Symbolizing the importance and ever-increasing need for multi-disciplinarian collaboration in implant dentistry, the Academy of Osseointegration (AO) will host the first ever joint meeting on implant sciences and clinical practice with three of the world's leading dental specialties, February 27 - March 1, at the Hynes Convention Center and the Sheraton Hotel, Boston, MA.
A special meeting feature will provide guests a rare opportunity to examine an original artifact of the world's first known dental implant, recovered in a 1931 archeological dig.
The meeting, sponsored by AO, the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS), the American Academy of Periodontology (AAP) and the American College of Prosthodontists (ACP), is designed to enhance the ability of attendees to provide broader and more effective patient treatment.
"Implant dentistry requires a team approach. The most successful patient outcomes result when oral and maxillofacial surgeons, periodontists, prosthodontists, general dentists, scientists and others work together. Fostering these ideals is the purpose and the message of our program, 'Collaborative Strategies in Implant Dentistry,'" says AO Annual Meeting Chair Bejan Iranpour, DDS, MS, Rochester, NY.
Speakers include some of the world's foremost authorities in implant dentistry, led by two distinguished scholars: Harold C. Slavkin, DDS, Dean of the University of Southern California School of Dentistry, Los Angeles, and Per-Ingvar Brånemark, MD, PhD, Goteborg, Sweden, whose pioneering scientific research and clinical studies have formed the foundation for the application of implants.
Dr. Slavkin's keynote address, "Tissue Engineering�Modifying the Healing Response," will show how implant dentistry is evolving from mechanical to bioengineering solutions. Dr. Brånemark's distinguished scholar presentation, "Osseointegration in Clinical Reality: Educational Mistakes and Prophylactic Collaboration," will report on three decades of experience and observations in international collaboration.
The meeting's scientific program features major symposia on immediate versus delayed placement of implants and restorations, complications, and treatment planning:
When to Place and Restore Implants (Thursday, February 27) � The meeting's opening symposium will focus on the esthetic expectations of patients and discuss when the trend toward early and immediate loading should be avoided.
Predictors, Prevention and Management (Saturday, March 1) � This symposium on complications will present a comprehensive discussion on the prevention and management of soft tissue, hard tissue and restorative complications. The symposium will conclude with a special presentation by Lewis N. Estabrooks, DMD, South Portland, ME, on legal and liabilities issues based on actuarial data related specifically to dental implant claims and complications.
Innovations and Controversies in Implant Dentistry (Saturday, March 1) � For this treatment planning symposium, five distinguished practitioners have prepared case presentations designed to encourage audience interaction in diagnosis and treatment. The presentations will show how interdisciplinary collaboration can be used to maximize patient care outcomes.
Concurrent clinical tracks will address two difficult and challenging areas:
Atrophic Partially Endentulous Maxilla�Single Tooth and Segmental Restorations, presented by Daniel Buser, DDS, DMD, Berne, Switzerland; Ueli Grunder, DMD, Zurich, Switzerland; and Avishai Sadan, DMD, New Orleans, LA.
Risk management of the atrophic posterior mandible, presented by Myron Nevins, DDS, Swampscott, MA; Michael A. Pikos, DDS, Palm Harbor, FL; and Hans-Peter Weber, DMD, Boston, MA.
More than 60 commercial exhibits will be on display in the exhibit hall throughout the course of the meeting. These will introduce the latest research and development in craniofacial implant technology.
In an unusual sideshow to the meeting's forward-looking scientific program, Harvard University's Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology will exhibit the world's first-known endosseous implant. The large fragment of an almost entire lower jaw has three missing incisors implanted with artificial teeth made from the shell of a bivalve molluse. Of Mayan origin, it was recovered at the Playa de los Muertos in Honduras' Ulloa Valley and is believed to date from the 7th Century.
