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VIDEO - HSP #279 - Michael Tennenbaum and Heidi We
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The Alpha Omega International Dental Fraternity is the oldest international dental organization. Alpha Omega (AO) also has the distinction of being the oldest international Jewish medical organization.
AO was founded at the University of Maryland School of Dental Medicine in 1907 by a group of dental students. During those times, Jewish students were not permitted to form social groups so the Maryland students formed AO to fight discrimination. Little did they know but their efforts have created a lasting imprint on AO members to this day. Discrimination is not as prevalent but it still occurs.
The AO international community is comprised of over 100 alumni and students chapters in ten countries. AO is an inclusive organization that welcomes people from all cultural backgrounds but our Vision, Mission, and Values are guided by our three tenets of professionalism, fraternalism, and commitment to Judaic values.
Alpha Omega Vision: An international Jewish dental organization striving to enrich the lives of its members.
Alpha Omega Mission: To enhance the dental profession and lives of dental professionals worldwide by promoting and supporting ideals of global oral health, education, and the bonds of fraternity.
Alpha Omega Values: Commitment, Integrity, Family, Global Oral Health, Inclusivity, Leadership, and Social Justice.
AO embraces the spirit of Tikkun Olam, or healing the world through charitable endeavors. As healers, our dentist and dental student members strive to make their communities better. AO strives to connect our members through our chapter meetings, international conventions, leadership seminars, and charitable projects.
In January 2015, AO, in partnership with Henry Schein Cares, is launching the AO/HSC Holocaust Survivors Oral Health Program in nine North American cities. Our members are volunteering to help treat this deserving population that has dental needs that are unmet. This program truly embraces the generous spirit of our members and the willingness to help others in need.
AO welcomes new members into the community. Please contact Heidi Weber, Executive Director, for more information.
www.ao.org
Howard: Hello. I am with Heidi Weber who is the executive director of the Alpha Omega Dental Fraternity. You're outside of Washington, D.C.
Heidi: That's correct.
Howard: This is Dr. Michael Tennenbalm who is the past international president. I just got done lecturing, and we're at Winnipeg, Manitoba. I just got done lecturing, and I wanted you to share your message about what is the Alpha Omega Dental Society Fraternity and tell everyone all about it.
Heidi: Sure. It's 108-year-old organization started back at the University of Maryland. They started originally to face discrimination that was happening in the dental schools. As time has gone on, it has moved from discrimination to more of a philanthropic organization. Right now we have 100 chapters worldwide, 30 chapters in the dental schools in North America. We have a chapter here in Manitoba, so Dr. Tennenbalm and I came for the lecture and to also visit with our members. One of the things that we're most proud of right now is we launched last year a program to treat Holocaust survivors. Right now we're in 12 North American cities. This has been launched with our partner, Henry Schein Cares under the call from the White House. Actually, Dr. Tennenbalm has treated one of the patients in his native Montreal.
Howard: Wow. Tell us about that.
Dr. Tennenbalm: Basically, most of these people now are in their 80s or 90s. Unfortunately, during the Holocaust they obviously didn't get dental care, and their mouths have deteriorated. Over 25% of them are under the poverty line, at least 25%. Basically, what we did is the social services agencies in Montreal, for instance, sent us the patient, and we treated them as if they were private patients. This patient needed dentures. We treated them with dentures. We were very fortunate that we've also partnered with a lab, Town and Country, and they provided services. We gave us their time. Henry Schein has provided supplies for us, and we did the work pro bono. It worked out great.
Howard: Henry Schein, so was Stan Bergman involved with this?
Dr. Tennenbalm: Definitely.
Howard: Stan Bergman, I got to tell you my Stan Bergman ... Can I tell you my Stan Bergman story? Three times in my life I've been in a missionary dental trip out in the middle of nowhere. The last time was in Tanzania, Africa. In the middle of nowhere is a dental office that's as nice as mine in Phoenix, and it's all provided by Henry Schein. When Africans have that vitiligo where their skin depigments, actually, medicine men hunt them down and use them for their witchcraft voodoo. There was this compound with 12-foot walls around it, razor wire around it. It had about 300 of these kids, and I walked in there. They needed [inaudible 00:03:08] dentistry. Me and 3 of my buddies from Phoenix, we went down there, and we were going to work on these kids.
