b'predoctoral periodontal education. In addition, the Academy could consider programs to encourage their members to teach within the undergraduate programs. The problem at many of these schools is that the undergraduates are never exposed to the highest achievable levelsDDS match.comof periodontal therapy, and therefore theyll never be able to refer their patients for that kind of treatment.What are the next steps for the Task Force?Dr. Bain: Weve talked about the possibility of conducting a survey among students to get a better idea of whats actually going on in theAre You Ready?clinics and other areas that are beyond our control. Id also like to see us explore a way to engage general dentists during their first five or so years in practice. Our goal would be to help establish patterns that will set them up for the balance of their career to value periodontics and to buy or sell arefer cases to periodontists when appropriate. Im not sure exactly how wed do this, but I think it would be worth the effort to look into it. One way or another, we have to find a way to help our students appreciate specialty practice?the difference between good and bad periodontal treatment. In our program, we require predoctoral students to do their competencies withLet DDSmatch the involvement of both general dentists and periodontists. They also must have their portfolios include at least three referrals in which they follow through with both the communications and treatment with the patient and provide written explanations of which cases they plan to treathelp you and why, and which cases they plan to refer out and why.Dr. Geurs: I would love to see the Task Force follow up with a surveyfind the perfect matchof students to measure the outcomes of the education weve been providing them. The other thing I think we should consider is exploring ways we can benefit from one of the great lessons of the pandemic:Active in 47 states, the fact that we as educational institutions can greatly benefit from collaboration. It made us realize that there are several important nicheDDSmatch has a vastareas of expertise that are needed for each of us to be effective but arent available at all schools. By sharing our expertise and other nationwide networkeducational resources, we can help standardize and improve the quality of predoctoral periodontal education were providing. to best serve you . Dr. Palomo: No Task Force would be able to go it alone. Our Task Force, our Academy, and our academic institutions are jointly tasked with engineering a means to advocate for and incentivize predoctoralFind specialty practice,periodontal education.We must combine our efforts to recruit the most engaging, thoughtful periodontists to deliberately inspire involvement in partner & associateshipthe predoctoral curriculum. Publications like Periospectives are especially important because they can drive potential faculty members to prioritize opportunities attheir time and talents towards predoctoral education. Most dental DDSmatch.comstudents and clinicians who participate in predoctoral education would tell you the reason they got into the profession is to make a difference in the world, to improve their communities. All aspects of our profession have to team up and spread the word that achieving the goal that drove us in the first place, the goal of overall wellness, is best attainable byDDSmatch.com integrating, in the predoctoral environment, the unique level of care that periodontists can provide.1-855-546-0044AAP Periospectives| 11'