In this podcast, American Association of Orthodontists (AAO) President Myron Guymon, DDS, MS, joins host Alison Werner for the Orthodontic Products podcast on the Medqor Podcast Network. Guymon, who just started his 1-year term as AAO president, shares his priorities for his term and talks about the ongoing work of the AAO.

Guymon, who is a graduate of Baylor Dental College (now known as Texas A&M School of Dentistry) and went on to open his practice in northern Utah, started in leadership at the component level with the Utah Association of Orthodontists before moving on to leadership roles within the Rocky Mountain Society of Orthodontists. As he was closing out his presidency of the Utah state association, he had his first opportunity to become involved with the AAO with its Council on Communications.

In this episode, Guymon talks about the benefits of being involved in state, regional, and national orthodontic associations. As Guymon says, “We are so much better together as a group.” At the same time, he acknowledges that not every orthodontist wants to get involved in leadership; but there are still a myriad of opportunities to still get involved and make a difference—whether it’s serving on a committee or task force, or simply sending a text to a legislator.

Guymon, who stepped into his term as AAO president for 2023-2024 at the close of the recent AAO Annual Session in Chicago, shares that his number one priority for his term is to be help shepherd the many initiatives that have been launched in recent years—such as TechSelect and the New Product Showcase. As Guymon puts it, the AAO seeks to support and encourage innovation in the profession.

From there, Guymon talks about the latest campaign from the AAO Consumer Awareness Program—or CAP—and the association’s advocacy work. At the federal level, the AAO remains focused on such issues as student load relief and the RAISE Act. But it’s at the state and regulatory level, that Guymon says the AAO has been able to have a more immediate impact. He talks about the AAO’s approach and how its team has been able to monitor and react quickly to ensure the health and safety of the profession and patients.

In this interview, Guymon also shares his thoughts on how the profession has evolved, the AAO’s diversity and inclusion work and upcoming Winter Conference in San Antonio and next Annual Session in New Orleans, and how the AAO can work with DSOs/OSOs. OP

Podcast Transcript

Alison Werner:

Okay. Hello, and welcome to the Orthodontic Products Podcast on the MEDQOR Podcast Network. I am Alison Werner, chief editor of Orthodontic Products. Joining me today, is Dr. Myron Guymon, who just started his term as president of the American Association of Orthodontists. Dr. Guymon, thank you for joining me today.

Doctor Myron Guymon:

Thank you, Alison. It’s a pleasure to visit with you.

Alison Werner:

Great. Well, to help our listeners get to know you a little better, can you tell me about your career as an orthodontist? How did you get started and where have you been practicing?

Doctor Myron Guymon:

It’s been a great run. I got interested in orthodontics as a teenager, looking at a guy up the street and the wonderful lifestyle that he had and how he was active with his children. I thought that’s a great career for the family life that I envisioned. I practiced in northern Utah, the inter-mountain area. I actually have offices in Wyoming, Idaho and several offices here in Utah. I was trained at Baylor Dental College Department of Orthodontics, which has since morphed into Texas A&M, which has been a good movement for them. It’s a little hard for a Baylor boy to say Texas A&M, but it’s a great program and it’s been a great life, far better than I could have ever imagined.

I got involved with the AAO, believe it or not, at the component level, at the State Orthodontic Association. I was on their board for about eight years and then as I was coming off as president of the Utah, I had the opportunity to become involved with the Council on Communications. I actually filled in for a doctor who was not able to make the meeting, and then with the guidance and mentorship of Dr. Bill Gaylord, he allowed me to be involved with the council. I was there for 10 years, and then through that, got involved with the Rocky Mountain Society, worked through the chairs up there, was president of that in 2012, and then became a trustee in 2014. It’s been a great line, been great to be involved with organized dentistry, organized orthodontics, interacting with the members in some of these great programs that we have.

Alison Werner:

Yeah. For anyone who’s thinking about getting involved in leadership with the regional or the component associations, what would you say is the impact they can have by doing that?

