2010/10/08 Nerve Injuries & Revascularization : UBD

Nerve Injuries in Dental Practice: What Do I Do Now?
Presented by Dr. Roger A. Meyer

9am-noon, Friday, October 8, 2010

Injuries to peripheral branches of the trigeminal nerve are known and accepted risks of dental practice. Local anesthetic injections, biopsies, and wisdom tooth removal by the general dental practitioner, as well as periodontal surgery, dental implants, tumor removal, repair of facial injuries, and reconstructive, craniomaxillofacial and esthetic procedures by specialists can result in sensory dysfunction of the mouth and face. Such sensory aberrations may become permanent in some patients and result in distressing symptoms which seriously interfere with normal activities of daily living.

Modification of diagnostic modalities in treatment planning and in the procedures or operations themselves may be helpful in reducing the incidence of nerve injuries. Once an injury has occurred, a standardized method of evaluation (which can be easily performed by all dentists) and timely treatment (by specialists) is essential to providing the patient with the best chance of return of acceptable sensory function.

Microsurgical operations have become the standard of care for selected patients with peripheral nerve injuries, not only in the oral and maxillofacial regions, but throughout the body.

Experience with microneurosurgery, as well as other methods of nerve injury treatment will be presented. Avoidance of nerve injuries, where possible, or their timely treatment when they do occur, will do much to reduce the risk of medicolegal action in your dental practice.

Guest Faculty

Roger A. Meyer, MD, DDS, FACS, private practice with Atlanta Oral and Facial Surgery, a consultant in craniofacial surgery to the Department of Human Resources, State of Georgia, Clinical Professor of Plastic Surgery at Emory University, and Chief of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery at Northside Hospital, Atlanta.

Revascularization:

Objectives, Indications and Strategies
Presented by Dr. Todd M. Giesler

1pm~4pm, Friday, October 8, 2010

Regenerative medicine is a reality. Just about every area in medicine is attempting to regenerate functional tissue that has been lost due to disease or trauma. Recent case reports from multiple investigators support the feasibility of developing biologically-based regenerative endodontic procedures with the ultimate goal of restoring a functional pulp-dentin complex. This lecture will familiarize participants with the objectives and application of clinical revascularization/ regenerative endodontic techniques. Specifically, this lecture will focus on basic “how-to” steps of the procedure.

Benefits of Attending

The benefit to the practitioner is to achieve a level of comfort with revitalization/revascularization procedures such that the procedure can be easily incorporated into their arsenal of treatment options.

Course Objectives

At the conclusion of the lecture, participants should be able to define the basic objectives of pulp revascularization, list the indications for its clinical use and develop their own strategy for routinely treating revascularization cases in their offices.

Finally, participants should be comfortable enough with the interface of the Regenerative Endodontics Database to submit their next revascularization case.

Intended Audience

The main intended audience is the endodontist and his/her team however, the concepts and objectives are important for the general practitioner to understand. As tissue engineering matures as a treatment option, general practitioners will likely recognize the need to incorporate these concepts into their practice of general dentistry.

We will discuss at length the concept of informed consent and how we approach this with patients and parents.

Guest Faculty

Dr. Todd M. Geisler, DDS, practice limited to endodontics in Richfield, Minnesota. Dr. Geisler was a recipient of a grant from the AAE foundation for his research entitled, Regenerative Endodontics: Growth Factors Control the Phenotype of Human Dental Pulp Stem/Progenitor Cells. Dr. Geisler was a co-author of Regeneration Potential of the Young Permanent Tooth: What Does the Future Hold? published in Journal of Endodontics July 2008 supplement. Dr. Geisler was asked to present a workshop entitled, Endodontic Revascularization Technique at both the 2009 and 2010 AAE annual session.