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Early
Life
Bert W. Oettmeier, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1952, and spent the first
fourteen and a half years of his life growing up in small towns in Georgia and
Florida. His father took a job with Gulf Oil Company in 1966, which brought him
to Kansas City where he attended Shawnee Mission South High School in Overland
Park, Kansas. Sports were a large part of his life at that time, especially
football and basketball. But, football was his passion, and he accepted an
athletic scholarship to play football at Kansas State University in 1970. |
In the spring of 1974, the year he graduated from Kansas State University, he
was faced with three different career path options. He had been accepted into
UMKC School of Dentistry, Kansas State University School of Veterinary Medicine,
and had an offer to play professional football with the Saskatchewan Roughriders
of the Canadian Football League.
It was a tough decision, but the one to attend
dental school, he feels, was the wisest. Graduating in 1978, after having been
inducted into the honorary dental society of Omicron Kappa Upsilon and receiving
the Psi Omega National Council Scholastic Achievement Award (ranking first
academically in his dental fraternity), he opened his practice of general
dentistry in South Johnson County and has practiced in the Overland Park /
Leawood, Kansas area for the past 32 years.
Beginning his Career
as a KDA Member
Although he has been a member of the ADA tripartite since graduation in 1978, he
did not become an active participant until 1994 when he became a delegate to the
Kansas Dental Association's Board of Delegates. He was president of the Fifth
District Dental Society of Kansas in 1999-2000, was the recipient of Fifth
District Chairperson of the Year in 1997, and the Fifth District Dentist of
the Year in 2001. He was instrumental in signing an agreement with the Greater
Kansas City (Missouri) Dental Society, to allow reciprocal participation in each other's continuing education programs.
Through the ranks
After holding the KDA offices of Treasurer, Vice-President and President Elect,
the three previous years, he became the President of the Kansas Dental
Association in 2005, and was the KDA Dentist of the Year in 2007. He has
served on the KDA's Council on Dental Care Programs since 1998 and has also
served as Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Teeth Whitening Legislation. He is
currently serving on the KDA Member Benefits Committee as its Chair.
During his time on the KDA Executive Committee he was active in proposing and
testifying in support of legislation supporting patient,s rights with respect to
the assignment of benefits and equal reimbursements for the patients who select
non-network providers. (He continues to do the same today). In addition he has
been an active proponent of Direct Reimbursement, the only dental benefit
program endorsed by the American Dental Association.
And on to
the National Level
At the national level, Bert has been a delegate to the ADA that extends until
2010. He was appointed to the ADA's Council on Dental Benefit Programs in 2006,
and is currently serving as the Chair of that Council. In October of 2006, at
the ADA national meeting he served on the Reference Committee on Dental
Benefits, Science and Health.
His other commitments have included service as Chair of the UMKC School of
Dentistry Rinehart Foundation as well as his position as a member of the Kansas
Health Policy Authority (KHPA) Advisory Council and he is now serving on the
UMKC Board of Trustees (main campus). KMOM has seen him as an active volunteer
at its projects, missing only two of the nine to date.
Bert is also a Fellow of the American College of Dentists (ACD), having been
inducted in 1999. He serves on the ACD Board of Regents for Regency 5.
Dr. Oettmeier feels that the future of the dental profession, and the
health of the patients it serves, is primarily in the dentists� hands. There
must be a continuing and significant flow of volunteers from the profession
willing to stand up and to speak out for that which is in the best interest of
the patients, and for that which is fair and appropriate for those who provide
dental care.
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