My special area of expertise is reconstruction in which implants are integrated into bone, especially in patients with defects of the face and jaws related to cancer surgery, traumatic injury, or congenital growth abnormalities. I am also board certified in dental general anesthesia. I work as part of a collaborative team of head and neck surgeons, plastic surgeons, and maxillofacial prosthodontists in planning and placing implants both inside and outside the mouth following cancer surgery. I also provide bone graft reconstruction, if needed, to rebuild defects to support future prostheses.
My research interests currently involve investigating the role that agents called bisphosphonates, which are used in the treatment of certain cancers, play in osteonecrosis of the jaw. In addition to my clinical and teaching activities I am a forensic odontologist (a specialist who uses teeth and other nearby structures as a means of identification) and currently a member of M.E.S.O.R.T. (medical examiner special operations response team) for the Chief Medical Examiner for the City of New York. I was actively involved in the identification process for the victims of the 9/11 World Trade Center disaster and the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 the same year. I have been honored by New York City, New York State, and the US House of Representatives for my forensic work. In 2005 I was inducted into the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. I am currently the Chairman of the New York section of the American College of Dentists.
I am involved in organized dentistry on both a state and national level, and I am currently the Chairman of the New York Academy of Dentistry Humanitarian Outreach Committee. For the past eight years, in conjunction with three local dental schools and hospital oral and maxillofacial residents, general practice residents, and dentists, we have traveled to the Dominican Republic to treat underserved children and medically compromised HIV patients. This work is now part of the World of Smiles Foundation, of which I am President. I am the immediate past president of the New York State Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons and I am also involved with the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons as Chairman of the Dental Anesthesia Assistants National Certification committee. I have presented lectures at the annual meeting of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons on emergent anesthesia care and implant surgical placement techniques.
In 2010, I received the AAOMS Presidential Achievement Award in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. This award is given by the Board of Trustees to recognize a member or fellow for important long-standing contributions of benefit to the specialty of oral and maxillofacial surgery through clinical, academic, research, or public service activities. This is one of the highest awards given by the specialty of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. In 2018, I was awarded the Humanitarian Award at the 100th AAOMS National Scientific Meeting, for my ongoing outreach work in the Dominican Republic.
