PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS

     Dear Colleagues,

My message to you this time is first of all based on issues considered by the Board during its meeting in Brussels on March 3rd this year.  During an intense day of work we managed to finish a 16-item agenda. These are some of the most important issues:

The journal (EJPD)

We congratulate the editorial board on successful production and distribution of the first volume (four issues). The second volume is under production with a new design and by another Italian publisher (Ariesdue). The editorial board works under high pressure in order to get the material ready in time, and they deserve all the help they can get from the rest of us. First of all they want more papers, and I encourage those of you who have suitable material to submit papers to our own journal. Let’s pull together in a joint effort of establishing “our baby” as an acknowledged International Journal.

6^th EAPD Congress in Dublin

The preparations for our Congress in Dublin next year are proceeding under the leadership of our Irish Councillor Dr. William Fenlon. The Board has appointed the following colleagues as members of the Scientific Committee: Sven Poulsen (Chair), Luc Martens and Padraig Fleming who is also a member of the Local Organising Committee in Dublin. I am sure that this team, in close collaboration with the local organisers, will ensure that the scientific matters are well taken care of.

EAPD web page

The Greek group of colleagues, headed by our former President Constantine Oulis, has now renewed and updated our web page (http://www.eapd.gr). This is an extremely important piece of work since this form of media is becoming more and more useful for communication between people, and also for the EAPD. Further improvement is now suggested by establishing a membership directory, which will be available for members only. This will hopefully be our first step towards an “EAPD Intranet” that may possibly make the Newsletter superfluous in the future. I hope that you appreciate this and that you will support it. The editor of the web has also suggested that we establish a section denoted ‘find a paediatric dentist’, as an opportunity to those of you who want your clinic to be listed. Please read carefully the note about these matters later in this Newsletter.

Accreditation of Jonkoping

The Education Committee visited the Dental Institute in Jonkoping, Sweden, in February this year as its first step in a process that aims at creating a list of institutions in Europe that comply with the EAPD curriculum guidelines for teaching specialised paediatric dentistry. Even if the documents for approval have not been finalised yet, we have no doubts that this institution will be approved. The next institution to be scrutinised is the Dental Institute in Leeds.

Board and Council meetings in Paris

In connection with the 18^th Congress of the International Association of Paediatric Dentistry in Paris from September 12-15th this year, there will be Board and Council Meetings at the Palais de Congrθs. I encourage all Councillors, or their national substitutes, to take this opportunity to come together for professional and social development. See the dates for the meetings elsewhere in this Newsletter and reserve the dates.

Finally I encourage more members, or other members of the Board, to contact me with new ideas (or complaints) about the EAPD activities. I hope to see many of you in Paris during the IAPD congress. 

Kind regards from
Magne Raadal

EAPD Web Page 

After a proposal from the editor of the web page, Dr. Constantine Oulis, the Board has decided to upgrade the page by two new sections:

1. A membership directory. 

     This will be located under the Membership section and will contain the members’ name, address, phone, fax and e-mail address. The section will be available only for members, and each of you will be given a username and a password to get access to the directory. The aim is to give all EAPD members continuous access to an updated membership directory. 

All members will be included in the membership directory unless we hear from you before July 1 this year (Constantine Oulis, fax +30 1 6749263).

 2. Find a paediatric dentist.

    This is a service free of charge for active members of the EAPD who want their clinic to be listed under this heading in the web page section Parent information. The section is open for the public, and the list is a service for parents who are searching a competent paediatric dentist in their country/region. The search may be by country and/or by area/city.

The member can have their clinic/name removed from the list on request

Those of you, who want to be on this list, are asked to complete the enclosed record form and mail/fax it to:

EAPD web page,
Dr. Constantine Oulis,
22 Kodrou Street,
Halandri, 152 31,
Athens, GREECE

fax +30 1 6749263

THE 11^TH CONTINUING EDUCATION COURSE OF THE HELLENIC SOCIETY OF PAEDIATRIC DENTISTRY

The 11th Continuing Education Course of the Hellenic Society of Paediatric Dentistry took place in Athens on the 10th and 11th of March 2001and was attended by about one hundred and fifty colleagues most of them Paediatric Dentists. The speakers of this Seminar were Professor Larry S. Luke and Mrs. Rebecca Tzorva.

