Cali Conference

“I am writing the post from Mount Hermon, California.  It is a retreat center near Santa Cruz.  I was blessed to have the opportunity as Midwest Rep to National Student Council of the Christian Medical and Dental Associations (CMDA) to attend the annual retreat here in sunny California. We heard a fantastic talk by a researcher developing nano-car technology for the local delivery of medications.  There was also a series of seminars called the “life skills institute” designed for students in which we examined topics such as medical ethics, finances, and leadership.  Podcasts of these lease lectures are available at www.cmda.org.  Far and away, the best aspect of this weekend was the long discussions I had with Dr. Peter Dawson on the face of dentistry today.  For those of you who are unaware of Dr. Dawson, he is revered among dentists, having authored the best-selling dental textbook ever written and have taught greater than 40,000 dentists all around the nation.  In these discussions we talked about the role of systemic health in oral disease, the importance of excellent diagnosis and treatment planning, and the holistic treatment of patients.  You can ask Dr. Dawson why he loves dentistry and is still practicing at his age, which I actually did, and he said “dentistry is the best hobby in the world.”

Luke Daining is a D4 and president of the Christian Dental Association, one of our many student groups.