Sandy Evans, dental assistant, post-director of the Waldo County Dental Program and PhD candidate, spoke with Dr. John O’Keefe about the importance of coming up with alternative non-traditional ways to deliver dental services in rural areas and to vulnerable populations.  Highlights Sandy Evans, who worked with the Waldo Community Action Partners in Waldo County, Maine was able to use non-traditional delivery methods to enhance dental and oral health care in rural areas in Maine. Rural areas are often under-serviced with respect to specialized care and access to care may be limited. Programs were designed and developed to care for vulnerable groups ...

Dr. Sree Koka, Associate Editor of the Journal of Prosthodontic Research, joined Dr. John O’Keefe in this conversation about the changes that the field of prosthodontics will undertake in the next 10 years.  Among six dentists, Dr. Koka is the founder of Career Design in Dentistry an organization that helps dentists plan their careers on a personal as well as business levels.  Highlights The prosthodontics knowledge base is extending on two fronts: There is a new marriage of materials and technology: we are on the threshold of tremendous potential of technology being used with certain materials to impact the day-to-day practice. Industry ...

Dr. Bill Scarfe spoke with Dr. John O’Keefe about what he sees the future of dental radiology.  Highlights Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) has brought enormous opportunities for specialists and general dentists, in terms of monitoring disease progression and treatment outcomes, particularly in three areas: (1) orthodontics, (2) endodontics, and (3) craniofacial assessment. CBCT has the potential to change the way dentists practice, for 2 reasons: (1) Greater market penetration has brought CBCT technology to a wider group of users, beyond the early adopters such as oral surgeons, endodontists and orthodontists, and (2) With increased use of CBCT scans, incidental ...

Last weekend, I attended and played a small role in the annual meeting of the Council of the Federation of Dental Student Associations (FCDSA). For two days, twenty really intelligent, creative and dedicated dental students from all ten dental schools in Canada came together in Ottawa to chart the course of their organization over the coming year. It is not an easy task to create and develop a national student organization, but the previous and current leaders of this federation, that is still only four years old, have made great advances in this short time. Having been a dental student organization ...

Dr. Jeff Glaizel is a General Dentist in Toronto and Consumer Innovation and Development Lead with Ontario Telemedicine Network. He spoke with Dr. John O’Keefe about the road to implementing telemedicine and how that may mean change for dentistry too.  Highlights Technology is advancing at a fast pace and there are many technological solutions that we don’t know how to use. The main drivers that are moving telemedicine fast: Patients want the ease of access to their doctors The cost of healthcare delivery The demand for physicians’ services Associations need to get ready for big data, namely large amounts of ...

Dr. David Wong spoke with Dr. John O’Keefe about the potential saliva offers in the diagnosis and early detection of malignancies. Saliva may even have the potential of monitoring our health status and signalling diseases.  Dr. David T.W. Wong DMD, DMSc is Felix & Mildred Yip Endowed Professor, Associate Dean of Research and Director of the Oral/Head and Neck Oncology Research Center at UCLA. Dr. Wong is an active scientist in oral cancer and saliva diagnostics research. He has authored over 280 peer reviewed scientific publications. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS), ...

Dr. Ross Kerr, clinical associate professor in the New York University Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Radiology and Medicine Department, talks about advances in the diagnosis and treatment of oral cancer that could change how the disease is managed in 10 years. Detection Potential advances in biomarker development could make it easier to detect oral cancer at an early stage. Although most oral abnormalities found by dentists are unlikely to be malignant, biomarkers can identify lesions with the genetic mutations that increase the likelihood of transforming into an aggressive cancer. Advances in oral cancer detection will foster a personalized approach to ...

Mr. Bernie Teitelbaum, DIAC Executive Director, spoke with Dr. John O’Keefe about a useful tool that will help dentists identify non-compliant products. The checklist is available in English and French and contains 12 indicators that a products may not be approved for use in Canada. Download the Checklist in English (PDF) Download the Checklist in French (PDF)