Faculty and Staff, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

OMS Chair, Residents Present Research at Meetings

The UNC School of Dentistry’s Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery chairman, faculty and several of the program’s residents presented at international and national meetings recently.

Dr. Timothy A. Turvey, the department’s chairman, presented a master class at the Congress of the European Association of Cranio-Maxillo-Facial Surgery in Bruges, Belgium.

The September event, which drew an attendance of 1,926, featured 60 speakers, 24 master classes and hundreds of free presentations on a wide range of issues related to craniomaxillofacial surgery.

Turvey’s master class focused on “The Surgical Treatment of Non-Syndromic and Syndromic Craniosynostosis.” He also chaired a session on “The History, Art and Psychology of Orthognathic Surgery.”

On the national level, four UNC oral and maxillofacial surgery residents presented abstracts at the annual meeting of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons: Drs. Elda Fisher, Rachel Garaas, Carolyn Dicus and Esther Oh. Dr. Savannah Gelesko, a 2010 UNC DDS graduate, also presented an abstract.

Their research represented a continuum of studies directed by UNC’s Dr. Raymond P. White on the efficacy of third molar removal.

Recent UNC oral and maxillofacial surgery graduate Dr. Brent Golden presented an abstract on experiences using biodegradable bone plates and screws in craniomaxillofacial surgery. Turvey was the abstract’s co-author. Dr. Michael Jaskolka, another recent UNC oral and maxillofacial surgery graduate, presented a paper on the impact of pre-operative erythropoietin on recovery after orthognathic surgery. Dr. Ceib Phillips, a professor of orthodontics at the School of Dentistry, was the paper’s co-author.

The annual meeting was held in Chicago in late September-early October. The association represents more than 9,000 U.S. oral and maxillofacial surgeons.