LLU School of Dentistry - Dentalgram, August 2000

Operative Dentistry board meets in Iowa

Dr. Clyde Roggenkamp

Clyde Roggenkamp, SD'70, MSD, MS, associate professor of restorative dentistry, served as an examiner for the American Board of Operative Dentistry, conducted at the University of Iowa School of Dentistry in Iowa City, Iowa. The examination process started at 8:00 a.m. Monday morning, July 24, and finished at 5:00 p.m., Wednesday, July 26. Procedures included a gold foil restoration, a partial veneer cast gold crown, a class II amalgam or composite, an anterior porcelain crown (with appropriate characterization, staining, and glazing), and an amalgam cusp replacement restoration. Four graduate students challenged the clinical exam and one took the written exam.

The chief examiner and president of the ABOD is Henry A. St. Germain, Jr., DMD, MSD, MEd, associate professor and chairman, Department of Adult Restorative Dentistry, University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Dentistry, from Lincoln, Nebraska. The third examiner was Dr. Gordon Jones, a captain in the United States Navy who currently serves as the dental clinic commander at the Naval Dental Research Institute in north Chicago. He is past president and current chair of the examination committee.

This Operative Dentistry board was started in 1981 by the Academy of Operative Dentistry, with significant contributions of time and organization by Robert Kinzer, SD'58, professor of restorative dentistry. There are now a total of 37 who have been certified. Certification is of value for dentists who desire to show extra achievement in the area of operative dentistry. This board includes a written exam, a clinical portion, photographs and written documentation of two comprehensive clinic cases, and the oral examination which is basically a defense and review of two patient cases. Increasingly, dental faculty recruitment personnel recognize this board as significant for operative faculty members. Those who have passed can also be considered state-of-the-art clinical practitioners in that they are expected to be more aware of the latest materials and techniques.

Dr. Roggenkamp, secretary-treasurer of the board, has further information if any might be interested in this board. Contact cRoggenkamp@sd.llu.edu.

Unseen help

Cessna

A Cessna 210 (not Dr. Roggenkamp's plane).

Dr. Roggenkamp piloted his own Cessna 210 for the approximately 20-hour round trip to Iowa. He flew a 3,300 mile round trip to eastern Iowa in his single engine Cessna 210.

Part of the trip included getting bounced around in the normal afternoon turbulence over the Colorado Plateau. Following is Dr. Roggenkamp's account of an unforgettable flying experience.

The tremendous updrafts and downdrafts over New Mexico became almost overpowering at times. It is important for pilots to maintain a certain fixed altitude and not deviate more than 25 feet or so either up or down. Near the Arizona-New Mexico border, an updraft became so strong it forced me hundreds of feet higher, and required all my strength to bring the plane back to its assigned altitude. It occurred so suddenly, right after a tremendous downdraft forcing the plane hundreds of feet lower, that I found myself spontaneously calling "No." Other than for airport communications, this is about the only time I'd said anything. There had been no other visible planes in the sky for the seven hours I'd been flying to that point. Just then, over my plane's radio, which I'd nearly forgotten about because it had been quiet so long, came a steady, reassuring masculine voice, "We're watching you."

This struck me as quite singular, since it isn't something pilots ordinarily would say to each other.

The week before, I'd requested my fellow University Church choir members to pray for a safe flying trip. Also, I'd gotten up at 3:00 that morning to read another chapter in Walking with Angels, by Lonnie Melashenko (a recent publication of accounts by people who believed angels helped them at certain difficult times in their lives).

This unusual radio message served as an inspirational reminder that I actually was not up there all alone. The rest of the trip went much smoother, even if only from a realization that despite appearances to the contrary sometimes, things are very much under control by unseen help.

Some things a person doesn't forget for life. This undoubtedly will be one of those permanent memories for me.