{ association insights } by Rob Tait, DDS • President
Dr. Rob Tait Installed as 152nd MDA President
The MDA congratulates Dr. Robert (Rob) M. Tait, Lee’s Summit, who was installed as the 152nd MDA President at its virtual House of Delegates November 6, 2020. Dr. Tait has a general dental practice located in Grandview, and is a 1987 graduate of the UMKC School of Dentistry. He has been an active ADA/MDA/Greater Kansas City Dental Society member for 33 years. Leading up to this office, Dr. Tait has served in the following capacities: For the Greater Kansas City Dental Society he is a past president and trustee to the MDA and was on Membership, New Dentists and Give Kids a Smile (GKAC) committees. He has been an ADA and MDA Delegate, an ADA Action Team Leader, and has served on the MDA Legislative and Regulatory Committee and MODentPAC board. He is an MDA Foundation past president, a member of Dental Well Being Foundation Board, and served on a Missouri Mission of Mercy (MOMOM) local committee. He is a member of the American College of Dentists and is a past board member of Delta Dental of Missouri. Dr. Tait’s civic involvement includes service on the Head Start Board and the Bright Futures Board of the Grandview School District. He is a Heart of America (Boy Scout Council) Eagle Scout Advisor and District Fundraiser and co-founder of the Cass County Safety Net Clinic. In answering a set of interview questions we typically ask the new MDA president, Dr. Tait has written the following so members can learn more about him.
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hady Bend Drive in Independence, Mo. is where I began my journey into the dental profession. Everybody I grew up with followed in their
dad’s footsteps. It was a typical blue-collar neighborhood where even a few of the dads played ball for the New York Yankees and the Kansas City A’s. As I was growing up, I always thought I would be working on my dad’s crew connecting underground cable for AT&T. It wasn’t until my junior year at Raytown High School that the thought of my dad—and his crony buddies—being my boss was not as fulfilling a career as I imagined. Thank God I liked science and math.
After graduation from Raytown I got a part- time job at Independence Regional Hospital working as a phlebotomist. I enjoyed the learning experience, but I was still conflicted on what career path to follow. Dr. Terry
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Williams, an old neighbor and past MDA president, provided me with an inside look of what the dental profession offered. After several months of shadowing, he convinced me that I could make a difference in the dental field.
I received my BS in Biology from UMKC and met the love of my life, Faye, my sophomore year. She graduated with a degree in Special Education. We were married in 1983, my first year at UMKC School of Dentistry. My Class of ‘87 was probably the most notorious for being the rebels of all dental classes. Our class went from “Teams” to “Departments” creating quite a conflict with our treatment plans. Most plans for patient treatment were rejected resulting in a lack of credits to graduate. A lot of lawsuits were filed and a lot of turmoil was created, but all in all everyone survived.
Pathology was my favorite subject with Drs. Dunlap and Barker, but of course the class favorite of that time had to be dear old Dr. Butterworth who taught anatomy. Probably the weirdest moment at dental school was when Dr. Gier, our forensic dentistry guru, presented a murder case showcasing a skull found in a storm drain. Apparently, it was my wife’s cousin who had ties to the mafia. He had been abducted from police custody sev- eral years earlier on his way to testify. Looks like he didn’t have his day in court.
My career has spanned 33 years now and like all of my colleagues we’ve all had those days of glory and the “WTH” moments. My proudest moments in practice involved the treatment of more than a thousand kids in the foster care system. Over half of them went on to lead successful lives and ca- reers. A few even played on my baseball and
