ST. LOUIS – May 3, 2016 – DeWayne B. McCamish, DDS, MS, an orthodontist with offices in Chattanooga, Signal Mountain, and Ooltewah, Tenn., has been elected the 2016-17 president of the American Association of Orthodontists (AAO), the world’s oldest and largest dental specialty organization with more than 18,000 members. The election was recently held during the AAO’s 116th Annual Session in Orlando.
“It is both a privilege and an honor to serve orthodontic patients and the orthodontists who provide their treatment the world over through the AAO,” said Dr. McCamish. “Each year the AAO helps members deliver the best possible care to their patients by providing them and their staff with educational opportunities, ongoing research, advocacy work and professional services. As the AAO continues to serve an increasingly diverse range of members and patients, I am humbly honored to represent and to be part of an organization that has a lifelong positive impact on the health and wellbeing of children, teenagers and adults. Orthodontists throughout the world affect the lives of those we treat by giving smiles that change lives.”
In 2009, the Southern Association of Orthodontists (SAO) elected Dr. McCamish to be its representative on the AAO Board of Trustees. The SAO is one of eight constituent organizations of the AAO, and serves orthodontists practicing in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, the portion of Louisiana that lies east of the Mississippi River, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. The SAO is one of the two largest constituencies of the AAO in the United States.
A 1967 graduate of Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) with a double degree in chemistry and math, Dr. McCamish’s efforts in the classroom and on the school’s football and baseball teams were acknowledged when he received the Scholastic Athlete Award for having the highest grade point average his senior year.
Dr. McCamish is also a graduate of the University of Tennessee Dental School, where he earned his Doctor of Dental Surgery in 1970, and earned a master’s degree in orthodontics in 1973 from its Graduate School of Orthodontics. While in dental school, he was awarded the Faculty Medal, the Oral Medicine Award, the Oral Roentgenography Award, the Psi Omega Scholastic Achievement Award, membership of the Dean’s Society and membership in Omicron Kappa Upsilon (OKU). While there, Dr. McCamish served both as class president and president of his professional fraternity, Psi Omega. He has been in the private practice of orthodontics since 1973 and currently practices with his partners, Dr. Randy Cooper and Dr. K.C. Dyer.
His memberships in numerous professional organizations include the AAO and the SAO, the Tennessee Association of Orthodontists (TAO), the American Dental Association, the Tennessee Dental Association (TDA), the Chattanooga Area Dental Society, the University of Tennessee Orthodontic Alumni Association, and the American Academy of Oral Medicine. Dr. McCamish is also a member of the Lookout Dental Study Group and the Tennessee and Chattanooga CRANIO Study Club.
Dr. McCamish is a past president of the TAO, the SAO, and the University of Tennessee Orthodontic Alumni Association and has served terms as president of his local study club and the Third District Dental Society. He is a Diplomate of The American Board of Orthodontics, a member of the College of Diplomates of The American Board of Orthodontics and is a Fellow of both the American College of Dentists and the International College of Dentists.
The TDA awarded him the Fellowship Award in 1985. The SAO recognized Dr. McCamish with its highest award in 2001: The Oren Oliver Distinguished Service Award. The University of Tennessee’s Graduate Orthodontic Program bestowed its Outstanding Alumnus Award on Dr. McCamish in 2008.
Over the years, Dr. McCamish has given generously of his time to a host of civic and community organizations. Among them are Signal Mountain Dixie Youth Baseball, the Signal Mountain Recreation Board, Health House of Chattanooga, the Brainerd Kiwanis Club, the Chattanooga Tennis Foundation Board, the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce, the Make a Wish Foundation, the United Way of Chattanooga, the University of Tennessee Board of Governors, the MTSU Foundation Board of Trustees, and the Hamilton County Chapter of St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.
