AACP Vision Statement

The American Academy of Craniofacial Pain will continue to be the organization promoting advancement of knowledge in Craniofacial Pain, Temporomandibular Disorders, and Dental Sleep Medicine by providing a common ground for clinical practice and research to professionals for the benefit of the public.

AACP Mission Statement

The American Academy of Craniofacial Pain is committed to the relief of craniofacial pain, temporomandibular disorders and dental sleep related disorders and supporting the advancement of education, research and dissemination of knowledge and skills in these areas.

AACP Purposes

1. To elevate and enhance the professional standards of diagnosis and treatment in the field of craniofacial pain and temporomandibular disorders;
2. To encourage research and further study of craniofacial pain and temporomandibular disorders;
3. For the benefit of the public to recognize those professionals who have specialized knowledge and skills in the diagnosis and treatment of craniofacial and temporomandibular disorders;
4. To promote and improve professional levels of competency within this field of health care;
5. To encourage the highest standards of excellence for practitioners in the field;
6. To issue Fellowship certificates to members of the Academy who have successfully fulfilled the requirements for said status regardless of age, race, creed, sex, color or national origin;
7. To establish criteria and administer a program for the recertification of individuals who have been granted Fellowship;
8. To provide and/or approve ongoing and continuing education to the practitioners in this field, the appropriate allied medical fields, and the public at large; and
9. To establish, maintain and disseminate a comprehensive directory of Academy members for distribution to members of the dental and medical professions.

Guiding Principles, Values and Beliefs

The American Academy of Craniofacial Pain believes that:

1. The dentist is the primary oral health care provider.
2. Craniofacial Pain health care should be based on scientific principles and clinical judgment.
3. The AACP is committed to creating an inclusive environment that values and embraces diversity. This enables the AACP to be more responsive to the needs and perspectives of its members.
4. The AACP will strive to eliminate barriers to the utilization of Craniofacial Pain/TMD treatment.

Advancing meaningful progress is an ever-important goal for all of us in ADEA and the entire health professions education community. It’s our collaborative spirit within and emanating from ADEA that drives our success as we strive to improve our processes, programs and professions.

ADEA’s engagement with a wide range of partners across the health professions is an approach that serves us well and informs and inspires others. Collaboration is what fuels ADEA’s greatest successes—from the growing interaction among our seven ADEA Councils toward achieving association goals; to the groundbreaking partnership between the ADEA Commission on Change and Innovation (CCI) and the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA); to the rapid growth of the ADEA-led Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC), with membership rising from 6 to 20 national associations in just eight years.

Our collaborative spirit has the power to move ADEA forward to new horizons and to create new possibilities such as:

• Achieving licensure reform and portability.
• Preparing next-generation providers for their roles in emerging multidisciplinary health care teams.
• Advancing the international dialogue around dental education and oral health through increased global engagement.
• Continuing our efforts, through ADEA and the ADEAGies Foundation®, to grow the pipeline of highly qualified dental faculty ready to educate the future workforce.

By spotlighting ADEA’s emphasis on collaboration, we celebrate each ADEA member. Attend the 2019 ADEA Annual Session & Exhibition, and tell your story of collaboration, whether it is within your school or program, across campuses and universities, with industry or governmental partners, or on an international scale.

Join our 2019 Celebration in Chicago. The future of dental education is ours to define. It is a time of great promise, optimism and hope. Let’s gather in the “Windy City”—hailed as “the next big place for innovation”—to celebrate our unique abilities and spirit in ways that advance our profession, better prepare our students and embrace our role in our global community.

The Annual Meeting is a given. It’s expected, anticipated, exhilarating, exhausting, transformative, consequential, challenging, compelling. It’s a resource, a culture medium, an integrated platform, a bridge, a skyway. People come from around the world because they must, because they should, pulled by the Academy’s engagement magnet. They come for discovery, to experience others’ imagination, to learn, sustain, excel, grow, experience family. They come for reunion, exchange, sharing, inspiration-intuitively certain that USCAP will give it to them, and it is….given.

At this historical time when the Nation’s capital is on a global stage, so is USCAP’s Annual Meeting at National Harbor, Maryland, close to Washington, D.C.   The venue offers the convenient integration of hotel and convention space under a glass ceiling, at the edge of the bay, at the edge of discovery.  Shuttles will operate to Washington, D.C.  to encourage new experiences outside the conference milieu.  Inside will be the content and organization you expect, with special sensitivity to diversity and inclusion and the integration of lactation and quiet (meditation) rooms.

The Annual Meeting format is under evaluation and revision by Strategists composed of Education Committee and Board Members collaborating with operational staff and the EVP.   The first changes implemented for 2019 include shortening the meeting by one day (elimination of the final Friday), scheduling the Evening Specialty Conferences a half hour earlier (starting at 7:00 pm), and adding eight additional Interactive Microscopy Courses.

The 2019 program is designed to exceed your expectations and expose you to contemporary and vibrant pathology education at its best. The Academy encourages you to make the most of this conference, designed for a broad spectrum of learning and social opportunities from the Long Course on Dermatopathology to the extraordinary Generation U celebration.

Augment your general registration with access to the plethora of Companion Society meetings, and pre-select short courses, interactive microscopy sessions, evening specialty conferences and special courses in genomics, quality and patient safety, and leadership. Do this up front when you register for the meeting- don’t wait to secure your place in courses that mean the most to you and which usually sell out. Each interactive microscopy session can accommodate only nine learners, so be sure to review the fantastic lineup of instructors and topics. We intend to welcome 100 registrants for each Hot Topics session, but seating is limited.  Act early.

USCAP regularly reinvents its conferences with an eye on the cutting edge and the growth curve.  Personalized education, mentoring and outreach are core values that permeate the character and fiber of the Annual Meeting.  Experience it for yourself, engage for life, unlock your ingenuity and make USCAP your ultimate learning destination.