Friday, April 30, 2010

American Behcet's Disease Association 2010 conference

I had the pleasure of speaking at the ABDA 2010 conference. In addition to speaking, Sharon, my wife, and I attended all 3 days to listen to the other speakers and learn from their knowledge and experience.

There have been many advances in the research, study and treatment of Behcet's disease since we attended the last ABDA conference in 2007. There will be a survey posted soon on the Behcets.com website regarding dental concerns in Behcet's.

At the conference there were patients and physicians. Trying to address both audiences presented a challenge for me that left me feeling that my message to both was diluted. The ABDA Board said that they will put an article I write in their next newsletter. In that way I will be able to better address the things that I feel are important for each.

At the conference, the informal poll taken showed approximately 30% of the patients present having root canals done that the patient's dentist had a hard time explaining why the tooth was dead. In conversations at the conference, many spoke to me of this kind of problem happening. One shared that they had 24 root canals and 4 teeth extracted. I looked back at things that I wrote at the 2007 conference. A similar informal poll at that time yielded approximately 20 % showing this symptom. It is significant enough to merit research into this area.