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Interview: “Incorporate all future potential problems and complications in the treatment planning”

At AEEDC Dubai, Dr Khabbaz will present his lecture “Implants for the periodontal patient” in front of an international audience. (Photograph: Dr Yasser Khabbaz)
Dental Tribune International

Dental Tribune International

Tue. 5 February 2019

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Dr Yasser Khabbaz is a consultant periodontist and implantologist at Ambulatory Healthcare Services in Abu Dhabi and runs a practice limited to periodontics and dental implants. After graduating from dental school, he completed a postgraduate residency programme in oral surgery at Damascus University in Syria in 2004. He then joined the graduate periodontics programme at Saint Louis University in Missouri in the US, where he obtained his Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies in Periodontics and a Master of Science in Dentistry in Dental Implants. He practised in Houston in Texas in the US before relocating to Dubai to join the Boston University Institute for Dental Research and Education as an assistant professor in the Department of Periodontics. Khabbaz is a diplomate of the American Board of Periodontology since 2008 and very active in continuing education in the UAE as a speaker in the fields of periodontics and dental implants. Ahead of AEEDC 2019, Dental Tribune International spoke with him to find out more about his lecture at the event.

Dr Khabbaz, at AEEDC 2019, you will be presenting a lecture titled “Implants for the periodontal patient”. What can your audience expect?
Attendees should expect an overview of how periodontal disease can complicate implant treatment from the early stages of treatment planning to implant placement and restoration, ending with the long-term survival and complications of implants in the periodontally compromised dentition. I am going to present many clinical situations where poor implant treatment planning was provided to periodontitis patients followed by clinical recommendations for proper management when dealing with implants for those patients.

What is the take-home message for your audience?
I usually classify treatment philosophies among clinicians providing dental implant treatment into two kinds. The first one is: place the implant first and deal with the problems in the future once they arise. Obviously, this is a short-sighted mentality and will cause many problems for the patient. The second treatment philosophy is: consider and incorporate all future potential problems and complications in the treatment planning before placing the implants. This mentality is valid for all patients, but it is way more important for the periodontal patient and I hope the audience following my lecture will embrace this.

What are you personally looking forward to the most at AEEDC 2019?
I am looking forward to the periodontal symposium within the AEEDC scientific programme, which I believe is the first time that it is being presented as a full day dedicated to periodontics at this event. I am hoping for it to be successful and to bring some much-needed awareness of this undervalued topic to dentists in our region. As per my observation, there are no regional periodontics speciality courses or conferences compared to orthodontics, oral surgery, endodontics, implant and aesthetic dentistry, considering it is a discipline that is related to all these disciplines closely. In addition, I am also excited, as always, for the great dental exhibition to see the latest materials and dental technologies.

Regarding future editions of AEEDC, is there anything you would like to see included or changed?
I have noticed drastic changes in the scientific programmes of continuing dental education events all over the world in the last two decades. They are now more focused on how to perform treatments such as cosmetic veneers, dental implants and root canal therapy, and I think this may stem from demand from dentists with the support of dental manufacturers. But, unfortunately, we are seeing less and less scientific content in those CE courses regarding diagnosis, aetiology, prognosis, oral biology or treatment planning. This is alarming because it is gearing our profession towards experience-based dentistry instead of evidence-based dentistry—which should always be the standard for any treatment administered.

Thank you very much for the interview.

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