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100 Years of Scientific Excellence at UNAM

Dr. Javier de la Fuente, Dean of UNAM Dental School, left, and Dr. Mariano Sanz at the scientific congress parallel to the AMIC Dental expo. (Photo: Jan Agostaro)
Javier M. de Pisón / Editor-in-Chief, Dental Tribune Latin America

Javier M. de Pisón / Editor-in-Chief, Dental Tribune Latin America

vie. 7 mayo 2010

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MEXICO CITY, Mexico — The dental school of the largest university in Latin America marked the 100th year anniversary of UNAM with an impressive scientific congress at the AMIC Dental Expo. Renowned international speakers such as Mariano Sanz (Spain), Stephen Flint (Ireland), Miriam Rossi (Canada), Marcelo Baum (Brazil) or Olga Lucía (Colombia) participated in the event.  

A telling sign of UNAM 's international status is that Dr. Enrique Acosta-Gio (Mexico), head of infection control of UNAM Dental School who introduced Dr. Flint at the congress, will receive in June a lifetime achievement award at the Organization for Safety, Asepsis and Prevention (OSAP) meeting in Tampa, Florida.

Dr. Acosta-Gio' outstanding career reached a high peak with his instrumental work in the outbreak of the H1N1, which occurred in Mexico a year ago. Dental Tribune Latin America interviewed Dr. Acosta-Gio at the congress and will publish his evaluation of the pandemic shortly.

UNAM Dental School Dean Dr. Javier de la Fuente opened the congress by saying that UNAM is the largest repository of culture and higher education in all of Mexico. He also mentioned that Mexico's National University (UNAM) has reached an agreement with Universidad Complutense of Madrid that will provide student and faculty mobility between the largest universities in Mexico and Spain. His work in this sense has been outstanding, reaching strategic alliances and opening opportunities throughout the continent for UNAM.

Dr. Mariano Sanz, Dean of Dentistry at Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Spain, was one of the main speakers at the scientific congress of UNAM Dental School, an event sponsored by the AMIC Dental Expo on the upper floor of Mexico City's World Trade Center.

Dr. Sanz, a world-renowned periodontics researcher and speaker, provided an overview of his team's work and the advances in his specialty. The expert reviewed the most up-to-date scientific research, evidence-based clinical advances, and offered an evaluation on the efficacy of diverse periodontal technologies.

"Lesions are important in chronic inflammatory diseases caused by infections, such as periodontal diseases," said Dr. Sanz. "In their destructive process, these diseases cause different types of lesions, and not all lesions can be treated today with regenerative periodontal treatment."

He explained which lesions can be treated through regenerative treatment, and which of them cannot be treated as of yet. Dr. Sanz quoted clinical studies that show the added value of clinical procedures to regenerative treatment, and the predictive factors that influence treatment options.

"Supragingival pockets cannot be treated with regenerative periodontal treatment when the periodontal infection is lower than the crest of alveolar bone. I don't have any doubt that in 15-20 years we will be talking about regenerative periodontal treatment in supragingival pockets", he said.

"In 10-15 years, removing teeth to place implants will be something from the past," Dr. Sanz said, "because we will be able to completely rebuild the ligament around the tooth. But we are not there yet. Right now, we don't have the biotechnology nor the surgical ability to regenerate the connective tissue, the cement and the supracrestal bone in this lesions."

Sanz explained that there's effective technology available however to regenerate infracrestal pockets.

Early Diagnosis of Systemic Diseases
Dr. Steven Flint, professor of Oral Medicine at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, praised Dr. Sanz and Trinity College's former Dentistry Dean Diarmuid Shanley, who were part of Europe's Dental Association for Dental Education and put together a unified dental curriculum for all of Europe.

Dr. Flint, who has been involved with HIV-positive patients for 25 years and set up an HIV-dedicated practice in Dublin's Dental School 20 years ago, provided an overview of this disease, its treatment and safety practices for dentists to follow.

"I've been treating HIV-positive patients for 25 years and I know that there is no risk, as long as you follow proper-infection control guidelines," he explained. The HIV-dedicated clinic has now closed, he said, in an effort to avoid separating patients that can be safely treated without risks from others.

Dr. Flint said that universal precautions established by ADA and OSAP guidelines are all is needed to treat HIV-positive patients. Only two cases have been recorded of HIV-transmission from a health care professional to a patient since the epidemic started in the early 1980's.

One of the main points of his lecture was the role that dentists should play in referring to physicians patients with systemic diseases. Dr. Flint explained the signs of the most common systemic diseases and said that dentists have the opportunity to effectively provide an early diagnosis that can lead to early treatment, and, in some cases, even save patient lives.

Resources

• UNAM: odonto.unam.mx

 

 

 

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