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December 2006 NEWSLETTER Number 81

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Serge Frejlich...........................................................President
Billy Davis.......................................................President Elect
Rob Elia...........................................................Vice President
Suteera Hovijitra...................................Secretary/Treasurer
Don Schmitt, Sr..........................................................Historian
Marge Maesaka.....................................Executive Secretary

From The President
Serge Frejlich

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As I’m making my reservation for the Mid-Winter meeting, I’m realizing that time is flying by. In our profession we’re so busy that we sometimes forget what is really important: Family and friends! I try, and succeed, not to get entangled in the web of work. This summer I took my family on vacation to Thailand. It is a very beautiful country with extremely nice people. I met Raj in Bangkok. It had been 10 years since I last saw him.

Sadly a lot of colleagues don’t take time away from their practice and soon burn out. Don’t let that happen to you. Take time and watch your children grow up, before they get married and move away. That happens all too quickly.

In July Martin Land send me an e-mail that Tom Barco was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I was especially sad since my father passed away from the same disease in May. I hope Tom didn’t suffer too much.

They say that a dentist gets the patients he deserves. This is true. If you compromise, especially in the beginning of your career, you will get the patients other dentists didn’t want. Stick to the standards the JFJ Pros Program teaches you. You will be able to be selective in the patients you see.

Dentistry is evolving and becoming selective. Patients are going to the dentist for esthetic reasons, rather than only going when they have pain. Because of this, there are less urgent procedures to be done which enables us to find an equilibrium between work and free time. We, as prosthodontists from the IUSD graduate Pros program have received the best education possible to deal with those aesthetic wishes and problems. How lucky we are!

I’m looking forward to seeing all of you in Chicago at the JFJ meeting.

Director's Corner
Jerry Andres

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Happy Holidays to all! We have some good news and some bad news. Good news is that we had the best applicant pool for grad pros that we have had in the last 20 years. There were fifty-three (53) applicants total, from eighteen different countries. Twelve were graduates of ADA Accredited dental schools, five of these were international students. There has been a trend in recent years for government sponsored scholarships for study in US dental schools, both predoctoral and postdoctoral. These scholarships carry a commitment to return to the sponsoring country and serve as faculty in their dental schools. Thirteen acceptance letters were sent to fill a class of six. We were unable to recruit any of the twelve U.S. graduates.

More good news. We have had several good applications for the Program Director position. The search and screen committee will begin interviews after the holidays. And congratulations are due to Sulieman Al-Johaney and Mohammad Koutrach who have completed the certification process for the American Board of Prosthodontics.

Now for the bad news. After a terrible but courageous battle with pancreatic cancer, Dr. M. Thomas Barco II passed from this life on 21 November. He was very special to all the faculty, staff, and students who had contact with him during his tenure at IUSD. We will all miss him and his contagious laugh and smile. Ida and I had the pleasure of traveling to North Carolina with Tom and Karen in September. We were invited to speak to the Eastern District Dental Society, at their annual session, by Dr. H. Winslow Rogers III who was President this year. Tom put a tremendous effort into his presentation of “Multidisciplinary Management of Complicated Prosthodontic Patients” and the presentation was very well received by the audience, which included our wives and Tom’s son and daughter-in-law.

CONDOLENCES

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Dr. Martin Thomas Barco II, DDS, MSD, Martinsville, IN passed away November 21st, 2006. He was born September 2, 1942, in Fort Knox, KY to Martin T. and Helen (Clark) Barco, Sr., and spent his childhood growing up in Winnemac, IN. Dr. Barco graduated from Indiana University and from the Indiana University School of Dentistry (1969). He was a distinguished professor of dentistry at IUSD and also had a private practice in Bloomington. Dr. Barco was a member of the American Dental Association, American College of Prosthodontists, International College of Dentists, American College of Dentists, The John F. Johnston Society, and a Diplomate of the American board of Prosthodontics. He was a retired Navy Captain and served as Commanding Officer of two of the largest dental clinics in the US Navy at Camp Pendleton, CA and Great Lakes, IL. During his 25 year career in the military, he was awarded the Navy Commendation Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, and the Legion of Merit with two Oak Leaf Clusters, and many other awards. Dr. Barco is survived by his wife, Karen Ann Mead Barco of Martinsville; son, Martin Thomas Barco III of North Carolina; daughter, Torri Malia Cordell of Arizona, grandson, Martin Thomas Barco IV; and his brother, Clark Tobias Barco of Martinsville. A memorial service with military honors was held on Tuesday, November 28th ,2006 at the first United Methodist Church, 219 E 4th St., Bloomington, IN where Dr. Barco was a member. The family requested that, in lieuof flowers, memorial contributions be made to the Indiana University School of Dentistry Partial Prosthodontics Fund, c/o Development Office,1121 West Michigan St., Indianapolis, IN 46202.

A Tribute to Tom
We know you are on your way to heaven now, and maybe you are toasting Dr. Dykema with your favorite martini. The image in our mind now is of your colorful clothing and stylish hats. We still remember how you loved to dance in the clinic when the radio started to play, or how you ate your favorite snacks in the office and always asked us to try some of them. Your enthusiasm about football or basketball impressed us because you spent so much time teaching us what was going on. You treated us just like your family.

What we learned from you is not only dental knowledge but knowledge of life itself. Your death, is the biggest loss to us and our professional field. We are so proud to have been taught by you and we definitely will pass what we learned from you on to others. In this way, you are always on our mind. When you travel to Taiwan, don’t forget to smile at us from the sky.

Love from Taiwan, Alex and EJ