Doctor Myron Guymon:

Well, I think it all begins with your component. We are so much better together as a group. Many of the legislative and regulatory issues are at a state dental board level, and so being involved with the component, it gives you an opportunity to access those channels to make changes. We did that in Utah. We were able to run our own public awareness campaign for a while. We had some help with the legislature to clarify some things in the Dental Practice Act regarding specialty practices. And so I don’t want to say that’s the least common denominator, but that’s probably the easiest entry portal for leadership in the AAO. There’s not an AAO leader that does not welcome someone telling them that they’d like to be involved. There’s a lot of ways to be involved with the AAO, not all of them entail a 10 year or 14 or a 15 year commitment. We have many committees, ad hoc committees, task forces, things like that where we tap into members’ unique areas of expertise to work for a project. That project will have a lifespan and an endpoint, and then who knows where it goes from there.

Alison Werner:

Well, let’s talk about your term as AAO president. What do you see as your main focus or what is your vision for your term?

Doctor Myron Guymon:

The last couple of years with the development of our innovation and transformation department, ctech, our think tank, we had some incredible projects, initiatives, new activities at the AAO that have come online in just the last several years. I don’t know that there’s a new groundbreaking change coming this year as president. I really think that our best course of action is to stay the course as some of these programs and initiatives mature. We started them several years ago, we’ve got some momentum, the groundswell, the participation from the members is building. And I think this year we’re best served by supporting these initiatives, keeping the emphasis going on what we’ve done the last several years.

Alison Werner:

In terms of those initiatives that you’ve … There’s a ground swell now, what stands out to you that you really wanted [inaudible 00:05:03].

Doctor Myron Guymon:

I think probably the best example I can give you is our tech select initiative. This is something that came with our committee on technology, our ctech. It’s an educational resource for our members and their staff to learn about, evaluate … And it made me save some money on merging or new technologies. This came out in May of 2022, and initially it was on 3D printing and in-house aligner technologies, and not that one company or one product was better than another, but it was just a clearing house of information where people could learn about this, maybe save some money. Our tech select partners do participate in our program, and that helps keep these things rolling. This year we’ve added other things, digital indirect bonding, custom bracket systems, the remote dental monitoring, those things. And just recently, we’ve added automation and robotics technology for trimming aligners, bending wires, things like that. And so I think that’s probably a good example of something that started small or not insignificant, but it had to start somewhere. And over the years as we continue the programming, it just gets better and better. And I think that’s the flavor of the year that I’d like to see, is these initiatives and others much like it just get better and better.

Alison Werner:

Well, and another initiative that was launched at this past AAO in Chicago was the new products.

Doctor Myron Guymon:

That’s right, our new product showcase. And again, this is efforts of the AAO to support and encourage innovation in the profession. This was products that were introduced since our last meeting in Miami. They were 17 products that were presented, which is incredible for the first year. There has to be exhibitors at our meeting. And in our innovation pavilion, these products were presented. The votes were taken actually by participating orthodontists. There was a QR code on an iPad that they could click and move that. And this year’s winners, not that any of them were losers, but this year the products that were voted on in our showcase, the best in show was the DM insights from Dental Monitoring, and this is just a way to use some data analytics to refine office procedures, what works, what procedures, what products and stuff work best in their office.

And again, just using that data analytics to become more efficient, more cost effective. Our second showcase winner was actually a product, it was Sparks aligners. It was an integrated hook from Orbco, and it was a product that makes using elastics with aligners easier. I don’t know the word I’m looking for, but a better way perhaps, to use elastics with aligners. And then our third place winner this year was the Slate Electric Flosser from Slate Dental, which was an automatic flosser that has a small head that allows you to get up underneath the brackets and the wires as an oral hygiene aide.

Alison Werner:

Okay. I’m curious, you’ve been in this profession for some time. When you look at all this, how technology has impacted the field, especially in the last 10 years with intra-oral scanning of 3D printing alone, for you, what’s really stood out about how the profession has adapted and changed?

