AAOSH Scientific Session - President's Report

We came; we learned; and we were energized!

The first scientific session for the American Academy for Oral Systemic Health is now behind us, and I can truly say it has launched a major movement in the world of health that is never going to go away and will only get stronger and more powerful as the years go by.

We will always remember 2011 as “The Year of the Mouth” because physicians, dentists, hygienists, and other health care practitioners and advocates began joining forces under the AAOSH banner with a new spirit of learning and cooperation. And it is really only just getting started!

Here are the highlights of the landmark meeting. To get things started we had Bradley Bale MD and Amy Doneen, RN, BSN, MSN, ARNP giving us the latest information on detecting cardiovascular disease. I honestly felt like I was getting the inside scoop that traditional heart docs are just not on top of. And he we are in Chicago getting all this info from the country’s leading team known for their advanced techniques for detecting and reversing cardiovascular disease that could lead to heart attack or stroke.

The Bale-Doneen Method approaches the health of the patient from an “optimum care” approach utilizing diagnostic and treatment methods that are too often not used or considered in “traditional care” health models. The traditional health models generally wait for expression of symptoms, events or even end-stage disease to be present before springing into action, which Dr. Bale says has to change. Interestingly, dentistry is no different!

So how good are these two at what they do? Well their patients that come to them after having had an initial heart attack or stroke have never had another one! This is the country’s leading team at what they do. I now know that passing a stress test doesn’t mean you’ve cleared your risk for heart attack, in fact they are falsely reassuring. In fact you don’t fail the stress test until your arterial lumen is at least 70% occluded! Prior to that (i.e. passing the test) means you have a “clean bill of health” – or so many are told.

I also now know that the usual view inside an artery via catheterization doesn’t show you the soft plaques developing within the artery walls. An amazing test called a Carotid Artery B-Mode Ultrasound uses imaging technology to see a cross section of your artery AND the soft plaque developing within the walls.

Most of the attendees at AAOSH’s scientific session experienced the ease of this non-invasive test that was available for all at our meeting. Some members of AAOSH who had previously been told by their physicians that they were healthy, were given potentially lifesaving information about soft plaques that were discovered in their arteries - at our meeting. How motivating and telling is that!

You see we aren’t just saving our patients’ lives through our care and assessments that lead to recommending these screenings, we are saving our own! This is the kind of impact our meeting and organization is having!

We also learned from Dr. Bale and Ms. Doneen about a major cardiac risk player (not just a marker, this one’s a definite player!) that elevates with periodontal disease! To me this was the oral systemic and “smokin’ gun” connection I had been waiting to hear about. Lipoprotein associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) is a cardiovascular-specific inflammatory marker implicated in the formation of vulnerable, rupture-prone plaques like the ones that we discover on the ultrasound test described above.

Control periodontal disease and you can control this value that at certain levels can put you at risk and predict your short term death or stroke! OK - this is so big that I have to repeat it: Periodontal disease can raise the level of this biologically active disease marker. Control periodontal disease and you can lower the levels of this bodily disease marker. You now have your oral systemic connection!!

Additional presentations  made the oral systemic case  even more clear thanks to our esteemed colleagues Tom Nabors, DDS, FACD, Casey Hein, RDH,BSDH, MBA, and Duane Keller, DMD.  Heads were buzzing and passion was stirred in everyone present. The new role of the dental team as life savers that must team up and work with the medical community was made profoundly clear.

We finished our session with Lee Ostler, DDS and Bob Maccario, MBA teaching us the steps we need to take to reach out to the medical community and how we can be implementing all of these amazing ideas in our offices.

We were also treated to a wonderful keynote from everybody’s friend, the Chief Editor of Dental Economics, Dr Joe Blaes, one of the nicest guys in our profession. His passion and energy was evident as he declared that the messages we heard from the medical profession present about the impact that oral inflammation has on the health of the body – MUST be taken to all of dentistry and that it had to be done by us going away from this conference.

We were additionally honored to have Dr Lloyd Rudy, one of the country’s foremost cardiothoracic surgeons, give us his first hand description of one of the top 10 discoveries in cardiology that he was responsible for – the discovery that a blood clot or thrombus was the cause of a heart attack. This finding changed the course of cardiology forever and instituted the beginning of the modern clot-busting technologies and pharmacology we have today. Dr Rudy also shared his full support of our organization as he recognizes the dangerous contributions and consequences of the oral inflammatory burden on our bodies.

So many people did so much to make this meeting an unqualified success. First and foremost your AAOSH board members really scrambled and put in countless hours to make sure that this meeting was the success it was. Special honorable recognition and thanks goes to Susan Estep who was in charge of the meeting committee. Between Susan and her energized and most awesome committee and team, this meeting was handled with assured expertise and all the personal touches that go above and beyond the call of duty.

To sum it up, the weekend of our AAOSH meeting was one of the most meaningful and enjoyable weekends of my life. There is such a strong sense of purpose that became evident during our gathering. If you were there, I know you felt it! If you weren’t able to be there you will absolutely want to absorb this information from the recordings that we will be making available. It will change your life – and maybe even save a few – including yours!

As we look forward, we are planning a series of AAOSH Regional events throughout the country, some of which will be held jointly with the American Academy of Private Physicians (AAPP). The next one planned will be in the Northeast in Boston toward the end of September. I urge each of you to support these events and to invite colleagues you know in those areas to make a special effort to attend and learn more about AAOSH, the oral-systemic science, and interdisciplinary care.