Registration now open for AO’s inaugural North American Regional Meeting

Heralding the home of the first modern root form dental implant placed and restored in the United States, the Academy of Osseointegration’s (AO) Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting will be held in National Harbor, Maryland, Sept. 14-15, 2018.

“Advances in Clinical Implant Dentistry” will focus on various disciplines within implant dentistry, including the latest in surgical, restorative and laboratory techniques. The Gaylord National Resort, one of the most elegant convention centers along the Eastern seaboard of the United States, will provide the backdrop for this historic meeting with its picturesque views of Washington, D.C., and old-town Alexandria from the shores of the Potomac River.

The two-day program, featuring AO member presenters from the U.S. mid-Atlantic region, will include:

September 14, 2018: Hands-on clinics

• Dr. Joseph P. Fiorellini, an AO director, who has served as head of the division of periodontology and post-graduate program director of periodontology at Harvard University and is currently chair of the department of periodontics at the University of Pennsylvania, will provide a hands-on course titled “Socket Bone Grafting, with and without Biologic Modifiers.”

• Tony Prestipino, CDT, Alexandria, Virginia, a long-time, active AO member and master laboratory technician in the Washington, D.C., area, will provide a review and hands-on course titled “Advanced Protocols for Converting Removable Dentures to Fixed Interim Prostheses: A review and hands-on course.”

Saturday, March 15: Main Program

• Dr. Eva Anadioti, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, director of the post-Ggraduate prosthodontics specialty program at the University of Pennsylvania, will provide a practical overview titled “Implant Overdenture: The Past, the Present and the Future.”

• Dr. Edgard El Chaar, New York City, director of the post[-graduate periodontics specialty program at New York University, will present “Innovative Strategies and Techniques in Ridge Augmentation.”

• Dr. Thomas Taylor, West Hartford, Connecticut, head of the department of prosthodontics and reconstructive sciences at the University of Connecticut, will address the topic, “Occlusion and Dental Implants: What Gives?”

• Dr. Maria Troulis is chair of the department of oral and maxillofacial surgery at Harvard University School of Dental Medicine and Massachusetts General Hospital. Her presentation will be titled “Bone Tissue Engineering.”

More than 30 poster presentations showcasing the latest cutting-edge research in implant dentistry will also be on display at the meeting.

AO members are highly encouraged to invite their colleagues to this meeting, which carries historical significance in the field of osseointegration and AO’s history. In May 1982, following a three-day symposium hosted by Dr. George A. Zarb and conducted by professor Per-Ingvar-Brånemark in Toronto, Canada, Dr. Paul H.J. Krogh, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon from Bethesda, Maryland, and his prosthodontic colleagues, Drs. Lloyd Vakay from Alexandria, Virginia, and his partner, Dr. Daniel Y. Sullivan from Washington, D.C., attended an intensive one-week training session in Sweden at the University of Göteborg, hosted by Dr. Brånemark. Two months following this training in October 1982, the trio became the first surgeons involved in the placement of titanium endosseous implants in four patients over two days, with Dr. Branemark placing the implants.

This revolutionary time in the field of implant dentistry subsequently sparked four training centers across the United States and one in Canada, as well as the Osseointegration Study Group in New York in 1984, the organization which then formed the Academy of Osseointegration in March 1985. Drs. Krogh and Sullivan would become two of the Academy’s early presidents in 1989 and 1993, respectively.

The mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting will also serve as the promotional launch of the much-anticipated AO annual global scientific Annual Meeting, to be held March 13–16, 2019, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in downtown Washington, D.C.

“With a focus on multidisciplinary, evidence-based implant dentistry and the latest surgical, prosthetic and laboratory technologies, the academy’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting in National Harbor, Maryland, is an event you will not want to miss! I’ll look forward to seeing you there,” says AO President Dr. James C. Taylor, who will be there to open the meeting.

Space is limited, so be sure to register early to guarantee your seat at this special event.