By Dr. Hector Sarmiento
As Latin America is the focus of the AO’s annual meeting this year, we look forward to dentists from our neighbors to the south sharing their insights and experience of implant dentistry while offering new perspectives in clinical procedures and new ways to care for patients.
Many speakers will join us from various areas throughout Latin America at the March 15-18 conference in Orlando, Florida, a certainly convenient locale in the U.S. for them to visit.
While dentists in the U.S. will learn of Latin American procedures, the occasion also will give the Latin American dentists an opportunity to acquire additional surgical knowledge to ensure quality dental healthcare for their patients.
Speakers who are from Latin American countries are identified throughout the meeting program with an icon reading “LA,” and complimentary simultaneous Spanish and Portuguese translation services will be provided in the two main general session rooms.
We will be looking at various perspectives of implant dentistry. I, for one, am excited about all the Latin American presentations that will show clinicians how to treat perimplantitis, the infection in tissues surrounding implants. Many clinicians have worked extensively to find a cure for perimplantitis and also to carry out various surgical interventions for proper treatment.
In some ways, perimplantitis has been perplexing. This year, Drs. Michael Norton and Joseph Fiorellini joined me in publishing the first classification for perimplantitis based on etiologies. While an understanding of perimplantitis has evolved over the years, its classification has been limited to descriptions of the disease progression or involving soft and/or hard tissues. None has been based on etiology.
It will be a pleasure to discuss this and other issues with my colleagues from Latin America. In the year and months leading to the conference, we have focused on inviting dental students and residents from universities and master clinicians throughout Latin America to not only enjoy but also participate fully in our 2017 sessions.
Collaboration among our multi-specialists throughout the world does not only portend the future of modern dentistry but also shows it will become the gold standard to provide the best quality care for our patients.
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