| In the broad area of sleep, the Australasian Sleep Association is the peak scientific body in Australia and New Zealand, representing clinicians, practitioners, scientists and researchers. In 1999, the Orofacial Special Interest Group was formed by a small group of dedicated ASA members at the ASA Annual Scientific Meeting on the Gold Coast. Today there are six SIGs: the Chronobiology SIG, Insomnia & Sleep Health SIG, Dental Orofacial SIG, Paediatric SIG, Respiratory SIG and Neurology SIG. ASA members are free to join any SIG. As our ASA membership grows, new members ask what are the special interest groups and what are they about? To help answer this question it is timely to look at and reflect on the first Mission Statement for the Orofacial SIG in a 1999 Newsletter.
Mission Statement circa 1999:
To facilitate a coordinated multidisciplinary approach between clinicians and scientists interested in the oral biology and dental aspects of sleep disorders and their treatment to promote collaborative education, research and clinical practice.
Broad Objectives:
- To foster the exchange of information and collaboration in research among clinicians and scientists broadly interested in the oral biology and dental aspects of sleep disorders and their treatment, encompassing (but not restricted to) the disciplines of respiratory and sleep medicine, dentistry and its subspecialties, otorhinolaryngology and maxillofacial surgery.
- To serve as a resource group to the Australasian Sleep Association Board and its subcommittees in the provision of specialised expertise related to dental aspects of sleep disorders, development of position papers and education material.
- To contribute to the planning of Annual Scientific Meetings.
Over the last 10 years the scope of interest of our SIG members has expanded distally to include the structure and function of the airway below the mouth and deep into the pharynx. After our 2009 Melbourne meeting, it was voted that we expand the name of our SIG to include "Dental". Currently, the Dental Orofacial SIG comprises 131 ASA members and there is no doubt that numbers will increase significantly over the next 10 years. As a service to our growing membership we are producing regular e-newsletters. The overall aim of these newsletters is to provide regular updates, information and reading material for members, especially new members.
Each year we will aim to organise an Oral Sleep Medicine 3 day Certification Course that is intended for dentists and dental professionals new to sleep disorders dentistry or currently treating patients through the utilisation of oral appliance devices. The course emphasises the multidisciplinary approach to sleep disorders dentistry and is designed to help set the standards in this growing field. The preceding ASA Annual Scientific Meeting program is designed to ensure that it will appeal to workers in every field of sleep disorders and sleep health, and is a great opportunity for dentists, technologists, scientists, doctors, researchers and other interested parties to mingle together to learn the very latest in their fields of endeavours.
Links will also be updated on the members only pages of the ASA web site for future reference. All members are encouraged to send in any articles or content that may be of interest to our colleagues. In turn, we hope to build a repository of references to articles that will be of interest to all our membership.
Regards,
Andrew Gikas
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