PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS

Dear Colleagues, Dear Friends

Holidays are over, professional and acadentie affairs are waiting: Pending tasks for EAPD Board members and councillors nust be picked up.

It is my pleasure to announce that 500 copies with card cover of the Curriculum Guidelines for Education and Training in Paediatric Dentistry published in the International Journal of Paediatric Dentistry 1997; 4:273-381 will be available in due course.  The Academy is grateful to Blackwell Science (Oxford) for this effort.

A second EAPD policy document on Fluoride Use is in preparation. On the basis of the preliminary report (Newsletter 98:3) of the workshop in Athens in July 1997, the keynote session at Port Cervo, May 1998 and some personal communications, past president Oulis, president-elect Raadal and I will prepare a final manuscript supported by the current literature.  Appointments are made and the deadline for submission should be 31^st December 1998.  The main strength we now have is our organisation and ability to produce good guidelines and documents to further Paediatric Dentistry in Europe.  It has taken eight years but we are now a very respected organisation and indeed have overtaken a number of other dental groups in producing guidelines for education, fluoride use and quality assurance, often before others. 

The Educational Guidelines are now copied by others.  At the final council meeting in Sardinia, it was suggested that the use of X-rays in children. antibiotics in children and pit and fissure sealing will be the upcoming topics for producing guidelines.  Council members or dedicated specialists have by now been invited to participate in the different task forces. 

This Newsletter will focus on The Council Meeting at Porto Cervo in May 1998, the newly elected Councillors and the committees formed after the General Assembly, the new Executive and Council Directory, the first EAPD research prize and some announcements.  You will find your membership certificate enclosed with the Newsletter.  In the name of all EAPD members I'm very grateful to Constantine Oulis for making this possible. 

I would like to end this message by remembering that many members are asking for more benefit of the Academy.  For the time being I think every member should profit from the biannual congresses, the Newsletter (four issues a year) and the current and future policy documents. The Newsletter especially can be an appropriate tool to inform and to learn from each other! For this, more material is needed! If every Council Member should write one page. twice a year if every chairman of a paediatric department should write once a year a summary of activities or research project, if members should write about special experiences. the editorial board could double the number of pages per issue. It would give us the greatest pleasure to achieve this!

I count on every EAPD memtter 

Luc C Martens

COUNCIL MEETING
May 1998 Porte Cervo Sardinia
Synopsis of the Discussions

After the acceptance of the minutes of the previous meeting held in Athens in I997 Council dealt with several matters arising. The Standing Orders for the The Academy, prepared by Profs. Oulis and Martens were approved.  The draft Guidelines on Fluoride were presented and would be discussed further during the Congress.  The final Guidelines would be prepared by Profs Oulis, Martens and Raadal and would be published in an international dental journal in due course.  It was noted that non-dentists were eligible for membership of The Academy as Associate members.  After presentation of the President's, Secretary's and Treasurer's reports Council dealt with a number of committee reports.

The Credentials Committee had processed about 45 applications during the year.  It was agreed that in future applications for membership should be required in five copies.

The Constitution Committee had now prepared changes to the original Constitution to make it conform to requirements of the European Union. These changes would  be presented for ratification at the General Assembly.

 
Japp Veerkamp   Jack Toumba   Billy Fenlon
                    Ron Brant   Luc Martens
Juan Boj

The Education Committee had completed the Guidelines for Postgraduate Training in Paediatric Dentistry.  These had been published but reprints would be available in due course.  The committee was now dealing with two tasks.  Firstly accreditation guidelines and mechanisms for the visiting of postgraduate programs were being developed.  Secondly the committee was starting to look at undergraduate training.  

The Nominations Committee was pleased to report an increase in the number of nontinations this year.  Their recommendations for election would be presented at the general assembly.  A draft report had been prepared by the Quality Assurance Committee and this was accepted by Council for further consideration.

 It was reported by the Scientific Committee that they had reviewed 134 abstracts for the congress, rejected 7 and accepted 127 of which 63 were to be oral presentations.  

Congress Reports: Prof Falcolini noted that at the time of the Council meeting 150 delegates had registered but more were expected.  He wished all a very pleasant stay and productive meeting in Sardinia.  The Congress in 2000 was finalised as being held in Bergen (Norway).  Prof Raadal described the facilities and proposed social events and he hoped that all members would attend.  Agreement for the meeting in 2002 in Dublin was also given after Dr. Fenlon described the proposed outline of the meeting with a possible venue of Trinity College, Dublin.  A proposal was also received for 2004 for Barcelona by Dr. Boj.  This was taken for further consideration at the next Council meeting. There were, as yet no proposals for 2006.

Councillors' Reports: Dr Schroeder announced that there would be a meeting in Paediatric Dentistry in the Spring of 1999 in conjunction with the Swedish Dental Association.  Prof Alaluusua announced that papers requesting the recognition of our speciality in Finland had been submitted to the Minister of Health and there was to be a special issue of the Finish Dental Journal on Paediatric Dentistry.  Dr Brandt was pleased to announced that Paediatric Dentistry was officially a speciality in the LTK as of July lst, 1998. Dr Marks was pleased to announce the formation of the Belgium Academy of Paediatric Dentistry.  In Switzerland Dr Ben-Zur unfortunately had to report that the free delivery of dentistry for children was being reduced in some cities.

