Surya Joseph, DDS, MBA, will use a $5,000 grant from the American Association of Orthodontists (AAO) to test the placement of a transcortical mini-screw in the healing buccal plate of a socket to see if it preserves the alveolar bone following tooth extractions. If successful, this treatment will present a less invasive and risky alternative to ridge preservation surgery.
“Successful outcomes from this study will demonstrate that placements of mini-screws at the buccal plates of extraction sites significantly reduce bone loss at the sites without side effects,” said Joseph, a second-year orthodontics resident at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry (UMSOD).
Most importantly, the school reports, this procedure could potentially preserve the dimensions of the ridge after extraction and reduce patient costs.
“We see so many cases when a patient loses a tooth and can’t afford an implant. We can put a mini-screw at a fraction of the cost and maintain the integrity of the bone while the patient plans to put a restoration in place,” Joseph said.
As part of the AAO’s Charles J. Burstone Research Aid Award, the grant funds will ease the monetary burden for test patients and allow Joseph to recruit more people for the study. She will submit a final report on her results to the AAO by July 1, 2019.
Joseph, who plans to start a practice after graduation with her husband, Shashank Joshi, DDS, a perio-prosthodontic fellow at UMSOD, views this study as the first step in an ongoing effort to study treatment methods that will have a sustainable impact on orthodontics and periodontics.
“My future plan is to further research the various theories that force me to add an innovative and distinct component to the practice of orthodontics,” Joseph said.
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