The whole place was presented, again, my Henry Schein. I told these little kids, I said, "My buddy, Stan Bergman, he built this." I take out my iPhone, and I said, "I want you guys to all say thank you to my friend, Stan," and I turned on my phone. I said, "Tell Stan thank you," and 300 little African Tanzanian children started singing Happy Birthday. They're like, "Happy Birthday ... " I posted that on YouTube, if you ever want to see it, and I sent it to Stan. Stan is just an amazing man. You said it was started in University of Maryland. That's where the first dental school was.
Heidi: Right. Absolutely.
Howard: In America, I should say.
Heidi: In America, right.
Howard: Obviously, the French. The French had Pierre Fauchard 100 years before that, but in America it was.
Heidi: Absolutely. It has blossomed. We are in 30 dental school chapters. That's where most of our members have a touchpoint with Alpha Omega. Then they become members as we call them, alumni chapters in 70 cities across the world. We're trying to reach out to other countries definitely in South America, trying to get into Mexico. We are open to anyone, but we're mostly a Jewish organization, but we're open to anyone who once you embrace our vision of enhancing the world with oral health and especially philanthropic efforts.
Howard: When you started it was originally discrimination. Does that mean Jewish kids were having a hard time getting into the original dental schools?
Dr. Tennenbalm: They were not only having a hard time getting into dental schools, once they got in, they were set to a different standard in terms of marks. They had a great deal of difficulty staying in. Emory was a perfect example where there was open discrimination, and it was brought out to light, and the fact, I think, a couple of years ago, thanks to Perry [Britman 00:05:07], the school actually apologized for what they did, that they had set different standards. If you were a Jewish dental student, you had to score a lot higher than you did, if you weren't. At this point, we'll fight any discrimination against any visible minority or whatever. We've stood with other groups as well, Hispanic groups. If there's a problem, Alpha Omega will take part, but that's not our main focus right now. We definitely have that as part of our mission.
Howard: It's amazing how discrimination always continues anywhere around the world. The United States was sending boat loads of Jewish refugees back to Europe as late as 1939. I mean, it's crazy. It's just every group that comes to this country suffers discrimination.
Dr. Tennenbalm: My parents were Holocaust survivors. They could've been saved. Even Canada, there was a famous book written, None is Too Many. They weren't allowed here too.
Howard: Tell us who your parents were. Where were they Holocaust survivors from?
Dr. Tennenbalm: From Poland, originally.
Howard: Auschwitz?
Dr. Tennenbalm: My father was in Auschwitz. My mother was in Bergen-Belsen.
Howard: Have you ever been to Auschwitz before?
Dr. Tennenbalm: No, as a matter of fact, our organization is planning a trip in May to Poland to go through the concentration camps but also to focus on the positive side of what Jewish culture and life was like in Poland before the Holocaust.
Howard: What was amazing to me because I've lectured in Warsaw probably every 5 years the last 25 years. Some of my best friends march into [inaudible 00:06:47] from there. I think what's the most stunning when you go to Auschwitz is you don't have a picture of what it's like. When you go there, this is bigger than any plant at Detroit. This was not a small operation. When you go there, and you see the magnitude of the 6-train tracks coming in, and you're just looking. Oh my god, you would think this is where they were making the most popular car in the world, and it was all extermination. I mean, just amazing.
Dr. Tennenbalm: It's funny, the Holocaust survivor that I treated told me an interesting story. What he did is he did a podcast. His kids are in the film industry, and he went to Auschwitz to film. The person at the gate said, "You have to pay to come in." He said, "Funny, the last time I was here I didn't have to pay to come in." It was just interesting. It flew over her head. She didn't quite understand what he was saying.
