PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Steven G. Lewis, DMD, AO President

In case you missed it, the Academy of Osseointegration just held its 23rd Annual Meeting in Boston, MA. Dr. David Garber, the meeting chairman, and Dr. Maurice Salama, the annual program chairman, organized one of the Academy’s biggest and best meetings ever. The meeting was co-sponsored with the American Academy of Periodontology (AAP), the American Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS), and the American College of Prosthodontists (ACP). It was the second time an AO meeting partnered with other organizations, the first being in 2003, also in Boston.

A total of 4,470 people attended the Boston meeting. That number included 1,238 AO members, 641 non-members, 586 students, 150 auxiliary staff, 1,412 exhibitors, and 327 spouses/guests. A total of 73, including 14 from outside the U.S. representing 8 countries, presented during the three-day meeting.

The meeting, entitled “A Trip Up the Implant,” was preceded by 13 Corporate Forums Thursday morning, where corporate sponsors provided presentations featuring 36 internationally renowned speakers. Altogether, the number of corporate exhibitors totaled 133, the most ever. The Academy greatly appreciates the support of these corporations, including the corporate forums and exhibits and also a number of corporate sponsored events and activities during the meeting. They support bus transportation, catering of social events, research awards, a CD-ROM of the meeting, lead retrieval cards, the pocket schedule, the Schedule of Events board, the Internet Café, brochures, registration bags, packets, booklets, notepads, pens, and badge lanyards.

It’s hard to imagine an AO annual meeting without our great corporate partners. We want every corporate sponsor to know how much we appreciate their support and trust that they feel they, too, benefit from their Academy partnership.

This year, the Annual Meeting started with a new program that will hopefully become an annual ritual. Dr. Luis Fujimoto, chairman of the Membership Committee, and his fellow committee members organized a New Member Breakfast Thursday morning. Despite the early start (6:30 a.m.), this meeting was attended by 156 new members. After a brief welcome by Academy President Dr. Steve Eckert, the new members were able to enjoy a rather large breakfast buffet and the opportunity to get to know other new members and the Academy Board Members in attendance.

It is our greatest wish that the new members who gave AO a try in Boston enjoyed the meeting, found it to be a valuable and worthwhile event, and will continue their membership in the Academy for many years to come. The new member breakfast certainly proved to be a successful first step.

The journey “up the implant” began Thursday afternoon with discussions regarding bone-implant interaction, progressed up to the implant-abutment connection, reviewed various abutment designs and materials, and ended with the restoration. This opening session concluded with an Osseointegration Foundation presentation to Dr. Per-Ingvar Brånemark via satellite transmission from Sweden. And let’s face it; no implant meeting is complete without Professor Brånemark.

The next two days included scientific and clinical lectures in the main hall, separate surgical and restorative track programs, 14 round table clinics, 24 oral scientific research presentations, 20 clinical innovation presentations, 26 lunch and learn sessions, 12 limited attendance lectures (each presented twice), and nearly 200 poster presentations.

One highlight was Friday afternoon’s Team Treatment Planning session. Team ACP, Team AAP, and Team AAOMS each gave separate presentations in the Veteran’s Auditorium. On Saturday, we continued the very effective track programs, with presentations on the surgical and restorative tracks running simultaneously.

The closing symposium on Saturday illustrated the Academy’s belief in the importance of cross-disciplinary communication in implant dentistry with presentations illustrating the restorative perspective, the periodontist’s view, the oral surgeon’s perspective, and the contribution of the laboratory technician.

The program committee for this meeting did a remarkable job. Even more obvious should be the realization that the effort put forth by this committee was tremendous and time consuming! Dr. David Guichet has accepted the task of organizing the program for the 2009 annual meeting in San Diego. After almost two years of work, he and his committee are now in the process of confirming the speakers.

According to David, the 2009 program will focus on separating the hype from the science on new technologies in implant therapy. Its theme is “A New Wave in Implant Dentistry.” From immediate loading protocols to bone substitutes and biologics, many new technologies will be discussed, including Cad/Cam surgery and prosthetics. Saturday afternoon, the meeting will conclude with experts such as Drs. Garber, Kenji Higuchi, Burton Langer, Jay Malmquist, Stephen Parel, and others discussing not just failure, but catastrophic failure.

Dr. Luis Fujimoto, chairman of the membership committee, along with Jeff Lloyd, Amerian Sones, and others are busy developing and implementing a pilot project to introduce the Academy of Osseointegration to graduate residents of several Southern California programs, including UCLA, USC, Loma Linda, and Wadsworth VA. The committee’s plan is to promote the San Diego meeting and describe the benefits of Academy membership. Hopefully, many of these residents will be encouraged to come to the meeting in San Diego, enjoy the new member breakfast, and appreciate the value of Academy membership. Based on the committee’s success with this project, we will then target residency programs each year in proximity to that year’s annual meeting.

The 2008 Boston meeting will be a tough act to follow, but I have no doubt that the program for 2009 in San Diego will be as good as any implant meeting ever held. From Boston to San Diego and everywhere in between, the Academy of Osseointegration continues to provide an educational experience that is second to none.

The mission of the Academy is “to advance oral health and well being by disseminating state-of-the-art clinical and scientific knowledge of implant dentistry and tissue engineering and by defining expertise in the field of implant dentistry.” I believe that, year-in and year-out, the Academy continues to achieve that goal without compromise. Whether you made it to Boston or not, mark your calendars now for February 26-28, 2009, in San Diego.