{ from the editor } by Douglas Wyckoff, DDS What Is “Enough” Transparency? I


want to start this edition off by saying that in no way am I against or abandon- ing the American Dental Association (ADA) in the words that follow. I have


always been a supporter of all organized dentistry and have worked hard at all levels of the Tripartite. I will continue to do so and hope to be able to further my leadership opportunities in the future. But I do want to comment on what has been happening lately on the national level with our beloved ADA.


As you may remember, this past February, it was announced that ADA Executive Director, Dr. Raymond Cohlmia, resigned his position effective immediately. This came as a sudden surprise to many across the membership wires, as he had been instrumental in initiat- ing the beginning of a new membership model for the ADA. Immediately, rumors and stories began spreading as to why this hap- pened, but as with any personnel issue, tight lips remained from the ADA Board Room.


Then in May, it was announced major overspending by the ADA in the tens of mil- lions of dollars. This was discovered after a financial review of the first quarter numbers. Overspending, combined with revenues that were lower than expected, has caused financial strain on the ADA budget. In July, the ADA Board began spelling out some of the details of what had happened, most of which was related to a new association man- agement system. The Board said it would be working to create a $20 million expense reduction. Following up in August, it was an- nounced that the Board approved the 2026 budget with reductions as prescribed. They also noted that they were working to combat years of overspending that included taking $142 million from reserves between March 2022 and March 2025.


Wow … that’s a mouthful of bad tasting food, isn’t it? It has been hard news to digest by many members (me included) who I have talked to from across the nation. It also has


6 focus | FALL 2025 | ISSUE 3


been a big topic of discussion among members I know here in Missouri. How does some- thing this big happen? How does overspending like that hap- pen without being seen?


I know the ADA Board is now trying very intentionally to be “transparent” in letting the membership know what has happened and what is being done to rectify the situation. But are they being transparent enough? Some would say no. The member- ship hasn’t heard exactly how this happened and who the responsible parties are that let this slip through their sights. Surely there are checks and balances in place that monitor monthly spending. Surely someone should have seen this happening and raised the question as to why. But maybe not. It went on for three years. So as a member, a question might be “Who was supposed to be watching the spending? Isn’t there a budget/spending committee on the Board?” As far as I know, this information hasn’t been announced.


Membership expects more from the Board of Trustees in making sure the business of the ADA is run correctly within the confines of a budget that is approved yearly. So, what gives here? Will we ever know exactly what happened? When information started to surface about all of this, we were told that Dr. Cody Graves, newly elected Treasurer for the ADA, could not attain information pertinent to the budget. It was being with- held from him. How does that happen? Why would the Treasurer of the ADA not be able to get every piece of information he wanted as it relates to the budget? Something just isn’t right here.


To add insult to injury, this couldn’t happen at a worse time, in my opinion. We are on


top of a rapidly decreasing membership share. The ADA has put its constituents (states) in a very bad position as it relates to membership. When trolling the dental popu- lation to become members, they are having to explain how the national organization is having financial issues due to years of over- spending. States are asking a new member to join, existing members to re-join and telling all “It will all be OK.” It’s a position they didn’t ask for but have to defend daily.


The other issue that’s going on is the sunset- ting of SmileCon (ADA meeting). This will be the last SmileCon in October of this year. The powers that be have decided the ADA will no long have SmileCon as it presently exists, even though its bylaws state it has to have a yearly meeting. Again, in my opinion, this has been a multi-year plan from some entity within ADA. It began when the leader- ship and staff of the ADA convinced the Council on Annual Sessions (CAS) to become a Committee of the Board (Committee on Annual Meeting (CAM). I was on CAS when that happened. You can ask any of those


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