Howard: My friend, Amir [Modamad 00:07:48] has a meeting in California. He's ran it 3 times. I lectured there last time, and there was a 94-year-old dentist there. He was a Holocaust survivor from Auschwitz. I was telling him, "You got to write a book, you got to do a story." He says he so desperately wants to write a book. What was so amazing is he's 94 years old, and he's all excited about it because when he turned 90, he decided he was going to switch from 2D x-rays to 3D and start placing implants. I'm like, oh my god, the guy is 90 years old. He's an Auschwitz survivor, and he was 94 years old. The guy was more excited about 3D surgical guides, placing implants. Dude, from Auschwitz to CBCT, this should be a movie. You got to write a book. He says, "I don't know how to get around with it." I said, "I've written 3 books, and I got some editors. You just need to get me this." I need to follow through with that because I think if he just sat down with an editor for one week, he'd have one amazing book.
Dr. Tennenbalm: I think my generation and probably yours, we don't understand how they survived. Their attitude about life is so much different than ours, and they want to live every day. They want to enjoy their life, and they want to give back. We just had one of our members pass away, he was a survivor. The things that he did for our organization were unreal. We're honoring him at this convention in D.C., the late Sam [inaudible 00:09:21]. We're very proud of what he accomplished.
Howard: Tell us more about him. What lessons from Auschwitz should every dentist practicing dentistry think about every day?
Dr. Tennenbalm: I think what he tried to impress on us was how precious life was, how we shouldn't take things for granted. If we were given the skills to help and heal people, that we should. It was what you were talking about today in your lecture as well, that we're very fortunate that we have this certain skill, and we have to use it. He said, "Make every day count, but make every day count that you feel that you've made the world a little bit better." That's what our organization believes in. There's an expression called tikkun olam, healing the world. Every time he spoke, that's what he spoke about. Heal the world, even if it's one person. Even if it's one little thing that you've done, you've actually helped the world get better. He was a remarkable person, and he had very little, if any, resentment. He wasn't angry. He wanted to channel that energy to good, and we were sorry we lost him this year. We're going to have something special for him in his memory.
Howard: Why do you think he wasn't angry? How come Nelson Mandela after all those years locked up came out humble? What did your parents teach you about Auschwitz? What went into their mind that didn't make them angry, and bitter and mean?
Dr. Tennenbalm: I think if they were angry, they weren't angry at the Nazis. They were angry at the world for not stopping them or turning, as you say, a blind eye. There were 6 train tracks going in. They weren't manufacturing cars. There was something wrong. I think if anything, that was the only part they were upset about, that the world had the ability of change things or stop things, and they didn't. Their attitude is that they want to make sure that we don't ever let ourselves get into that position. That's something that I've tried to follow, I've tried to get my 2 kids to follow. The people at Alpha Omega, we believe that we have to stand up for what's right, and it may not always be popular, but we stand up for it. We've done that.
In fact, our president right now, Adam Stabholz was the dean of Hebrew University in Israel. He created a relationship with the dean of Al-Quds University. It was considered unheard of. They started an alliance for oral health across borders. Any time there was countries in conflict whether it was the Palestinians and the Israelis or the Indians and the Pakistani, they thought that through dentistry they could make the world better. Stanley Bergman was involved in that as well.
Howard: He is an amazing man. He is such an amazing man.
Dr. Tennenbalm: When I was president, we signed a charter in Philadelphia. We had deans of every dental school, and it was an amazing thing. It's the Alliance for Oral Health Across Borders. Alpha Omega is a charter member.
Howard: Have you gone back to Israel?
Dr. Tennenbalm: Yes. As a matter of fact, last December, we had our convention there. Alpha Omega helped build a floor of Tel Aviv University where they're treating special needs people, people that normally could not get dentistry. We're very proud of that. Heidi was very instrumental in helping us with that as well.
