The Future of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

Dr. Jim Hupp, Editor in Chief of the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, spoke with Dr. John O’Keefe about the various developments that the field of oral and maxillofacial surgery could witness in the next 10 years. 

Highlights

• The biggest role that oral maxillofacial surgeons play is modifying the anatomy in preparation for implant placement, particularly when bone growth factors become more refined.
• We are seeing more robotic-assisted surgeries and this approach will continue and improve in the future.
• Precision medicine/personalized medicine: will allow better differentiation and management of diseases through a greater understanding of the genetic code of some of the disease processes.
• Growing new teeth in situ may seem like science fiction today, but it could become the reality of tomorrow.
• Associations should find ways to promote our best and brightest trainees going into academia as they will become the cutting edge researchers and educators that the dental profession needs to keep moving forward and improving patient care.

Full Interview

 

What are the research developments that might have a major impact on oral and maxillofacial surgery in the next 10 years?

 

Refining the current clinical research and its use in dentistry

 

Are there any technologies in diagnosis or management disease that could change practice in the future?

 

What role can associations play to prepare the profession for the development that might take place in the next decade? 

 

Dr. James Hupp is a Professor of Oral-Maxillofacial Surgery, and the founding dean of the East Carolina University School of Dental Medicine in North Carolina.  He is also a Professor of Surgery at the School of Medicine.  He received his BS in biological sciences from the University of California, Irvine, and received his DMD degree cum laude from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine.  His residency training and MD degree were obtained at the University of Connecticut.  He has a JD from the Rutgers School of Law in Newark, New Jersey, and an MBA from the Loyola University of Maryland.  Dr. Hupp was dean at the University of Mississippi School of Dentistry.  He has also been chair of OMS at the University of Maryland and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.  He was previously on the faculty at the University of Connecticut and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

Dr. Hupp served as a director, officer, and eventually president of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.  He is a Fellow of the American and International Colleges of Dentists, and the American College of Surgeons. He serves as the senior editor of several major dental textbooks including Contemporary Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, now in its 6th edition, and the book Head, Neck and Orofacial Infections, An Interdisciplinary Approach. He was the editor-in-chief of the journal Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology and Oral Radiology, and is now the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.