ERO Communications I

Dear colleagues,

the ERO Communications substitute the ERO Newsletter and shall help to give our members an insight into their Organization’s work and development of activities in the Board and in the Working groups. In this edition you will also find all extra-information needed for the upcoming Plenary Session in Sofia.

President’s Welcome

Welcome to this ERO Communications, I am happy to submit after a new era has started in ERO-FDI. All of you have followed the development of the changes in the Constitution which have been kept on a minimum in order to maintain consolidated values, but extended and modified as much as necessary to fulfil the requirements of Geneva State, Switzerland, where ERO is registered, like other important medical and dental organizations, as a Non Governmental Organization, NGO.

President-elect, Philippe Rusca, supported by the President and all Board members has presented a final draft at the Plenary Session in Salvador, Brazil, which has been supervised by legal experts from different ERO members. After discussion the new Constitution has been voted unanimously on September 2nd, 2010 and since December 16th, 2010 ERO is registered as an NGO at the RÉPUBLIQUE ET CANTON DE GENÈVE. This new status opens new perspectives for future activities of our Organization. My congratulations go to all of us and my sincere thanks are addressed to those who have worked hard and to those who demonstrated an open-minded approach to necessary changes.

Trends

Dentistry seems to be of high interest for State administrations and politicians in almost all of our member countries. The profession is more and more influenced by laws, decrees and drafts of laws which do not promise positive outcomes in the future neither for the dental profession nor for the patients. This development is present also in other countries outside of ERO. The trend is to try to acknowledge dental competences to team members and non-health professionals in order to decrease costs for dental care. The motivation is oftentimes that financial and economic crisis has changed the patient’s attitude and therefore possibilities to receive dental treatment. We know from several surveys that this does not correspond to reality and that the problem has a SOCIO-economical character. More than 80% have maintained their “dental habits” and their dentist. For those of us who make part of the European Union, which does not mean that all the others should pay less attention, it is important to know that there are proposals of national laws which do, not only, prepare the institution of other health care professionals in dentistry, but, in addition, give a “pivot role” to a team member – the dental assistant - in the dental team and not to the dentist. Cross-border healthcare would be allowed also for those “new dental team leaders” in EU territory should this nightmare come true. ERO documents voted in Singapore and Salvador oppose this development clearly. I invite each ERO member to make frequent use of them and I wish you fruitful negotiations with your administrators. The topic might be of interest for a discussion in Sofia.