Olafur Hoskuldsson
                            Satu Alaluusua
                                          Klaus Pieper
                         Goran Danllof
             Haim Sarnat
Guliano Falcolini

Any Other Business: It was agreed to go ahead with an EAPD site on tbe Internet and this would be organised by Prof. Oulis.  A directory would be produced in due course but only those members who bad paid their subscriptions up to date would be included.  ID cards would be developed as well as an EAPD brochure.  The EAPD prize would be awarded at the Congress banquet (details elsewhere in this Newsletter).  Finally speciality  recognition was to be pursued now that both Sweden and the UK, within the EU, recognised Paediatric Dentistry.  This activity would be pushed forward by a specially appointed EAPD committee.

  Ulla SSchroeder               Apostolis Vanderas
  Magne Raadal
                      Eli Ben-Zur

The first EAPD RESEARCH PRIZE
For the best research project in "Behavioural Management in Paediatric Dentistry"

The prize of 1000 English pounds (£ 1000) was awarded to RIAN VAN HOOFT from the department of Paediatric Dentistry of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The project is entitled Young children's ability to cope with daily occurring stressful events and their personality characteristics as predictors of acceptance of dental treatment.  The promoter will be Dr. J Veerkamp who collected the prize on behalf of Dr van Hooft (see picture).

Most overt child behaviour can be seen from a developmental perspective: the toddler will learn gradually and the age-related (tantrum) behaviour wlll slowly turn into a more cognitively based attitude.  The verbal capacities will develop and therewith the child will be more willing to listen, to reason and accept carefully described rules and ideas.  The relative understanding of the concept of time will help the child to understand that even a stressful event, such as a dental treatment, is limited to a certain time span.  Until the age that the child has mastered these capacities, it does not yet have the coping abilities necessary to adapt to routine dental treatment and might be more vulnerable to develop dental anxiety (Milgrom 1995).  Research shows that dental anxiety correlates strongly with child factors. primarily with the child's dental experience, but also with personality traits (Ollendic 1989; Prins 1994).

Nevertheless, any personality development starts at a young age.  Sometimes the behaviour at a very young age might include a prediction of acceptance of later stressful events such as dental treatment.  In a longitudinal study on three-year old children, continuities across time were found up to their young adulthood (Caspi 1995).  Research indicates that personality traits might erroneously be taken for dental anxiety (Aartman 1997) and are important factors in the aetiology and development of dental fearful children (Liddel 1990).  Also, in selecting the proper management strategy an early diagnosis of the child's temper might be helpful.  Early temperament may have predictive specificity for the development of late psychopathology and behavioural aspects at a very young age might be predictive for later personality styles (Caspi 1991).  

A child's coping abilities depend on and are influenced by different factors.  In its development the child meets environmental factors, or by nature has certain personality traits, that influence its future coping abilities, both positively and negatively.  Early diagnosis seems advisory to select and protect  the children who are possibly at risk for the development of dental anxiety.  Therefore the aim of the study is to select daily occurring stressful events and register the child’s coping abilities when confronted with these events in order to test their use as a predictor for the child's acceptance of and coping with, dental treatment. Corrrelations with normative data of a psychological questionnaire are mandatory (Achenbach).

STUDENT
Rian van Hooft, DDS post doc pedodontics 2nd Year

PSYCHOLOGIST  
Maaike ten Berge, post doc, child psychology

 SUPERVISOR
J S J Veerkamp PhD pedodontist.
Dept Cariology, Endodontology, Pedodontology 
ACTA Amsterdam The Netherlands

The topic for the next prize will be decided at  
the next board meeting at
BRUSSELS March 1999
and announced a year before the award
via the Newsletter

 THE BELGIAN ACADEMY OF PAEDIATRIC DENTISTRY

After the succeful 3rd EAPD Congress at Bruges 1996, a strong need was felt for founding a real Belgium group which did not exist up to then.  

The organising committee of Bruges decided to take the initiative and invite representatives of all dental schools and from university hospitals providing dental care for medically compromised people.  

After several meetings a consensus was reached to found one academy covering paediatric dentistry as well as the special care dentistry which included medically compromised and handicapped independent of their age.  

In June 1997 the founding meeting, with eleven council members, took place and the President, Vice­ President, Secretary and Treasurer were appointed by the Council.  The constitution was published on 1st January 1998 in the official collection of the laws and decrees of the State of Begium.

Taking into account the particular situation in Belgium regarding the three official languages, the official names and abbreviations are:

Belgische Akademie voor Kindertandheellkunde: BAPT 
(for the Flanders part) 

Academie de Dentisterie Pediatrique: ABDP 
(for the Walloon part)   

Belgische Akademie Fur Kinderzahnheilkunde: BAKZ
(for the Gennan speaking part)

 The most important fact is that Belgian paediatric dentists and dentists interested in the care of  handicapped and medically compromised people have a forum to deal with their common problems.  One of the main goals of the new academy will be the organisation of continuing education for their members.

Front Left to Right

Professor Dr Dominque Declerck (Treasurer) 
Professor Dr Luc Martens (Founding President) 
Dr Johan Aps (Secretary)
Dr Charles Pilipli (Vice-President)

Contact Address:
Belgian Academy of Paediatric Dentistry
UZG Kliniek voor Tand-mond-en kaakziekten P8
P/a Johan APS Secretarv BAPD
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