2

Through the far-seeing insights of past PFA President Shig Ryan Kishi and our Executive Director Richard A. Kozal, PFA and the Foundation launched its own global visitors’ center for the Pierre Fauchard Academy on the Internet. With the assistance of our professional Webmaster Mark Stanley of Minneapolis, PFA entered the new century on top of the technological revolution. Recent PFA Presidents Michael Perpich and Howard Mark have concentrated on updating the site and making some outstanding improvements. They are constantly working with the latest in modern developments to bring this site directly into your homes and offices. The only thing you need to do to know anything about the Academy and the Foundation is to turn on your computer and enter the Web site title into your search engine. Simple enough! But not so.

Our studies of the Fellowship ranks have indicated that this enormous improvement to the way PFA interacts with its members, and with the world as a whole (and it is an enormous leap forward), is in a state of transition. This is not because the PFA leadership and Webmaster are improving our site almost daily, but because the technology that makes it so impacting for us as an organization has raced past many of our Fellows.

As recent dental technology has turned dental performance on its ear, so has computerization. We find that our Fellows from so many different generations and cultures fall into three categories.

First, there are many of the older generation who do not see, or have, the need to use a computer. They are retired, have spent their successful careers using charts and files with hand-entry notations, and used a typewriter for their letters. They do not see the need to invest in a computer to do what they have done by hand all their lives, let along get hooked into the Internet, when a phone call or letter will do. Note that our profession has been, and still pretty much is, a “hands-on” one. Teeth are still teeth over millions of years. Dentists have used their hands in handling dental situations since 4000 B.C. While we have adapted new technology into our practice, like high-speed drills, most older dentists are experienced and educated enough to walk into a jungle with a few dental instruments and adapt some of form of dental treatment. Our Web site is several steps beyond their capability of using even if they knew how computers worked—and the special language of the computer age. This group is growing smaller, and many of them are adapting into the rudiments of the computer age.

The second category is composed of older and baby boomers who have adapted to the computer age, but not expertly so. They have some inhibited learning from former methods—typewriter, copy machines, faxes, and phones. They understand that computers have put all that into one operation, but heaven forbid if they push the wrong button and try to retrieve the lost data. It is there somewhere, but they do not have the time to read the phone book instructions to find how to get it back.

They eventually get proficient in the limited areas that are required in their daily lives and business, but they have little knowledge about the power that they control with the modern computers. They can find our Web site and, by stumbling around a bit, can secure the information they need. For this group, Mark Stanley has produced a CD that can be put into your computer and literally walk you through our site. Most of the Section Chairs have these available.

The third category is those younger dentists and those who adapted to the program configurations intuitively. You see them keyboard in a quick few things on TV shows and break into the computer and save the day. My 4-year-old daughter taught me years ago when I could not get the “string” to get into my DOS. Now we are so far beyond all that. All the kids have been working with computers in grammar schools for over 20 years. Some have never even seen a typewriter. They are the ones that find our site fascinating and full of information as well as links to other sites to follow for more knowledge. That group is currently filling the dental ranks. Computers have become a necessary dental instrument now in all offices.

As one group gets smaller, another increases in learning more, and as the new adept Fellows grow, we run into a friction of interfacing. Many are just trying to catch up with their knowledge and expertise, while the advanced group is in the forefront demanding greater changes and infusing the system with new ideas.

That is what our Webmaster and the recent PFA Officers have been doing. They are on the cutting edge of the most recent developments, while those behind in the pack are just trying to get to know how the system works. As soon as they do, the system improves with changes.

Last month, the United States launched an information probe to visit and analyze the planet Pluto. The data it will be sending back during its nine-year voyage to the outer planet will take 20 years for us to analyze. One commentator noted that with the development of computer and space technology, we might already have a manned space ship there to meet it when it finally arrives.

“WWW” means “World Wide Web.” That is the address your computer recognizes to go look for our site. “Fauchard.org.” That is the “post office box” where our site is stored, waiting for your visit.

In some cases you can put mail in, just read it there, or take a copy out.

