddy Drive, Apt. 151 Lewiston, NY 14092 February 22, 2021

Jean Haar

University at Buffalo ‘51 1083 Delaware Avenue Buffalo, NY 14209 February 15, 2021

Ronald McMahon

University at Buffalo ‘57 1420 Parker Boulevard Buffalo, NY 14223 February 18, 2020 NINTH DISTRICT

James DiCicco

Fairleigh Dickinson University ‘60 401 Columbus Avenue, #100 Valhalla, NY 10595 September 29, 2020

NASSAU COUNTY

John Cusano

Georgetown University ‘55 7 Sherwood Drive Mountain Lakes, NJ 07406 April 6, 2020