Howard: That guy filming my podcast is my third son, Ryan. Ryan, I don't know if you know this, but I've sent your grandma, my mother to trips to London, and Rome and Paris. I don't think she's ever mentioned any of those trips, but I sent her and her 3 best friends to Israel. I think it was a 12-day, all-inclusive trip or whatever. Oh my god, she thought that was the coolest thing ever in the world. She talks about it so much. It's 2 weeks before Christmas. I need to tell Mom that if she wants to go back, I want to send her back because she just thought that was absolutely the coolest thing she'd ever seen in her life. She's a die hard Catholic, but going through all those places. Oh my gosh, she just thought that was seriously the neatest thing she'd ever done. I just feel good that her and her 3 church ladies all got to go share it together.
What made you want to be the executive director? I mean, you could've done anything. What made you pick this instead of marketing, advertising, finance?
Heidi: I did a little bit of that. What if I told you that I applied, but I did my research, and I won them over with the interview, and this is my dream job? I say it liberally. I'm very fortunate to have this job. I'm not a dentist, but I know how to run a nonprofit organization. I also know enough about how to deal with international members. Some people aren't very comfortable with that. They want to remain locally and that sort of thing, but because we have members, 4,000 such members internationally, you have to have a basis of how to treat them. What keeps me going with this job, I've been with it over 4 years, the people are really good to me, and I try to be good to them. These are philanthropically-minded people. I'm personally like that, so it helps that our values align.
I, myself am not Jewish, but when I took this job I remember I made it very clear to him in a cover letter, he was the president at the time, that I'm not Jewish, but my values align with yours. It's not a religious thing. It's a personal thing. You want to help the world. You want to help maybe one person at a time with how you can do that, whether it's dentistry for me. I volunteer with animal rescue groups, that's my thing. It has to come from within. Somebody else who may not have those kind of values probably would not do really well working with AO. I'm motivated all the time, and I really love my job.
Howard: How can you have values to promote teeth and be a hockey fan at the same time? I mean, you're cheering on the people knocking out all the teeth while you're in a dental organization. That just doesn't make sense.
Dr. Tennenbalm: She's cheering the wrong team [crosstalk 00:15:46].
Howard: She's cheering the wrong team.
Heidi: That's some people's opinion.
Howard: You're with the Jets?
Dr. Tennenbalm: No.
Heidi: No.
Howard: Who are you with?
Dr. Tennenbalm: Montreal.
Howard: You're in Montreal.
Dr. Tennenbalm: That's right. The Canadians, the Habs, it's a religion to support them. Heidi is a good sport about it. We have a good [crosstalk 00:16:06].
Howard: What's your team?
Heidi: I am a Pittsburgh Penguins fan. One of the benefits of being in AO is there's plenty of hockey fans to talk hockey with all the time.
Howard: You have 4,000 international members. How many total members?
Heidi: Four thousand. Honestly, there are a lot more in pockets that we know of. With any membership group right now, it doesn't matter if it's religious, nonreligious, it's selling the value of what's being a member. Some people latch onto an organization. Some people you have to prove what you can give them. Why right now are Holocaust survivor programs so important is that our dentists are seeing that we have this wonderful program. We're working with Henry Schein Cares. We're working with The White House, and we're helping people in our own communities have dignity as they get older. That's a program that is so special. I don't know if anything else is being replicated like that in the world right now. That's one program that we offer the members. Even if they don't live in an area that survivors are being treated, they see our members doing good work.
Howard: Now on Dental Town, we have 205,000 members. We have 51 categories, root canals, fillings, crowns, whatever. One of them is associations, associations and organizations. I wish we would start one for the ... See, we have the Academy of Dental, all these deals. We don't have the Alpha Omega. I wish you would start a ... We have the Hispanic Dental Association, the International ... all kinds of them, Napier, Fouchard, World Health. I wish we would start a deal for those people, if anything, just for contact information. If you started that, and someone was interested in that, they'd know how to contact you. How can our listeners contact you? What is your website? How can they find out more?
Heidi: Our website is www.ao.org.