Professor L.S. Luke who has dual training in both Paediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics, is currently Chairman of the Department of Orthodontics in UCLA, being previously Chairman of the Department of Paediatric Dentistry at the same University. He is also President of the California Society of Paediatric Dentistry and  Diplomat of the American Academy of Paediatric Dentistry. Mrs. Tzorva is a speech Pathologist having both B.A. and M.A. degrees in Speech Pathology from the University of Witswaterand, South Africa. She is a private practitioner but also a member of the Hellenic Craniofacial Center, and of the Paediatric Team of Growth and Development of the Children’s Hospital “Agia Sofia”.

Professor Luke in his excellent full day presentation, gave us an overview of the subject of preventive and interceptive orthodontics. He started with classification of facial types, giving information about how the face grows and how it ages. He then continued with antero-posterior orthodontic problems, how they can be detected early and how they can be treated interceptively. The next entity was the one of transverse and vertical plane problems of the jaws, and suggestions for their treatment. The lecture continued with the subject of tooth alignment problems and suggestions for its treatment, and was concluded with a thorough evaluation of the long-term prognosis of the orthodontic treatment and, what to expect according to the time of intervention. In several points of his presentation he stressed the importance of an accurate diagnosis of the early orthodontic problems that necessitate preventive or interceptive intervention.

The next day of the Seminar, speech Pathologist, Mrs. Rebecca Tzorva gave a half day presentation on the evolution of speech in children and adolescents and the diagnosis of speech problems and their treatment. Mrs. Tzorva’s presentation started with the patterns of normal speech development and the stages of evolution of speech in the young child. She analyzed the mechanisms of voice production and through interesting video tapes showed us speech difficulties and how children manage to deal with them both functionally and emotionally. She concluded with the treatment methods for different speech problems as well as problems that are due to cleft palate anomalies. Our colleagues were very satisfied with the above Course and expressed their wish to have more similar Seminars in the future. The Board of our Society will do its best!

Dr. Anna-Maria Vierrou
Treasurer of the H.S.P.D (Hellenic Siciety of Dentistry fir Children)
Councilor for the Hellenic Group

BSPD 2000 3M PRIZE  is awarded to Evelyn Connolly, Ireland.

Evelyn Connolly is seen receiving the BSPD 3M prize in Edinburgh last September 2000.  Evelyn who was a postgraduate student in paediatric dentistry at Leeds was judged to have presented the best postgraduate research paper.  Below is her abstract.

Abstract: The efficacy of local anaesthetic infiltration for pain relief, in children following, dental extraction under general anaesthesia.  E Connolly *, S Fayle,  Leeds, UK.

Pain following simple dental extractions in children could be a cause of distress to both the child and his parents.  Some operators use local anaesthetic (LA.) prior to extraction as an adjunct to general anaesthesia (GA), although there has been no research carried out into its effectiveness for postoperative pain relief.  A study was carried out to investigate the efficacy of LA infiltration for postoperative pain relief following dental extractions in children under GA.  30 children, (age range 5 years to 13 years 11 months), who required bilateral extraction of teeth under GA were included in the study.  All patients received preoperative systemic analgesia.  Prior to extraction, LA solution, (Prilocaine 3% with Felypressin) was administered on one side of the mouth only.  Post operatively the child was evaluated for pain related behaviour, from time of eye opening, by a blinded, recovery nurse observer, using an objective pain scale.  One hour following the extractions the investigator interviewed the children.  They were asked which side of their mouth felt better and also to score their overall feeling of ‘hurt’ using a visual analogue scale (VAS).  83% (95% confidence interval from 70% to 97%) of children preferred the side of their mouth without L.A.  Only 20% of the children complained of no pain, (‘no hurt’) postoperatively on the VAS.  However 80% of the children scored their discomfort as ‘no hurt’ or ‘little hurt’, (scores of 0 or 1 on a five point scale).  It was concluded that in children undergoing extractions under GA, who have received preoperative systemic analgesia, the administration of LA does not improve comfort.  Although the incidence of postoperative pain was high the severity of reported pain was low. Children with prior experience of local analgesia were more likely to find local analgesia acceptable than children who had never had local analgesia.