Doctor Myron Guymon:

Well, I think no matter what the technology is or what it becomes, it still needs the doctor’s guiding hand. There’s still an art and science to orthodontics, and so the technologies that are evolving make it easier maybe for the patient to accept treatment. The remote dental monitoring maybe makes it more convenient for them to have treatment monitored at a distance and maybe not in the office all the time. And again, where that’s appropriate, that’s very appropriate. But again, the underlying current is that whatever the technology is, is that there is a general guiding hand by a university trained orthodontic specialist to make sure that we’re doing the right things at the right time. The changes that came during Covid, I think we adapted to not being able to spend as much time with the patients necessarily. I hope that we don’t ever lose that personal touch. Certainly, the collection of data and putting it in a form that can be easily researched later, the imaging and the scanning, those things I think are … If I was a researcher, to be able to have this research in the form that it is would just be really exciting on how we develop new products, new materials, new techniques, things like that.

Alison Werner:

Yeah. I was talking to a doctor yesterday in an interview and he mentioned the fact that a lot of these products are giving orthodontists a lot more information that can be used by researchers, which hasn’t been there before, that level of data.

Doctor Myron Guymon:

Well, if you think about measuring plaster models or tracing a [inaudible 00:10:38] or things like that, and the precision of repeatability of a scan, a CBCT, I see exciting times ahead, looking forward to see what comes out of it. Like I say, all’s I see on the horizon is just light and bright. It’s exciting. And again, under the careful guiding hand of a university trained orthodontic [inaudible 00:11:04], I think is the important part, that we don’t ever lose that part of what we do and how we do it.

Alison Werner:

Yeah, exactly. Well, one of the AAO’s other roles is to serve as an advocate for the profession and its members at a federal level. I’m curious what the AAOs main initiative is when it comes to Capitol Hill and then also at the state level?

Doctor Myron Guymon:

That really hasn’t changed much at the federal level. We still look for student loan relief, a way that we can be equitable with the tremendous debt service that our new residents come out with, to make sure that that debt service doesn’t become an impediment to where or how these new orthodontists are able to practice. We’d like them to be able to have access to markets that may need more access to care. The sad fact is sometimes some areas don’t support an orthodontist at a level that they can equitably service their debt and provide for their family. And so we’re always looking at that. The RAISE act is just something that we’ve worked on for a long time, which would allow health savings accounts to be used better to hold the benefit over time so that people that are looking forward to orthodontic treatment would be able to stockpile their own resources to make it more affordable for when their children or their family members need orthodontics. That that’s always a big one for us.

Believe it or not, we’ve had more success recently in the regulatory agencies. If you think about it, to have a bill passed takes literally an act of Congress. And that can take years and years and years, whereas a regulatory body can make changes more quickly. And so working with the Attorney General’s office, we’re working with the FDA, those agencies, to have them. Working with the regulatory bodies, they’re able to help us safeguard the health and safety of the profession in a more timely manner. They can regulate how dentistry is provided by whom. And so sometimes the inroads that we make … Again, with our motive always being to safeguard the health and safety of the public, that is always our number one motivation as we go into these advocacy efforts. You asked a little bit about the state. We are finding that that’s where the rubber meets the road, State Dental Practice acts regulate the practice of dentistry in that area. We have some new hires at the AAO that monitor things in the state, state dental board agendas, legal actions that take place in the state. We monitor those things. We have a component legal support fund which is funded by our House of Delegates to a million dollars every year that we use to advocate in certain states that have issues that come up.

