b'A YEAR IN REVIEWPracticing Beyond the Practice-Dr. Stephanie GanterWhat many of AAPs members do goes beyond practicing periodontology. AAP members leverage their dental superpower to help others, and that is exactly what Dr. Stephanie Ganter has done for Ukrainian refugees in Poland, and patients in need right here at home. Dr. Ganters life took a big pivot during her senior year of residency. As a high school and college athlete, she claims she had a rose-colored lens of the world, and had to deal with some rude awakenings in life. As she was looking for jobs and even had some lined up, one of Dr. Ganters endo residents told her about an oral surgeon her father worked with whose office she wanted Dr. Ganter to check out. Dr. Ganter agreed, as she loves the oral surgery side of dentistry including wisdom teeth surgery. Upon checking out the practice and speaking with the oral surgeon, one of the most prevalent topics they discussed was mission work. As they were getting to know each otherWork will always expand to the time you allow it toDr. and discussing mission work in more detail, the oral surgeon endedGanter has reached a point where she doesnt try to hyper up telling Dr. Ganter, Im going on a mission trip to Guatemala in twoplan and lets things flow. She claims she can strategically weeks- come with me. And thats where it all began.take even a month off from her practice without it affecting Dr. Ganter ended up going on the mission trip to Guatemala which washer bottom line. Throughout her life, she was always told run through the Christian Medical Dental Association. She saw thishours equal success, but what she has found through trial as an opportunity to not only do some good in the world, but to alsoand error and even a bit of luck is that her patients love see if she and the oral surgeon could work well together, which theyhearing about her mission trips. Mission trips allow her to agreed they could do after the trip. What Dr. Ganter took away frombe a better provider because she has more motivation to the Guatemala mission trip was that she needed to redirect her life.be at work with all the other additional positive work she The trip allowed her to embrace the idea of imperfection over havingdoes. She calls her work outlook a bit European, but this the perfect, golden child life. Now, she was searching for meaning inis what she has found works best for her and allows her to everything she would do.be the best provider she can be to her patients. Dr. Ganter claims, You can be the smartest doctor in the room but This led Dr. Ganter to take the Harvard Surgical Leadership Programif your patient doesnt trust you, theyll never receive thata one-year asynchronous program that allowed her to interacthigh quality care. A big part of it is communicating with your with surgeons from all over the worldand she learned importantpatients and being a doctor they can trust.life lessons from it. She ended up being a keynote speaker for theAside from her international mission trips to Guatemala and program. In this program, Dr. Ganter says they werent trying to provePoland, Dr. Ganter does a lot of local mission work. With who knew more or who spent more time in a hospital, but it wasTexas Mission of Mercy, she organized one in Dallas a year about the people and what changes these doctors wanted to enact inago and they do four a year. Part of her capstone project in their communities. She states, It gave me part of a plan to interactcollege from Harvard was on access to care and keeping with people beyond just dentistry how we can all be more collegial,patients out of the hospitals because of how expensive it improve the patient experience, and move the notch a little. is for dental patients to go to the emergency department Next issue: ChangetheRXDr. Donna KlauserTime is of the essence when it comes to opioid overdoses. Having NARCAN (opioid reversal nasal spray) readily available allows for immediate intervention, providing a crucial window of opportunity for medical professionals to arrive and provide further care. Making NARCAN widely accessible to the general public has the potential to save countless lives and is paramount in combating the opioid crisis. ChangetheRX, nonprofit 501(c)(3), receives tax deductible donations to distribute NARCAN to as many people as possible to prevent accidental drug poisoning. Learn more at changetherx.comAAP Periospectives| 6'