I hope you all have had a chance to see the new simplified home page. There will be many more changes as we reorganize the Web site pages for easier access to what you are looking for. If you do not immediately see what you are looking for, you can try the “sitemap” link to view a complete index of all the pages. This is a good overview or the entire site. If you are looking for something very specific, you can use the “search” field to have the Web server look for items that match your query. Use as many words as you can to narrow the search results. The Worldwide Directory will also let you search by “last name,” or scroll down by Section to the list of Fellows in your area.

As of last June, we have added Officers’ pages. All the current officers now have access to special “From the desk of…” news pages that they can edit and update anytime and from any computer. This was done for your convenience to speed up communications to the members from their officers.

The Web site has seen steady growth in number of pages served. Traffic to the site has grown more than 30% above last year at this time. In November of 2004, there were 23,587 pages served, in other words visited, by the same person or different people. In December of 2004, the pages served were 26,588. In January 2005, the pages served dropped a little to 25,205; and again in February 2005, to 23,349 pages. But by April and again in May 2005, the numbers went well above 29,000 for each month. So the Web site is being used regularly.

Areas visited most often were in Publications, followed by Foundation, then Inquiries, and Awards. The Foundation pages have received a great deal of interest. Articles most popular have been the Doc Holliday article and the Titanic article, as well as the Fauchard article. The Journal of the History of Dentistry has allowed us to post some of their articles online. The Membership Directory and the Catalogue receive a fair amount of visitors.

We are currently going over past data on the usage of various areas of the Web site so that we can reorganize and create a new look for the Web site that better fits the needs of the Fellowship and the visiting dental profession.

Improvements are being made in a variety of other areas as well. The individual Officers pages are one example. PFA-related video clips can be found there. We are trying out various language programs that may be able to translate the different pages into languages spoken by a majority of the members. We have “News” pages for immediate updates; articles can be added and deleted. Calendar dates can be placed on line in advance for greater attendance. Additional “links” (like passageways) are added where the visitor can leave the site for another site to get that information.

The new look is simpler, less cluttered, and has a focus on the worldwide reach of PFA. The new logo is there along with a clear PFA mission statement. You can find the most recent issue of Dental World as well. Eventually, we are planning for each Trustee to have a page. You can contact the Central Office, the Foundation, or any Officer. We are providing a downloadable PDF file that is optimized to print out on your own computer. And different forms for use by the membership are being added.

I realize that some of this new language may be confusing. And it is difficult to describe all that our site contains without illustrations, but it is user-friendly. The best way to get to know how to use the site to serve your needs is just to go there and explore it, maybe a couple of times. Then send us your ideas for improving it, or what you might want to see added. Only with your feedback can we know where you want us to go with this tool.

Many of you have received letters from the ADA about their Foundation’s activities to provide some assistance in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In that letter, they noted that over 200,000 people are now displaced and have the monumental task of rebuilding their lives, among them some estimated 1000 dentists. This is a two-fold problem. Dentists not only have no homes but no dental offices either, thus no income and no patients. The 200,000 people displaced may be able to get dental service from where they are now, but what will be the situation when they return?

The Dental School at LSU sustained heavy damage. The headquarters of the Louisiana and the Mississippi Dental Associations have some digging out to do as well. The ADA determined that their priority rested in getting the dentists back in business to serve their other priority—the needing public.

But even getting re-established again, will the dentists have patients who can afford dental treatment in place of establishing a home and getting a job?

The ADA Foundation established the ADA Disaster Response Fund to raise $1.2 million and to make sure it gets to where it is needed the most. So far, grants totaling $830,000 have been made to 332 dentists in the savaged area; $60,000 in grants have been made to LSU’s School of Dentistry Recovery Fund to support student services during their four-month transition period to a temporary dental school location in Baton Rouge; a $56,610 grant has been awarded to Baylor University’s School of Dentistry, which is providing care to the evacuees who moved to Texas.

Now many of our members and patients have responded already to the Red Cross and the Salvation Army. But within our own profession, the ADA Foundation Disaster Response Fund is also accepting donations and pledges. These may be made directly to the ADA Fund at 211 E. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611. Credit card contributions can be faxed to the ADA Foundation at 312/440-3526.