And I would say that’s been one of the biggest things that we’ve done in the last several years, is to have a network to be able to react responsibly, quickly and in a timely fashion at a state dental board. We always involve the state orthodontic association of course. We also try to coordinate our activities with the local state dental associations to make sure that we’re all working together, again, to safeguard the practice of dentistry and the health and safety of the public. That’s been one of those things that has taken on a life of its own. We have a tremendous staff, the legal department at the AAO, Gianna, Trey, Nate, Andrew, some of the others there that I’m forgetting I’m sure, to make sure that we monitor those things and can react quickly and put people in place at the right times, at the right places so that the legal precedents are such that it promotes the ideas that we espouse as being in the best interest of the public.

Alison Werner:

Great, okay. I wanted to ask you about the Consumer Awareness Program. Now, we at Orthodontic Products are actually doing a more in-depth interview with the AAO marketing manager soon on that issue, but the CAP just released a new campaign featuring two videos focused on male order orthodontics and early treatment. I’m just curious to get your take on the CAP campaign and why those two issues to start, mail order orthodontics and early treatment.

Doctor Myron Guymon:

CAP’s something that is near and dear to me. This is where I got my start and my AAO involvement. This has been almost 20 years in the making now, and this is a program that has changed and morphed and as the technology got better, as the delivery methods got better, the CAP has moved into those areas. And it’s really been a successful program. This year, we expect over 5 million visits to the AAO consumer website. Our goal is to provide information to the public on what orthodontists are, what we do, how we do it. We’d like to be the go-to place where the consumer goes to get information on orthodontics, and we’d also like them to be able to find an orthodontic specialist AAO member in their area with our orthodontic locator.

The topics that you bring up are just some of the topics that we’ve talked about over the years, the benefits of when to see an orthodontist, maybe not necessarily early treatment as much as the age seven, see an orthodontist to evaluate your future orthodontic needs, whether they get treated at that time or not, that would give the parents an example of a timeline of when they might need to have the financial resources for orthodontic treatment, give the parent and idea of when the child might be ready, things like that. The direct to consumer, again, that is a public health and safety issue for us. While orthodontics may appear simple because we do it so well, it is a complex dental, medical, biological procedure, and some of the direct to consumer business models, we feel bypass some of the safety gates. We’d like you to be evaluated for your other oral health issues, you might have cavities, periodontal disease. There are things that don’t show up in the mouth that might show up on an x-ray, and without having these gateway type safety measures, an orthodontic treatment at the wrong time in the wrong place might be more damaging than good. And so the idea that you would seek treatment from a qualified orthodontic specialist at the beginning of treatment to make sure that those problems are taken care of or eliminated before we start some treatment. That again, might be more damaging than good.

Alison Werner:

Yeah. Do you have any advice to orthodontists or members on how to use the CAP resources to reach their community on these issues?

Doctor Myron Guymon:

You can like our Facebook page, that’s a good way to do it, our Instagram, our social media guides. That’s probably the best way to do it. And then to be sure that … Believe it or not, to be sure that your contact information and your office information is correct on our orthodontic locator, so that when people in your area seek information about orthodontics, that they know how to find you and that they can be sure and find you. And believe it or not, that’s been an issue in the past. Offices change and phone numbers change or website addresses, email addresses change, and just to make sure those kinds of things are current and up to date. And again, I’d probably defer to the interview that you’re going to do with Jen, our marketing manager, about some of the details. Some of these are so new that I’ll be honest with … Some of the board members haven’t even gotten to see these yet, and the ones we’ve seen are well done. They’re exciting. I say it’s exciting to be able to tell our story. If we don’t tell our story, really who else will? A nice webcast with the Orthodontic Products people would help.

Alison Werner:

Yeah. No, definitely too. Stay tuned for that. Well, we just got back for the AAO annual session in Chicago, so I wanted to ask you about what’s next on the AAO’s agenda in terms of educational sessions. You have the winter conference next January in San Antonio, and then the next annual session will be in New Orleans next May. What can members expect from those two events?

