Presidents Letter

Dear Colleagues,

May's meeting is our last until September, when well resume again for another year with a line up of new topics and guest speakers. Were already in the planning stages. If any one is interested in helping our component on the board or on a committee level, please call me.

At the state level, there has been some political upset which has caused the IDHA President, Donna Kazmierski, the president-elect, Carole Danielson, and the IDHA Government Relations Liaison, Barb Holmes, to resign. Their resignations were tendered April 1999, when the IDHA Board of Directors motioned and gave the directive to oppose the current proposed expanded functions of dental assistants.

Two years ago, IDHA issued a position paper on expanded functions ensuring statute protection of the education, training and certification of expanded functions. Now, IDHA is changing their position to where the above mentioned officers do not agree, so they resigned.

What does all this mean in regards to our profession as Registered Dental Hygienists? It depends on the outcome of Senate Bill 800. Its still being voted on in the House of Representatives. The deadline for final passage from the House is May 21st We can still contact our representatives to voice our concerns regarding no provisions in SB800 to protect the public from having uneducated, unqualified, unlicenced dental assistants provide preventive oral care.

We, as a component, can do a consumer alert through the media. Our component board will be working on this project over the summer months, and will have more to report on in September.

Finally, I would like to thank you all for supporting our profession and component in every way you have. I've enjoyed serving this past year as President. Look forward to seeing you all again in the Fall!

Respectfully Submitted,
Sue Krischler,
FVDHS President

May Meeting

On Thursday, May 13, 1999 please join our monthly meeting. Our May speaker is Dr. Martin Kolinski DDS MS. Dr Kolinski is a Periodontist in St Charles. Our topic is on Periodontal disease and its affects on the rest of the body. Dr Kolinski will tie in all the studies on periodontal disease and its links with heart disease, premature babies and low birth weight babies. Get your questions ready. This is a very hot topic. The meeting is at the St Charles Public Library. Registration is at 6:45 and the Speaker will begin at 7:00pm. Hope to see you there,

Nutrition Update

Last months speaker. Iris Shurilla RD., updated us on nutrition and eating disorders. Mrs. Shurilla is a Registered Dietician at Sun Prairie Clinical Services in Naperville. This presenter has a gift for public speaking. She took the subject of nutrition, and gave us an hour and a half of animated discussion on the topic. Mrs. Shurilla felt in the end, that she had learned a great deal about nutrition and the oral tissues after doing the research for her presentation.

Have a Happy and Safe Summer!