American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons

Improving Patient Safety: Updates on Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

by

In a recent blog post I discussed how a few new videos have appeared in recent months related to oral and maxillofacial surgery Videos Related to Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. The American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) has also updated several sections of their website in the last year or so. They now have a section titled Orthodontics and Oral Surgery where they have videos related to showcasing various techniques that oral and maxillofacial surgeons and orthodontists perform. In addition they have updated and written a new page titled “Culture of Safety“. The page is a welcome addition and discusses how safety is the number one priority in the oral and maxillofacial surgery office. Now I wanted to take a moment to respond to this page and some other developments I have seen lately across the blogosphere. 1) … Read more

Politics of Dental Anesthesiology

by

A recent article titled “Dental anesthesiology falls short of becoming ADA specialty,” by Rob Goskowski, Nov. 1, 2012, located at http://www.drbicuspid.com/index.aspx?sec=sup&sub=rst&pag=dis&ItemID=311903, discusses a recent vote that took place at the House of Delegates during the 2012 American Dental Association (ADA) Annual Session. The House of Delegates voted against recognizing Dental anesthesiology as the 10th ADA recognized specialty. Steven Ganzberg, a clinical professor and the chair of dental anesthesiology at UCLA says: “This action by the ADA confirms that the ADA process of specialty approval is fatally flawed….This was clearly an effort by the ADA, through AAOMS [the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons], to restrict professional activities that specialty recognition would have provided.” Dr. Ganzberg and some other supporters were hoping that the specialty would be approved as they felt it would lead to increased training and emergency preparedness … Read more

Wisdom Teeth Advice and New Dental Schools

by

A new article in the New York Times titled “Wisdom of Having that Tooth Removed” written by Roni Caryn Rabin published September 5, 2011, is an interesting articles for those considering whether or not to have healthy wisdom teeth extracted. The article is located at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/health/06consumer.html The article explores some of the issues regarding whether or not you should or not have have healthy wisdom teeth extracted. The article discusses how the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) held a press conference back in October of 2010, http://www.aaoms.org/docs/media/third_molars/key_findings.pdf (dead 10/14/19), in which one of the key findings was “Retained, asymptomatic wisdom teeth are eventually extracted between 25% and almost 70% of the time.” The author of the New York Times article questioned AAOMS on this statement which appeared on their website. The response from AAOMS was “Yet when … Read more

Astroturfing And How Your Thoughts Are Being Manipulated by Corporate Interests

by

Astroturfing is a form of advocacy typically to support an agenda with the appearance of a fake grassroots organization that is usually sponsored by corporations or those with a certain political interest. They work in such a way so that you are not aware that the corporate or political backing is present and you are led to believe that just an independent public organization is speaking out. There are a lot of ethical issues raised by doing this and evidence shows that astroturfing can be effective. A recent article in the Journal of Business Ethics titled “Astroturfing Global Warming: It Isn’t Always Greener on the Other Side of the Fence,” by Charles H. Cho, Martin L. Martens, Hakkyun Kim, and Michelle Rodrigue (online July 3, 2011) explores the issue of those who visited astroturf websites and how it affects the … Read more

Third Molar Multidisciplinary Press Conference

by

Just a quick update to remind you that the Multidisciplinary Conference on Third Molars (Wisdom Teeth) will be occurring today October 19, 2010, at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel in Washington, D.C. at 11 A.M Eastern. To find out more details please refer to my previous blog post http://blog.teethremoval.com/multidisciplinary-conference-on-third-molars-wisdom-teeth/. If you are unable to make the conference and would like to listen in online, a live audio stream will be provided. Simply visit http://www.visualwebcaster.com/event.asp?id=73177 This conference is being put on by American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) and Ira. D Cheifetz, the immediate past president of AAOMS, will be in attendance. Update: I did get a chance to listen in on the conference which lasted just over an hour. The live stream also showed a PowerPoint presentation to accompany the speakers. The speakers who presented are seen in the … Read more