Welcome to The Great Lakes Association of Orthodontists!
The Great Lakes Association of Orthodontists (GLAO) is a constituent of the American Association of Orthodontists. The GLAO advocates on behalf of its members and promotes the value and advancement of the Specialty of Orthodontics. Component organizations of the GLAO include: Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Ontario (Canada), and Pennsylvania (west of the Alleghenies).
A Message from The GLAO President...
"United we stand, divided we fall" is a phrase that can be
traced back some 2,600 years to the 6th Century B.C. John Dickinson, one of our nation's Founding
Fathers, is attributed to be one of the first ones to use it in modern times in
his song, "The Liberty Song." This saying is most often used when looking to
inspire unity and collaboration, and its premise is that together we can
achieve greater success than we can alone.
How true is that? And how many
ways are there to say the same thing? From "Alone we can do so little;
together we can do so much" to “Strength in numbers”, the message is the
same. And together as part of GLAO and
the AAO is the only way we can protect our specialty. Nowadays advocacy is the best weapon, and our
meeting this year is in one of the most important advocacy places. I encourage you to stay up to date with all
advocacy moves made by our associations, at local, state board, and national
levels. Some groups and organizations
are formed to change, dilute, and eliminate the orthodontist from the equation,
and without advocacy, we cannot reach the ears of those who are voting and be
able to show why an in-person examination is important. Our next Coffee Chat is scheduled on
Saturday, June 24, and we will have Nathan Mick, AAO’s director of advocacy, to
share how advocacy works and what we can do to protect our specialty. Our annual meeting, so close to the Capitol, will
also have an advocacy focus. Our meeting
chairs Drs. Fatima Ahmed and Tasha Hall did such a great job putting this
meeting together. Look at the diversity
of speakers and topics. We have presentations
on aligners, custom brackets, hybrid treatment, practice management, and even
artificial intelligence. If those topics
are not reason enough to attend, remember that you are part of a group and
together is the only way we stand.
Another old proverb says, “One arrow alone can be easily broken but many
arrows are indestructible”, so let’s be many. We hope to see you at our joint Annual Session
with MASO at the Gaylord Hotel in National Harbor, Maryland, on September
22-23, 2023. Let’s make our specialty
indestructible!
Respectfully submitted,
Dr. Juan Martin Palomo ([email protected])
2022-23 GLAO President