Vision, preeminence, and leadership in dental implant surgery: A specialtyÇƒÙs progress

Editoral
Vision, preeminence, and leadership in dental implant surgery: A specialtyÇƒÙs progress
March 2004 Çƒ¢ Volume 62 Çƒ¢ Number 3
Leon A. Assael, DMD
Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Online
Vision
Leadership in a clinical arena begins with a vision. The strategic plan of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons calls for leadership in dental implant surgery. By 2007, AAOMS envisions that the specialty will be Çƒ?predominant in the field of oral and maxillofacial surgery, including dentoalveolar and implant surgery.Çƒ? The first objective in achieving this vision is to:
Çƒ?Launch a program to educate faculty and residents about the importance of dentoalveolar and implant surgery by 2003, 2004.Strategy 1: Support and encourage implant surgeryÇƒÓrelated research and innovative educational models.Strategy 2: Re-emphasize and monitor the existing accreditation standards and processes.Çƒ?1
Progress towards this objective of the AAOMS strategic plan has already begun. Our specialty is building the foundation for expertise in dental implant surgery in areas including the annual Dental Implant Conference, the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Foundation research grants, and public information activities. The new members of the specialty have benefited by improved requirements for residency education in implant dentistry, and by incorporating implant dentistry as a substantial portion of the examination for certification by the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. Dental students have gained from the development of dental implant curricula and the many emerging clinical dental implant programs directed at the predoctoral student. Many individual surgeons are now working on product development, devising innovative procedures, and presenting their clinical expertise to dental colleagues. Others devote their efforts locally to develop strong dental implant practices. These individuals represent both an outcome measure of our success and continued evidence of our specialtyÇƒÙs leadership in implant dentistry.
AAOMS has also identified JOMS as an important element in achieving this vision.
Çƒ?Objective: Establish JOMS as the principal specialty journal resource for implant knowledge by 2005.Strategy 1: Establish an implant section in JOMS by 2003.Strategy 2: Develop strategies for submission of manuscripts for publication in JOMS that further the knowledge of implants.Çƒ?1
In this issue of JOMS, we introduce the first of a continuing section, Çƒ?Dental Implants.Çƒ? JOMS is also preparing a special issue, Çƒ?Contemporary Alternatives in Dental Implant Surgery,Çƒ? to appear in the coming months. JOMS invites clinicians and scientists from all disciplines interested in the advancement of implant dentistry to submit their work to JOMS.
Preeminence of our specialty in dental implants requires surgical leaders whom we can all emulate to help us achieve our goals. In December 2003, we added 3 new members to the editorial board to form the implant section; Drs Michael Block, Jay Malmquist, and Anthony Sclar are well known to oral and maxillofacial surgeons and the dental implant community as leaders. The new editors of the implant section are surgeons, innovators, communicators, and investigators who are respected in the field of implant dentistry. They will serve JOMS readers and help achieve the AAOMS vision by designing and promoting the dental implant surgery section.
Preeminence
In its strategic plan AAOMS recognizes that dental implant surgery is an essential part of the practice of oral and maxillofacial surgery. Preeminence in dental implant surgery maintains the goal of strengthening our identity as dentists.
Preeminence does not imply dominance of the field of endeavor. Nor does it hold to suppress the good work of others. Preeminence simply means to be the best. That is a goal that ethically serves our patients and the specialty. The preeminence of oral and maxillofacial surgery in implant dentistry will be achieved by individual surgeons driven to be the best.
Preeminence begins with education. The requirements for dental implant surgery clinical training have been debated since the inception of implant surgery. Curiously, in the early years, many of the most prolific implant leaders had no formal surgical training related to implant dentistry. They were self-taught innovators with bold ideas, high energy, and a willingness to take risks.
Today new technology creates greater predictability and precision, which at first might increase the training necessary to perform implants. However, what technology initially complicates, it then makes so simple as to be nearly invisible. At an exhibition demonstrating computer-guided treatment, a surgeon nervously remarked, Çƒ?What do you need me for? Anyone can do this.Çƒ? Greater simplicity opens the way toward more complex treatment that can be provided by those with less skill. However, new technology provides easier solutions to the most vexing clinical problems. That leaves even greater complexity of clinical application for those with the highest skills. Preeminence in dental implant surgery will thus make ever-greater demands on those who seek it.
Leadership
If oral and maxillofacial surgery is to remain dentistryÇƒÙs principal surgical specialty, and not only a head and neck surgical specialty, it must further develop and maintain leadership in the surgical procedures of the dentoalveolar process, including those that replace missing teeth.
For a specialty to achieve preeminence in a surgical endeavor, it must lead in foundational science, collaborate with industry in technologic advances, develop superior surgical innovation, gain substantial clinical experience, perform quality clinical research, and present these advances in the peer-reviewed literature. To lead in the practice of an emerging area of surgery, the specialtyÇƒÙs members must also develop the interdisciplinary and collegial relationships that promote further experience and innovation. Each member of the specialty must develop personal relationships with fellow dentists to establish an effective implant team. Although oral and maxillofacial surgery has elements of success in each of these areas of dental implant surgery, it is certain that we have achieved leadership in but a few. Even greater efforts will be needed to achieve the AAOMS vision.
Leaders lead best when they lead by example and by best practices. Consider the following recommendations that each of us can embrace:
Lead in science: Incorporate the best science can offer into an evidence-based approach to clinical decision making in dental implant practice.
Lead in knowledge: Be a resource of implant knowledge for yourself and dental colleagues. Lifelong learning needs to be continuous in the rapidly emerging arena of implant dentistry.
Lead in surgical skill: Aspire to be the best in this highly demanding but beautifully executed surgical arena.
Lead in dentist/patient communication: Implant dentistry is perhaps the best way to reconnect with the primary care dentist for the longitudinal care of dental patients. It offers an opportunity to educate patients about improving their oral health.
Lead in precision and dental mentality: Precision in planning and execution of dental implant therapy really matters. It is a chance to achieve the level of precision we all experienced in prosthetic dentistry and operative dentistry.
Lead in simplification: Fewer implant parts, fewer procedures, less invasive procedures, and faster case turnaround will achieve greater patient/dentist acceptance.
Lead in maintenance: Recall of the implant patient while ensuring the dentistÇƒÙs role in overall maintenance facilitates communication and provides superior long-term outcomes.
Lead by listening: The general dentist is the primary care leader of the oral health care team. Only treatment that incorporates the general treatment plan (and thus the wishes of the patientÇƒÙs dentist) can be effective. Dental implants are always part of a comprehensive dental treatment plan.
Lead in caring for our patients: Our goals should be to provide an ever more rewarding, more comfortable, and more economical implant dentistry experience, so that we can bring the benefits of this marvelous technology to more of our patients.
With emerging technology, comprehensive commercial support, improving surgical skills, and strong consumer demand, it is certain that implant dentistry will continue to advance in clinical practice. An informed observer must believe that oral and maxillofacial surgery is very well positioned as a specialty for present and future leadership in implant dentistry. Our surgical training, dental education, and our ambulatory surgery skill make the highly demanding technical aspects of implant dentistry a natural fit for OMS practices. Our leadership in implant dentistry remains an incompletely fulfilled opportunity, but the future opportunity to be the best remains in our hands.
References
1. AAOMS website: AAOMS strategic plan 2003ÇƒÏ05, 2003. Available at http://www.aaoms.org/member/docs/03strategicplan.doc.Accessed December 31.