Doctor Myron Guymon:

Well, I look forward to the winter conference in San Antonio. The topic is on orthodontic mechanics, and specifically on finishing. It seems like 90% of the work is the last 10% of treatment as the occlusion and the treatment gets detailed and finished. And so we thought that would be a good topic to bring to our members. It’s maybe a little broader than some of the topics we’ve had in the past, and hopefully it will appeal to a bigger segment of our membership. San Antonio that time of year is wonderful. We’re in the Hill Country Marriott, I believe is what it is. And it’s a great venue, great place to bring your family, a great place to come and meet with your colleagues, your study club members, your classmates and the other members of the AAO, and come have a great meeting.

Certainly would put a plug in for our annual session next year in early part of May in New Orleans. We’ll be there during the jazz fest, which will be an interesting time. New Orleans is always a great place to have a meeting. We were there in 2014 when it came on the board. It seems fitting that we would be there again, as my term of service terminated [inaudible 00:21:49]. Getting a little emotional there. I don’t know if that’s joy or sadness, but I say great place to have a meeting, we’ve had great meetings. And you had mentioned it too as you attended our meeting in Chicago, that we really want the membership to come back out to our meeting. Covid put a stop to that, and I think we’re a little bit out of practice, a little bit out of habit. I think you saw at Chicago how great it was when the members get together. Our committee on meetings, our CCON and our meetings department will put together a great program for us with the scientific lectures. There’ll be other tracks available to the members that appeal to your time of life or your time of practice. Come out and see the members. It is always good to be face to face and to renew acquaintances and make new friends and visit with the old friends too.

Alison Werner:

Absolutely, absolutely. Well, I’d like to get your thoughts on the increasing corporate influence in orthodontics and how the AAO plans or can support independent practices.

Doctor Myron Guymon:

That’s a good question. The most important thing to us is that orthodontists are providing the orthodontic treatment in whatever treatment modality that is, whether that’s a solo practice, a small doctor practice, an OSO, or a participating orthodontist in a DSO, how do we provide for them the things that they need? It’s something that we look at all the time, OSOs especially.

The first thing I want to emphasize is that there’s a place in the AAO for every orthodontist, regardless of practice modality, age, training, gender, ethnicity, the AAO and this profession is welcoming to whoever, whatever, however, and we want to join together for what’s in the best interest of our profession. Some of the demographic changes in our profession may lead to some of these practice modality changes. OSO and DSO, I actually practiced the last three years in a DSO, and it was a great way to finish a career without the demands of practice administration, I got to treat the patients. It was a very good DSO that allowed me to do that at a high level to maintain the quality of treatment. We look at some of these opportunities as an entry level job where our residents come out and can make a living while perhaps they’re either searching for another practice area, or pay off some debt, some loans. And I think at the AAO, our concern is how do we provide for them what they need?

Probably one of the most important things that these orthodontists would communicate with their AAO leaders, the things that they need from us that we can provide for them, CE opportunities, networking opportunities. We have a job fair and a job board where jobs can be posted, where people looking for opportunities can post and things like that. Again, whatever’s good for orthodontics is good for the AAO, and that’s one we want to be sure is that we are promoting the art and science of orthodontics, however we can for these. How that is, I think that’s going to … Like our other programs, this is relatively new, the growth of this corporate environment. And we’re going to have to grow with it. I will say that we meet with these partners and communicate with them as much as we can. And again, any of those leaders in the OSOs, DSOs that are listening, please reach out and let us know what it is that you feel you need that we can do to help your employees, your doctors to do the best job that they can for you and us.

I wanted to ask about diversity and inclusivity across the board in a number of professions is an issue, what is the AAO doing to tackle diversity and inclusivity within the profession?

Doctor Myron Guymon:

This can be a really hard question for us because we don’t get AAO members until after they’ve been to ortho school and after they’ve been to dental school, after they’ve been to college and high school before that. Where is the engagement point that we can have with these underrepresented groups? Certainly, the outreach programs that we have with the American Dental Student Association to help with some of these programs to put the idea of a dental or an orthodontic career in front of these young people at an early enough age that they enroll in a dental school, and then we can meet and greet with them again. And then certainly, we reach out to our residencies programs and engage them, always letting them know that there is a place and a way to leadership, a way to membership. But where we don’t self select our members, I think the onus on us is to make sure that we have resources upstream to invite these underrepresented groups into our profession.

