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AAOM Synonymous with Mentoring

Michael A Siegel, DDS, MS, FDS RCSed

My first year in the Army was 1979 following graduation from dental school. I was stationed at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC.  My first rotation was in oral medicine with Colonel Joseph L. Konzelman. At the end of the rotation, I approached Colonel Konzelman and told him, “I want to learn to do what you do.”  Without saying a word, he handed me a stack of current literature and said, “Go to the library for the next two weeks and commit these to memory.”  He has been mentoring me now for 45 years now. The mid-annual meeting in December 1979 was across the Chain Bridge at the Marriott Hotel in Arlington, Virginia. Joe said, “If you want to make oral medicine your career, you have to join the Academy.”  Truer words were never spoken!!

That first meeting was filled with stargazing. Names like Millard, Greenberg, Silverman, Burket, Little, Falace and Pindborg; these are the people who wrote my textbooks! Joe introduced me as his protégé.  They were all so kind and welcoming. I have never been involved in any professional organization where mentoring is so freely given to any member who seeks it out.

The mentoring continues to this day. It was a surprise to receive the Little and Falace Award from the editorial board at the meeting in Orlando. I was unable to write out an acceptance speech but instinctively knew that if I approached the microphone, I would still be there touting the virtues of Drs. James Little and Donald Falace. There is no higher compliment than being favorably compared to people you strive to emulate.

Drs. Little and Falace also mentored me and taught me how to review manuscripts submitted to the editorial board. Drs. Little and Falace epitomize mentors. Their textbook, Dental Management of the Medically Compromised Patient, is now in its 10^th edition. It has become the benchmark of oral medicine textbooks. Drs. Little and Falace mentored the next generation. Drs. Miller and Rhodus who in turn are mentoring Drs. Kerr, Stoopler and Treister. This represents mentoring of the highest order. To quote Dr. Konzelman once again, “If you want to make oral medicine your career, you have to join the Academy.”