GAP Magazine Clear Idea Volume 5

2 www.acasociety.com | info@acasociety.com W elcome to the July/August edition of Clear Idea – Australasian Clear Aligner Society’s (ACAS) biannual magazine. As you know, Clear Idea magazine was created to build our sense of community and learning with feature articles, impartial (and strictly unpaid) product reviews and competitions as well as being your home of our society’s news and events. Many members have reached out after finding our magazine useful, and to that end I want to continue to thank our contributors and the team at Australasian Dentist magazine who help create and publish our biannual society magazine to a world class standard. May I again start off by wishing all of our members and their loved ones are safe and of good health. Our thoughts and well wishes are with those parts of the world where the virus continues to wreak havoc and hope that we all see better days together. The first six months of 2021 has certainly provided more stability in the Australian and New Zealand landscape. Both countries have, to a large degree, been able to minimise the effects of this very serious virus. Although we are absolutely not in the clear yet we share a sense of optimism that we will once again be able to live a “normal” life – albeit with slow steps. Many ACAS members have now commented that they are well and truly back to work. We have received many comments or contact in the last six months from members who have noticed a sharp increase in the number of patients who have expressed interest in aligner treatment and cosmetic treatment as a whole. This has also been confirmed with a number of aligner companies who have indicated to us that their numbers are absolutely growing. There is a lot of speculation as to why this increase has occurred – whether it be patients focusing on their teeth during Zoom meetings, realigning life goals, using funds that would otherwise have been spent on travel, advertising, or further WOM referrals from friends or family who have had successful aligner treatment. Whatever may be driving this surge in demand, we must all view this as an opportunity. Withopportunitycomes responsibility, and that is why I would like to thank those who tuned in to ACAS2021 Virtual earlier this year for their commitment to education and training to improve their patients’ outcomes. I would also like to extend a very special thank you to Drs Coyne, Rapaport, Weir, Semaan, Costanzo and Professors Darendeliler and Mah who brought an incredible wealth of knowledge, energy and expertise to the virtual symposium, we are honoured to have had such an eclectic mix of amazing academics, international and local orthodontists who share the ACAS vision and ethos. A reminder that all members are able to re-watch these presentations at their leisure on our online portal. I would like to thank our society sponsors, who have continued to support us in what is no doubt a difficult period for them! Their commitment to support our organisation and their support for our impartial education is very much appreciated. Lastly, and most importantly, I would like to thank our members who supported us in general, and particularly throughout the last year and a half where we’ve had to change, adapt and modify. We hope you have benefitted from our society and we are excited to continue to develop our society to achieve more and achieve better. We would like to take the opportunity to remind all member that that you can find current and backdated copies of Journal of Aligner Orthodontics, all copies of Clear Idea magazine as well as ACAS webinars, podcasts and discounts for a wide range of upcoming aligner courses on our portal. Our locality guide is updated weekly, so if you haven’t put your clinic details on it yet, please contact members@acasociety.com Important: ACAS2021 Postponed until December! We have always said we are committed to only holding ACAS as a physical event at a time when it is safe to do so and that we can all be together. The health and safety of our members and sponsors has always been our main priority. Due to current lockdowns and restrictions across the country, we have made the difficult decision to postpone ACAS2021 until December 9th-11th 2021. This date changewas not taken lightly, and was made after many committee meetings and lengthy conversations with all stakeholders. If we had chosen to proceed in August, without the attendance of our Sydney members and potential sponsors, we would have been running at around 60% attendance. We felt the event would not be the same without our valued NSW sponsors and members, and this played a major part in making this hard decision. We appreciate your support over the past 18 months, and continued support during this time! Our whole team is now working hard in the background to ensure that ACAS2021 in Melbourne, Australia is a complete success and an event that continues to uphold ACAS’ high standards. We absolutely cannot wait to welcome everyone to ACAS2021 at Crown, Melbourne in December! It has taken a lot of planning and commitment from the whole team, and we are very excited to hold this symposium. We have an absolutely jam-packed schedule with incredible topics and speakers as well as a cocktail party on the Friday night with the hilarious comedian, Dave Hughes. We ask for your continued support, feedback and participation in our events and publications. It is obvious that the dental community has accepted this society and want to see it flourish. For the more active members who would like to contribute further, please get in contact to see if we have a suitable role for you. We are always on the lookout for ways in which we can broaden our horizon and serve our members more. Some exciting events and happenings to look forward to include: • ACAS2021 Virtual conference recording on our online portal • Journal of Aligner Orthodontics Access (including all previous additions) for all members • ACAS Podcast (updated once a month!) • Courses and group bulk discounts • ACAS2021 in Melbourne, Australia in December (NEW DATE! MORE THAN 70% SOLD OUT) Kind regards, Dr John Hagiliassis President’s welcome From Dr John Hagiliassis John Hagiliassis