And again, at the AAO level, our special committees on inclusion and engagement, especially with our Women Orthodontics Group seminars on how to break down barriers to leadership, and sometimes just a group that meets together or that can talk about like things at like times, is a way to engage them. Certainly, any leader that would welcome any conversation with anybody on how to be involved with the AAO. Hopefully, this is something that gets better in time as the demographics of our profession change also. I believe over 50% of our residents now are women. And our special committee on women are giving us some direction and guidance on how we can engage them and provide for them the things that they need in their practice and professional life, and how they can also engage us with the AAO to provide the AAO with the special talents that they have that we can use in our programs and our initiative, things like that. It’s a two-way street, we reach down and they reach up. And my interactions have always been wonderful with any AAO member, not just these underrepresented groups.

Alison Werner:

Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Well, my last question, what is your message to orthodontists listening to this podcast today? What role do you see them playing in achieving the goals you see for the AAO during your term?

Doctor Myron Guymon:

Be involved, be engaged. Our PAC, our Political Action Group is only participated by 3.6% of our members, and yet our advocacy issues are one of the things that our members identify as some of the most important things that we do. But we have very little participation from our general membership in that way. What would I tell an orthodontist right now is, “My gosh, what a wonderful time there is to be in orthodontics.”

Like I said, the advances in the technology is just going to make us be better and better and better. I see the things that they can do in research, the efforts that we’re making, advocacy to protect our profession and to protect the health and safety of the public. What a wonderful time. I would say be involved at whatever level that you can. And again, realizing that not everything you do with the AAO has to take years and years and hours and hours and months and months. And even just answering the call wound up … We didn’t introduce this before, we have a network where through a text message when something comes up that you can text your legislators in your state. And we do that when an issue comes up, you sign up. It’s called NAN, I’m not sure, National something, something.

Alison Werner:

Action Network?

Doctor Myron Guymon:

Is that what it is, National Action Network?

Alison Werner:

I think so.

Doctor Myron Guymon:

I think that’s what it is. And again, we always talk about it as the NAN, and so sometimes I get confused. There’s not just a few things that we do at the AAO. But you get a text message that says, “Hey, you can send a message to your state and federal legislators.”

Bam, you hit that, the letter goes out that the AAO thinks this is good for the profession, for our members, for the public, and we would like you to support this bill. Those things are the way that our grass root members can make a big, big difference. Be involved with your component societies. A strong component that becomes aware of issues that come to the State Dental Board is an area that we can act on. But if we don’t know about it … It has to start with awareness. Sometimes we hear about it soon and sometimes we don’t hear about it in time. And a lot of that comes from members that are engaged at a local level. Enjoy the profession, be a part of it, realizing that a lot of us working together, we can get wonderful, amazing things done much more than we can do than if we’re trying to work by ourselves. But be excited about what you do.

Where else could you have a profession that makes people happy, that makes them have a beautiful smile? They may not remember your name but they will remember what you did for the rest of their life, and all the benefits. The whole body thing and the health and safety, that’s one thing, but at the end, it’s that beautiful smile. We know they’re going to be healthier for it but they just know they have a beautiful smile, and that’s how they greet the world and what a wonderful profession to be a part of, even if that’s all we did.

Alison Werner:

Absolutely. Well, Dr. Guymon, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today. I really appreciate it.

Doctor Myron Guymon:

Appreciate it, Alison. And appreciate what all you do for our members.

Alison Werner:

Great. And to our listeners, be sure to subscribe to the MEDQOR Podcast Network to keep up with the latest Orthodontic Products podcast episodes, and visit orthodonticproductsonline.com to keep up with the latest orthodontic industry news. Until next time, take care.