ROSEMONT, Ill. – After surpassing its $1 million 2018 Annual Fund campaign goal, the OMS Foundation is poised to further support research and education that can improve patient care in oral and maxillofacial surgery.
The Foundation established the $1 million campaign goal to honor the centennial of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS), its parent organization that was founded in 1918 and today represents more than 9,000 oral and maxillofacial surgeons across the United States.
“We set an ambitious fundraising goal as a way to celebrate AAOMS’s 100th anniversary, and the OMS specialty responded beyond even our expectations,” said Kathy A. Banks, DMD, chair of the Foundation Board of Directors.
OMS National Insurance Company (OMSNIC) jumpstarted the campaign with a $100,000 gift-match challenge that generated $300,000 in three months. Subsequent challenges supported by AAOMS and Treloar & Heisel, an insurance provider for dentists and specialists, also surpassed their goals.
Individual gifts ranging from $5 to $10,000 sustained the momentum of the campaign. Support also arrived from the International Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (IAOMS), the IAOMS Foundation, the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (ABOMS), the American College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (ACOMS), the Canadian Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (CAOMS), 36 state and regional OMS societies and several college and university OMS training programs.
AAOMS President A. Thomas Indresano, DMD, FACS, and his wife, Rita, made the pivotal contribution to put the campaign over the $1 million mark.
“Knowing my colleagues as I do, I had every confidence we would reach our goal,” Indresano said. “The OMS specialty values research, education and academic excellence above all else. The generosity of our practitioners, faculty, affiliate organizations and even our residents was gratifying and foretells a bright future for AAOMS in its second century.”
The centerpiece of the 2018 campaign is the AAOMS Centennial Tree, which will be displayed at AAOMS headquarters in Rosemont. Its bronze, silver and gold leaves recognize gifts of $2,500, $5,000 and $10,000, respectively, and many of the inscriptions honor family members, mentors and colleagues.
“We’re especially proud that 100 percent of the AAOMS Board of Trustees and the OMS Foundation Board of Directors will be recognized on the Centennial Tree, along with every OMS serving on OMSNIC’s board,” Banks said.
Through its Annual Fund, the Foundation provides research grants to scientists and educational support to OMS faculty, students and early-career OMSs. In the past decade, the Foundation helped fund the Multicenter Trial of Third Molar Patient Management, a series of clinical studies to improve wisdom teeth treatment. In addition, grants have been given to assist research in facial nerve regeneration and improvement of immunotherapy in head and neck cancers.
The Foundation also awards travel scholarships to attend the AAOMS Clinical and Scientific Innovations for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery conference – a three-day event that covers the latest in OMS research and innovations to improve patient care – and has supported a grant-writing course at the AAOMS Annual Meeting.
Annual Fund resources also are used to support the following:
- AAOMS Clinical Trials Methods Course, which provides an overview of research methodology and clinical trial design.
- AAOMS Resident Transitions into Practice Conference, which offers residents with non-clinical information such as financial strategies and coding.
- Research Support Grants, which bestow $75,000 grants to research projects seeking to solve issues related to oral and maxillofacial surgery.
- Faculty Educator Development Awards, which encourage faculty retention in the OMS specialty.
- Student Research Training Awards, which support projects that seek to attract qualified students to the specialty and research.
Information about the Foundation is available on OMSFoundation.org. The Centennial Tree donors and leaf inscriptions are listed at OMSFoundation.org/our-donors/centennial-tree-donors.
