IDA NEWS

Dr Ciara Scott

Honorary Editor

Celebration and change

As we move into 2022, the Association, and the Journal, continue to develop and move forward.

At last, something to celebrate! It is a credit to Aoife Kavanagh, Elaine Hughes and all the organisers that the Colgate Caring Dentist and Dental Team Awards ran successfully again in December, as we continue to adapt to living with the pandemic. Many congratulations to all our nominees who joined us on the evening to celebrate our profession, and to our winners. Meaningful work is a key element of positive functioning in the workplace, and these Awards create the opportunity to celebrate this by sharing stories and building social connectedness, core factors for workplace well-being. In this issue, we share the highlights of the 2021 Awards.

Making our working lives meaningful

Self-Determination Theory (SDT) provides a framework for understanding what makes our working lives meaningful:

relatedness, the sense of belonging and connectedness with others competence, the sense of mastery over tasks that are important to us autonomy, the sense of control over our own destiny.

It’s a theory that grew out of Deci and Ryan’s work1 to understand internal and external motivations, and has been applied to explain what keeps us engaged and motivated at work. It is based on the assumption that people are naturally oriented towards growth and strive to develop skills, independence and connection with others, but rely on positive social environments to meet their basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness. Intrinsic motivation can be influenced by external factors and social contexts. As a consequence of this interplay, our professional environments can influence our ability to remain curious, connected and engaged at work, or become fragmented, detached and demotivated. Understanding this theory helps us to understand why so many dentists have felt professionally compromised by the current public dental schemes and contracts, and frustrated by the lack of engagement to resolve this. In her editorial, our President Clodagh McAllister shares the steps the Association is continuing to take on behalf of dental patients and the profession.

In this issue

The SDT model can also be applied to what engages and motivates our patients. Gerry McKenna edited the recently published textbook Nutrition and Oral Health (p298), which provides an excellent overview of the relationship between oral health and nutrition, and supporting patients in health behaviour change.2 On page 332, we introduce a ‘quick revision series’ article, providing a review of necrotising periodontal diseases and an illustrative case example. I thank Eamonn Donohoe and his colleagues for this article and welcome readers’ feedback and suggestions for further topics. In our peer review section, Niamh Kelly and her colleagues report on dentists’ perceptions of managing care for patients on oral anticoagulants and offer guidance for practitioners to support this care in a primary setting, when appropriate. Dermot Canavan and his colleagues have recently established a new postgraduate certificate programme in orofacial pain management at Trinity College Dublin, and in this issue, they provide an excellent overview of the known risk factors and common clinical scenarios associated with chronic pain after dental procedures. In our practice management article, Martin Foster shares Dental Protection’s insights on clinical scenarios and common risk factors that can lead to professional vulnerability. In anticipation of the Irish Dental Association’s centenary in 2023, the IDA has commissioned Eoin Kinsella to write the history of the Association, and on p298 there are details of how to contribute to this. In this issue, Peter Cowan tells his story of four generations of his family practising dentistry in Dublin across three centuries. Change in our profession is a constant and it is fitting that this is the theme of the IDA Practice Management Seminar on January 29, details of which are on p296.

A time of change

2022 also marks a change in leadership for the JIDA, and I am delighted to congratulate Cristiane da Mata on her appointment and have every confidence that she will guide the Journal in a new and exciting direction. It has been a privilege to be Honorary Editor of the JIDA for the last 19 issues. It has been a really engaging and fulfilling professional experience and this has been thanks to the wonderful editorial team, the skills and knowledge they each bring to the Journal, and the opportunity to develop and share my own ideas for the JIDA. I would like to thank Ann-Marie Hardiman and our publishers, Liz Dodd, Fintan Hourihan and all the team at IDA House, Siobhain Davies and our Editorial Board, and all of the authors, peer reviewers, and contributors I have worked with over the last three years. We can start 2022 with a determination to continue to grow professionally, both individually and collectively.

References

1. Deci, E.L., Olafsen, A.H., Ryan, R.M. Self-determination theory in work organizations: The state of a science. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behaviour 2017; 4: 19-43. 2. McKenna, G (Ed.). Nutrition and Oral Health. Springer Nature, 2021.