It is with great honour and privilege to serve as the President of the Canadian Academy of Periodontology (CAP) for the 2026-2027 year.

Our academy has been a steadfast nationwide supporter of our specialty in Canada since 1955 by providing guidelines in the recognition of Periodontology as a specialty of dentistry, establishing and maintaining standards of care in Periodontics, acting as the national voice for periodontists, promoting excellence in the practice of Periodontics, and advancing the periodontal health of the public.

I am very proud to be working alongside the members of our executive committee, Dr. Disha Nagpal, President-Elect; Dr. David Chvartszaid, Treasurer; Dr. Matthew Morris, Secretary-Editor; Dr. Anjali Bhagirath, Member at Large; and Dr. Marla MacAulay, Immediate Past-President. Our relatively small and dedicated executive team is passionately working for the Academy to grow and remain relevant by providing substantive benefits to our members in an ever-challenging climate of member attrition associated with all our professional dental associations.

Our webinar series, “Jump the Gap with CAP” and “Zoom in with CAP” has remained popular and we look forward to providing our members with excellent speakers and interesting topics for the coming year.

The Canadian Academy of Periodontology’s Education Committee has been established to collaborate with Canadian Post-graduate Periodontics Programs and their directors to standardize and build periodontal education in Canada. A national platform for resident case presentation and treatment planning with outcome data will be provided at the annual meetings including a dedicated resident speaking event where UBC will be presenting this year. We further aim to support our incoming periodontal residents by facilitating automatic enrollment with free membership along with onboarding and social engagement with the CAP providing peer interactions and support during their residency.  I wish to personally thank our participating program directors for their contribution and helping us bring this project to fruition.

The Education Committee ties in closely with our popular Mentorship/Fellowship program which assists residents and new periodontists with the multiple challenges facing them from board prep to stepping into private practice. We encourage our experienced members to join in on these meetings to provide guidance and insight for our upcoming future periodontists.

The communication committee is planning on improving our website and online presence as well as roll out an easy to reference CAP infographic on practice guidelines in the management of periodontal disease.

The CAP has been instrumental in collaborating the specialty of periodontics, general dentistry, and dental hygiene to build on the future of our specialty and we are very excited to show our recognition to our certified dental hygienists for their historical support of the CAP and the field of periodontics by providing them opportunity to now become registered members with our Academy. Annual membership under the Dental Hygienist category will provide benefits such as free access to our Webinar series and discounted meeting rates, to name a few. Registration for the 2027 membership year will open January 1, 2027, at an annually renewable rate of $150.

I am extremely excited to announce our milestone 70^th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Academy of Periodontology which will be held on June 3-5, 2027 at the Hotel Grand Pacific in beautiful Victoria, BC. This amazing summer destination will have limited availability for up to 150 attendees and we will be hosting Dr. Vincent Ronco as our keynote speaker as well as established Canadian speakers along with a separate hygiene track for this event. Pre-registration will open for our members in early Fall, so make sure to secure your spot early on!

In closing, I wish to thank all our members, our national periodontal societies and the executive committee for their continued support. Without your contribution to the Canadian Academy of Periodontology, our national voice and support for our periodontal community in Canada would cease to exist.

I look forward being of service to the Canadian Academy of Periodontology and its members this year and seeing you at our Annual Meeting in June 2027.

Respectfully,

Dr. Jonathan Bouwer
BChD, PDD (Implantology), MDent (Perio), FRCDC
President, Canadian Academy of Periodontology