From the Desk of Dr. Ogata

From the desk of Dr. Randy Ogata

Executive Director

People are craving “normalcy” …so how do dentists mitigate risks and slowly help our profession, practices, and public “heal” and return to some form of the constantly heard about “new normal”. SKCDS just hosted Dr. Brett Ferguson as our Keynote speaker to kick off a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) series of lectures designed to help our members integrate DEI concepts into their lives, offices, and communities. The efforts of DEI will take some time to be understood and embraced globally. But this is a longterm commitment, with no easy bright red button to push and solve all the problems. This is a marathon that SKCDS is set to run for our community as we welcome the new generations of dental professionals who are learning and growing in a different environment than any of us ever did.

The Point on the Map Workforce and membership are the two greatest concerns for SKCDS right now. Why is membership so important? SKCDS / WSDA / ADA are Tripartite membership service organizations that look out for the whole dental community’s best interests, so dentists can serve their patients with the least interference possible. After all, our patients must always remain our top priority as their care is the whole reason we entered in to this profession in the first place. Therefore, our members trust the Tripartite to collaborate with allied groups to help promote our profession, oral health, and raise awareness of resources in our communities. When these groups lobby at Olympia or Washington DC – it is important that what is represented is the core majority of our profession.

Plotting a Path Forward Workforce is an ongoing problem and sadly, hoping the problem will just “solve itself” is not going to happen. Some of the contributing factors: educational system dysfunctions, early retirements, artificial barriers to licensure in WA, lack of interest in the profession, lack of access to resources, extending programs artificially, pricing the cost of education out of the reach of socio-economic groups, and the list goes on. What is SKCDS doing about this to help practices – we are looking at the stepping stones to workforce and that starts with students. We as a profession – not just the SKCDS – need to encourage high school students who don’t feel that college is the right path for them to think about a career in the dental profession as an assistant, front office, or back-office position. Something that I encouraged previously was for offices to actively keep an eye out from within your patient base – identifying patients who have the right aptitude, attitude and soft skills to be trained as assistants, scheduling and/or financial coordinators. In the meantime, we have heard that other programs are looking into expansion – when this happens, dentists should be promoting our profession so that all of the programs are running at maximum capacity. Dentists need to be deliberate in their actions and plan with a bias towards actions to systematically increase the dental workforce. It won’t happen by itself, or if only driven by organized dentistry, it will require all dentists to roll up our sleeves and work together.

But remember this: appreciate your existing team. Appreciate the loyalty and the passion that already exists in your offices. It is easy to approach the problems with the workforce shortage by simply saying “feed the pipelines”. Do not ignore, or take for granted, the people you have standing with you now and ensure that they too feel valued in their positions. They are what, for some offices, is what stands between a problem and a crisis.

It is an honor to serve OUR profession Honored to Serve as your Executive Director! Dr. Randy Ogata