8th General Meeting of APO

By Dr. Karen Piamonte-Miranda

Last April 7, 2010 was APO’s 8th general meeting held at the Rockwell Club in Makati. The venue was packed that day with a total of 74 members in attendance. After the usual registration, breakfast and fellowship, Dr. Jose Rivera shared some of their experiences in their recent trip to Australia when they attended the WFO last February. Dr. Emerlinda Galang also gave an update regarding PBO matters while Dr. Roberto Tan gave an update regarding the upcoming 7th APO Biennial National Orthodontic Congress.

The second half of that morning was spent listening to the lectures of 2 invited speakers. The 1st speaker was Dr. Elaine del Rosario and the topic of her lecture was “Integration of Treatment Planning in Endodontics and Orthodontics”. She mentioned in her lecture that an ideal treatment plan considers the different aspects of oral health, and that one must choose a treatment approach that will give the least negative effect. She also mentioned higher incidence of root resorption for vital pulp than teeth with previous RCT. Periapical root resorption during tooth movement is not well understood but heavy forces, especially intrusive or tipping forces are commonly implicated.

A relatively new technique she shared was to complete the endo treatment after ortho treatment. Due to the risk of external apical root resorption, it is recommended that teeth requiring RCT during or prior to orthodontic movement be cleaned, shaped, followed by an interim calcium hydroxide dressing be maintained during active phase of orthodontic movement with obturation occuring upon completion of ortho treatment. A good coronal seal must be achieved during this interim dressing.

The second speaker was the famous “doctor to the stars” Dr. Vicki Belo. Her topic was aptly about Practice Management. She shared some tips on how she evolved from having a single clinic to having several branches spread all over Manila and even in Cebu. Some tips she shared were: First, to start with a vision, to begin with the end in mind and work backwards to achieve that goal. Next is research. Find out what’s new in the industry and improve on what you’ve learned. Keep on learning and find out what you’re really good at. She also stressed the importance of hiring the right people, people you can trust so that you can protect your assets, staff with good attitude and easy to train, and have the same vision as you. Other tips she gave were to maintain a beautiful clinic, spoiling and delighting your patients, know how to listen to your patient, find out what they want or need, and deliver on what you promised. Be genuine, professional, but more importantly, be personable. After her lecture, she was gracious enough in granting our “star-struck” APO members time to have their pictures taken with her.

Also present that day was a new orthodontic supplier, Hubit, and the attendees got the chance to check out their goods.

The host cell group of this meeting was Alabang/Paranaque with Dr. Lalaine Gogna as master of ceremonies.