Meet your new ADA President - Dr Chris Sanzaro

Dr Scott Davis hands over the ADA President to Dr Chris Sanzaro at the ADA offices in Sydney.

The ADA’s new President, elected during last month’s AGM, is certainly a familiar face around the Association. The Principal Dentist and Director of The Dental Surgery in Launceston, Tasmania, Chris runs a four-chair practice that currently employs six other dentists, one hygienist and 14 assistants.

“Launceston is a large regional town with about 80,000 people in the town and surrounds but providing services for between 120,000 and 250,000 people depending on the services required,” Chris recently told the News Bulletin.

“Tasmania is quite decentralised with roughly half of the population based in and around Hobart and the south, the other half spread across the northern half of the state. There are challenges with a low population density and the more recent trends to specialisation and sub-specialisation. Working with these challenges allows for a good insight about how best to provide quality healthcare (and, of course, dentistry).

“The recent increase in student placements from multiple universities into the Tasmanian Health Service has introduced the idea of living in Tasmania to many students. These students are often returning to Tasmania - some for the first few establishment years of their practicing lives, and some for good. COVID-19 and border restrictions changed people’s willingness to live at distance from friends and family, however this is becoming less of an issue again. There has been a significant increase in the number of dentists in Tasmania over the past 15 years.

“Not having a dental school in the state means that all of the dental practitioners have come from ‘somewhere else’. As I’ve experienced in other locations, when there are a lot of ‘expats’ living in an area, openness and collegiality is common among professionals and dentistry in Tasmania is no exception; ADA social events, CPD course and the like are well attended. Dentists are happy to assist each other – lending materials, covering emergencies if a practice is closed or talking about reliable equipment and suppliers. Typically, dentists in Tasmania are busy - private and public, there is strong demand.”

Chris completed his Bachelor of Dental Surgery in Adelaide in 2003, after moving there from his hometown of Melbourne. He practised in Mackay, Queensland for two years, including a year as Senior Dental Officer in the School Dental Service. After a year in Shepparton, Victoria, Chris moved to Launceston in 2007, and has been at The Dental Surgery, Newstead since then, purchasing the practice in 2011.

“One of the challenges early on in my time here (and for many years prior to that) was a lack of access to specialists - there just weren’t many in Tasmania,” he said. “This meant that general dentists were under pressure to provide treatment at the limit of their scope of practice, but this also provided some great learning opportunities. This has changed significantly over the past 15+ years with many more specialists being both based in the state and some FIFO specialists as well. We are still in very short supply of some (e.g. orthodontists) and have no oral medicine specialists or special needs dentists, so there is still a need to access resources on ‘The Mainland’ (a term I hadn’t encountered before coming to Tasmania).”

Clinically, Chris has a strong interest in prevention, complex case management, and working with specialist dentists to achieve the best outcome. He plans on being in practice in Launceston for at least the next 20 years.

Outside of dentistry, Chris is also an unqualified but enthusiastic sound tech/roadie for his wife Emily with her harp and life as a performing artist. He and Emily both enjoy bushwalking when time permits, exploring Tasmania and spending time together as a family with their teenage daughters. Chris’ other passion in life is his running, both with a local running group and at Parkrun where he has completed more 200 than Parkruns.

From your own career and your time with the ADA, what do you think has most led you to take the top job?

My colleagues. Over the 13 years I’ve been involved with the ADA, the passion and dedication of dentists involved in the ADA has, and continues to, inspire me. Whether it’s the passionate clinicians who provide the high-quality work we often take for granted in Australia, the advocates for those in need, or the expertise of those volunteering their time for the ADA, the Association is a collection of passionate professionals who want to achieve the best for our profession and our patients.

What do you plan or hope will shape your term as President over the next two years?

It is my strong hope that many years of advocacy by the ADA will soon lead to meaningful change in the way dentistry is funded for groups that so desperately need better access to care. I expect that the recently changed governance structure of ADA Ltd will give us the foundations, agility, and flexibility to adapt the ADA to be more future focused and meet the needs of dentists now and in the future.

What do your professional areas of special interest bring to the President’s role?

I’ve always had an interest in long-term treatment planning for my patients – what dentistry can do for them over their lifetime. I carry that interest in all that I do; my clinical mantra of ‘longterm goals form the treatment plan for the short term’ applies well to our Association. Comprehensive and in-depth analysis of where we are, what our options are and the risks associated with how to get where we want to be, is both the basis for my treatment planning and a good philosophy for guiding our Association.

What is your favourite part of the ADA and what the ADA does?

Networking and providing support in practice. A lot of dentistry is spent in small rooms with limited contact with peers. Whether it’s in-person local events, statewide conferences, national congresses or just online CPD, the networking available within the ADA allows clinicians to form a very effective support network which is essential to career longevity and satisfaction. There are so many people willing to give up their time and energy to assist others in the profession; without the networking from all that the ADA does, this often-hidden resource in our profession wouldn’t be what it is.