Howard: Man, how did you get that, ao.org? You must have been the first guy on the internet.
Heidi: Must have been. I don't know. It's been in existence before me.
Howard: I'm impressed, to get ao.org on the internet. Just like I'm impressed that one person on Twitter has @dentistry. I'm like, man, how forward-thinking were you? You got ao.org. You can't forget that, ao.org for Alpha Omega. That means beginning, end? Where does that name come from?
Dr. Tennenbalm: Alpha and Omega because it originally started as a paternity. Alpha was the beginning, and Omega is the end. Unfortunately, there are a lot of Alpha Omega groups, but we're the only dental one. As Heidi said, we're the oldest, 108 years old.
Howard: That is amazing. Is it pretty popular? You're in French Quebec. You're in Montreal.
Dr. Tennenbalm: I'm in Montreal.
Howard: You speak French and English.
Dr. Tennenbalm: Yes, I do. We have almost 300 members in Montreal. We have both dental schools, the University of Montreal and McGill. In Canada alone, Manitoba has got a great chapter. We have chapters in Vancouver, Calgary. We just started one in Ottawa, Toronto, obviously, and Montreal.
Howard: If you speak French and English, then who is the father of modern dentistry? Is it G.V. Black from the United States or is it Pierre Fauchard from Paris, France?
Dr. Tennenbalm: I won't get into that. I won't get into that.
Howard: What I'm thinking about doing is we just started an audio book section. On eBay I bought the first 3 books written by G.V. Black. I'm trying to ask lawyers if it's okay to read them because there's no audio book, if no one has ever listened to them. I think it'd be fun to listen to because dentists, I don't think have any idea of how crazy the thinking was 100 years ago. They were trephinating into jaws because they thought they were letting out evil spirits. I got that Pierre Fauchard too, but I need to find some dentist who can read it in French and then a dentist who can translate it in English because it's a French book. I would love to have someone read it in English, so that all the English-speaking people could hear what Pierre Fauchard was saying back in the 1700s.
Dr. Tennenbalm: We'd love to help you. We have 10 chapters in France. A lot of our members, they are fluently bilingual.
Howard: Fix me up with that because I think that a lot of dentists are never going to just sit around and read G.V. Black's book or Pierre Fauchard's book. I think if you have his audio book, it might turn a lot of people onto those ancient days. How long are you going to be the executive director and what are your long-term goals?
Heidi: I just signed a 5-year contract, an extension of my contract. I'll definitely be around for 5 years. The long-term goals for AO, I hope to grow the membership, doing some more efforts there because again, it's open to everyone. We talked to some people today from Winnipeg. They don't really know exactly what AO is doing, and we're just trying to get the word out. I mean, we're a small niche organization. The longevity is definitely important to our board, to our members, to me.
Howard: How much does it cost to become a member?
Heidi: It depends on the country. We have different dues. Let's say for an American, it's practicing dentist, $180 plus chapters have their own dues. We're a little bit like the federal government. Then the federal government and the States are the chapters. They set their own tempo with dues and meetings.
Howard: Does Jack Dillenberg have a chapter in Phoenix?
Heidi: He does at the school.
Howard: Is it at the dental school or is it also for local dentists?
Dr. Tennenbalm: Both.
Howard: Right now. We're both friends with Jack Dillenberg who I think when I went to school, most deans were more like a military marine bootcamp coach. I think they thought they showed affection by the harder and more difficult they made it it was going to make us more disciplined or whatever. The first guy to really throw that bone away was Art Dugoni who said, "No, these are our next generation and treat them ..." Art, they named a school after him. He's no longer the dean, but now I think Jack Dillenberg is hands down. When you talk to dental students, say, "What do you think of your dean?" Most of them say, "If I could kill him and not get caught and not go to jail, I would." All of Jack's students say, "My God, I love that guy so much. He's just so sweet and down to earth." Ryan, we need podcast interview Jack Dillenberg, just one of the greatest deans ever.
