SWSPD President’s Message

Greetings, fellow Southwesterners!

My name is Mary Fuselier, and I am proud to be serving as your President of the SouthWestern Society of Pediatric Dentistry. For the past 18 years, I have been in private practice in Austin, Texas. I attended Texas A&M University for my undergraduate education and received both my dental and pediatric degrees from Baylor College of Dentistry, which is now Texas A&M, so Gig- ‘em! My husband and I have been blessed with four daughters, three of whom are triplets, and my earliest years in private practice were spent carefully juggling the demands of patient care and parenthood. Pediatric Dentistry has given me so much and serving on the SWSPD board for the last 3 years with my colleagues has been one of the most fulfilling portions of my career. I am enthusiastic about being your president for the next 12 months.

As a Pediatric Dentistry resident at Baylor, I was fortunate that Dr. Sue Seale offered her residents the opportunity to attend the SWSPD’s Winter Ski Meeting. Back in 1997, I jumped at the chance to take a week to ski but had little idea about what the meeting might offer on a professional level. I was surprised to find such a vibrant community of pediatric dentists, in many different stages of their careers, coming together to have some serious fun while exchanging valuable pearls of information. I remember the lecture format being great, but the apres-ski fireside chats were what really resonated with me. From both a fun-factor standpoint and learning opportunity, SWSPD meetings are no different now than they were then. Join us and you will make new friends and reconnect with old ones. We need leadership and participation from dentists in all stages of their careers because that is what will keep the Society vibrant!

On November 1-2, the SouthWestern Society hosted a joint meeting with the Southeastern Society and the Florida Academy of Pediatric Dentistry in Orlando, Florida. Held at the Hilton Orlando Buena Vista Palace, adjacent to Disney Springs, the meeting offered easy access to the Disney parks for attendees and their families. It was not uncommon to hear fellow attendees proclaiming that they had spent 10 plus hours in the park with “The Mouse” and their families.
The weather was spectacular, the parks were decorated beautifully for Halloween, and the meeting coincided with “Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.” The Society’s board of directors decided to host the joint meeting because we received such positive feedback from the last joint meeting with the Southeastern Society in New Orleans in 2016. Our Society’s CE Chairperson, Janell Plocheck, took on the joint planning and logistics of the meeting, along with Michelle Jacobi (our Executive Director), and they did a knock-out job. This year’s meeting was attended by almost 100 doctors and their families; it was wonderful to see so many new faces in attendance.

We were privileged to have two outstanding speakers at the meeting. Friday morning, Dr. Barbara Sheller offered a presentation on applying modern behavior science in pediatric dentistry practice. Dr. Sheller is Affiliate Professor in Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics at the University of Washington, where she has treated patients in the Dentofacial Orthopedics clinic for decades. Her lecture was filled with a wealth of her own personal experiences as a clinician, supported by modern research on behaviors in the children that we treat. Attendees found her strategies for gaining patient cooperation straightforward, fun, and easy to implement. Saturday’s lecture was presented by Dr. Marcio A. da Fonseca, Departmental Head of Pediatric Dentistry and Director of Oral Health for Special Needs Children at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry. Dr. da Fonseca presented a review of current guidelines on SBE prophylaxis and a trove of information on current treatment modalities in childhood cancer and how we can safely care for these children.

I am excited to work with our SWSPD officers (Mitchell Glass, President- Elect; Emily Fourmy, Vice-President; Ben Curtis, Secretary-Treasurer; Ryan Roberts, Past-President and Ski Meeting Chairman). Ryan Roberts has worn two hats this past year as Ski Meeting Chairman and our President of the society, and I would like to thank him for his service. Not only did he plan a fantastic ski meeting in Whistler, but he updated the society’s financials with Pro-Fi 20/20 so that our society can remain financially healthy for years to come. I would also like to thank Janell Plocheck for serving as our CE Chairperson- she has great plans in store for our meeting in the Fall of 2020. Thank you, as well, to our District Trustee, John Fales, who continues to represent our Society on the national level with the AAPD.

I look forward to seeing you at the next annual SWSPD ski meeting in Park City, Utah at the Grand Summit Resort, February 9-14, 2020. This meeting is a must-attend for any level of skier, as the mountain provides all levels of skiing. And the Salt Lake City airport is a mere 40 minutes from the resort. We have several world-class speakers: Dr. Soroush Zaghi, Dr. Susan Maples, Mr. Flint Geier, Dr. Kevin Donly, Dr. Dennis Nutter, Dr, Kevin Boyd, and Dr. Michael Gelb. Register by January 3rd on swspd.org to take advantage of the Early Bird registration rate — this meeting will sell out!

Thank you,
Mary S. Fuselier, DDS
SWSPD President