EAPD POLICY DOCUMENTS

The Board has decided to appoint the following three working groups in order to suggest policy documents/guidelines in these fields:

1.  Use of antibiotics in children: Satu Alaluusua (Chair), Dominique Declerck and Jaap Veerkamp

2.  Use of radiographs in children: Ivar Espelid (Chair), Karin Weerheijm, Ingegerd Mejare

3.  Pit and fissure sealants: Richard Welbury (Chair), Nick Lygidakis, Magne Raadal

Each of the documents will pass through a review process in which the members will have opportunity to influence the content. The final documents will have two different formats: 1) as a review paper for the European Journal of Paediatric Dentistry, and 2) a short version which is suitable for publication at the web-page containing the practical (clinical) aspects of the documents

The schedule for the process is as follows:

March 2002: Draft documents will be distributed to the Councillors for national comments

June 2002: Oral presentation of the documents at the 6th EAPD Congress in Dublin

 Autumn 2002/Spring 2003: Formal approval by the Board and publication in the journal and at the web page

FORTHCOMING   MEETINGS

Compiled by Lisa Papagiannoulis

EAPD Congress Dublin  June 15-17, 2002

Themes and Speakers

THE CHILD WITH RESPIRATORY DISEASE

“Medical update of respiratory diseases in children”  

Dr Gerry Canny, Consultant Paediatric Respirologist, Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children, Dublin, Ireland

“Is oral health at risk in children with respiratory disorders?”

Dr Johan Aps, Assistant Professor of Paediatric Dentistry, Ghent University, Belgium.

“Dental management of children with respiratory diseases”

Dr Richard Widmer, Adjunct Associate Professor, Paediatric Dentistry, The University of Sydney, 

Australia.

MINERALISATION DEFECTS OF PERMANENT FIRST MOLARS

“Aetiology, prevalence and clinical presentation of permanent first molars with mineralisation defects” 
Dr Karin  Weerheijm, Department of Cariology, Endodontology and Paedodontology, Academic Centre for Dentistry, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

“Restorative options for management of permanent first molars with mineralisation defects”
Dr Stephen Fayle, Consultant and Director of Graduate Programme in Paediatric Dentistry, Leeds Dental Institute, United Kingdom 

“Orthodontic considerations in management of permanent first molars with mineralisation defects”
Dr John Walsh, Specialist Paediatric Dentist and Orthodontist, Dublin, Ireland

FISSURE CARIES

“Aetiology, prevalence and diagnosis of fissure caries”
Dr Evelyn Sheehy, Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Dentistry, Guy’s Hospital, London, United Kingdom

“Prevention of fissure caries”
Dr Nick Lygidakis, Consultant Paediatric Dentist and Head, Dental Center for Children, Athens Health Authority, Greece

“Treatment modalities for fissure caries”
Dr Bob Feigal, Professor and Director of Pediatric Dentistry, University of Michigan, USA

The Web site for additional information is: www.conferencepartners.ie

Advertising

COUNCIL MEETING IN PARIS DURING THE IAPD CONGRESS

This is a preliminary summons of all Councillors, or their national substitutes, to attend the Council Meeting in connection with the 18th Congress of the International Association of Paediatric Dentistry in Paris from September 12-15th this year. The meeting will take place on Wednesday September 12th, 0900 – 1500 at the Palais de Congres (which is the venue for the Congress). The opening ceremony of the Congress starts at 1730 on the same day.

More information about the agenda and meeting place will be given in personal letters to the Councillors.

Further information about the IAPD congress can be found at

www.iapd.org.uk/Congres1.htm#September01

MESSAGE FROM EAPD SECRETARY

I would like to inform all EAPD members that of our 420 members that were written to requesting confirmation/amendments of personal information for our database only approximately 270 have replied. There are still 150 members who have not responded. I strongly urge all members to reply so that our database is up to date and to ensure that our next directory does not have so many errors.

Nick Lygidakis