Dr. Tennenbalm: Jack has been a great supporter. We have a lot of deans that are members, Bruce Donoff, who is world-renowned. He's a member of Alpha. He's very active in Alpha Omega. I think we even honored Art as an achievement medal winner, I'm not sure. I remember back we did, which is the highest award we give out each year.
Howard: He just wrote his book. Ryan, we need to get that in an audio book or a podcast interview, Art Dugoni. He just came out with a book. Is he 90?
Dr. Tennenbalm: I wouldn't know.
Howard: I think he's 90 years old, and he just came out with a new book and just writing his memoirs. Man, what a legend in dentistry, an amazing legend. If someone wanted to email you, call you, can they do that?
Heidi: Absolutely.
Howard: You said www.ao.org. What's your email.
Heidi: At the bottom of the website has all our information. My email is hweber@ao.org, Weber is with one B. Our phone number is 301-738-6400.
Howard: One more time on the phone number.
Heidi: 301-738-6400.
Howard: Any parting words, Doc?
Dr. Tennenbalm: We really appreciate what you did. I don't know if you said this, but today was a fundraiser. You came in, and you spoke. We had a full house, and nobody was charged for the meeting today, but they made donations to the Manitoba foundation. That's one of the things that we pushed all over the world. We have foundations in Canada, the United States, in France, and in Israel, and in London, and we donate. We do things to try and make the world better.
Howard: You know, you should write something up for Dental Town magazine. It goes to 125,000 dentists every month. Then we digitally send it out to literally almost that many dentists around the world. I would love to have something in Dental Town magazine from you, Heidi, that talked about what you do, your mission, the whole 9 yards.
Dr. Tennenbalm: We thank you for giving us this exposure.
Howard: I thank you. How's dentistry in Montreal these days?
Dr. Tennenbalm: Dentistry in Montreal is great. If we take away the weather and some of the politics, it's great. We've always been cutting edge. McGill is a very world-renowned school, so is the University of Montreal in terms of research. We've been very fortunate in terms of dentistry, whether it's private dentistry. We don't have some of the issues that they have in the States with insurance, as you talked about today. We've been very happy with that. I love the profession.
Howard: Just curious, not knowing. I was born and raised in Kansas 25 years. Now I'm in Arizona, very far from Montreal. Does Montreal have a lot of close connections, the dental schools with French dental schools because you have a common language?
Dr. Tennenbalm: As a matter of fact, both countries just passed an entente a while ago where people from either place can come and practice there. If somebody from France from a recognized school wants to practice in Quebec, they can. There's certain things that they have to do. They have to either do a stage with somebody, with a practicing dentist for 6 months. There's certain requirements, but they don't have to start from scratch and take licenses.
Howard: Now do you know any personal dentists in France?
Dr. Tennenbalm: I know a lot through our organization.
Howard: Really? Is being a dentist in France about the same economic opportunity as in Montreal, or is it a better situation in France, or is it a better situation in French Montreal to be a dentist?
Dr. Tennenbalm: I think Montreal because it's North American. They were happy there. I think part of their issues right now are political. They're worried about things like that. Part of it in terms of our organization is discrimination where they're concerned about that as well. We'll open our doors to whoever want to come, and we'll help them. We've set up programs to help them too.
Howard: I love Paris, and there's ... I'll just come out and say it. When you go to many countries, food is great, but you can't compare a fine restaurant in England or the United Kingdom to France. You can't compare fine dining in France to the Ukraine or Poland. France is just one of the coolest places to wine, and dine and go to restaurants, don't you think?
Dr. Tennenbalm: You have to come to Montreal then. We have some of the finest dining as well. We pride ourselves in being half North American and half European.
Howard: I think Paris is the cat's meow. I mean, that is one cool city. Thank you for spending time after a very long day.
Heidi: Thank you.
Howard: Thank you on a very successful meeting.
Dr. Tennenbalm: Thank you.
Howard: Thanks for spending time with me, and thank you, Ryan.