MoBay opens state-of-the-art dental operating suite - IPMC facility will be free of cost to western dentists
Published:Sunday | December 20, 2020 | 12:25 AMAdrian Frater - News Editor
WESTERN BUREAU:
Western Jamaica made a giant step in the world of state-of-the-art dentistry yesterday when the Montego Bay-based International Postgraduate Medical College (IPMC) officially opened its Dental Day Operating Suite at its Bay West location in Montego Bay, St James.
The facility, which is in full compliance with the Poswillo Report, which is the gold standard in global dentistry, is equipped to deliver dental surgical procedure of the highest order, to include the revolutionary anterograde amnesia technique, which allows patients to remain conscious through a painless surgical procedure, which they will have no memory of once the anaesthetic has worn off.
World-acclaimed implantology pioneer Dr Ken Judy, the provost at the IPMC, has hailed the establishment of the operating suite as a major accomplishment, as it will allow dentists to use the most advanced procedure to deliver high-quality service to their patients.
“This falls under postgraduate training and it is very important that practitioners are well trained,” said the dental expert, who has more than 50 years of experience under his belt, including sitting on the board of advisers at the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine.
He added, “I want to congratulate the staff at IPMC in Montego Bay for its vision in developing this facility, and I hope the education benefit will be enormous.”
Senior lecturer at The University of the West Indies’ Faculty of Medical Sciences, Dr Christopher Ogunsalu, the president and chief executive officer (CEO) at IPMC, said the facility, which has been named in honour of his late mother, Esther Adetola Ogunsalu (a renowned nurse in Nigeria), will be made available, free of cost, to dentists in western Jamaica.
“The dentists who use the facility will not be charged what insurance companies call ‘room and board’, nor for the use of the equipment,” said Ogunsalu, who is also internationally acclaimed in the dental field. “However, if patients need a CT scan or if the dentists want to use our anaesthetics, they will be required to pay for that. Additionally, if they are lucky and I am not busy, I will sedate the patients for them at a cost.”
According to Ogunsalu, the benefit for offering the facility free of charge will come in the form of education, as the college’s interns and residents (doctors) will be involved during the various procedures, learning while assisting.
The facility, which has been operating unofficially for some time, has done more than 500 incident-free surgical procedures, utilising the anterograde amnesia technique, which has inspired major confidence in dental circles.
The equipment that is currently in place is valued at over US$50,000. However, because most of the equipment were acquired via donation, it has inspired Ogunsalu’s decision not to charge for the use of the facility.
In addition to the equipment, which are some of the latest on the market, the facility will offer a full-time nurse, an anaesthesiologist, a recovery room and other amenities for full patient care and comfort.
“The turnaround time from sedation, to surgery, to recovery is approximately three hours,” said Ogunsalu. “With our sedation technique and the equipment available to us, we are able to extract four wisdom teeth in one operation with no addition to the recovery time.”
ANOTHER LEVEL
Former Health Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson, who is a member of the strategic committee at IPMC, which will be stepping up another notch in February with the launch of its Oral Radiology Diagnosis Degree programme, said the opening of the operating suite will take local dentistry to another level.
“The college is demonstrating an impressive strength of mission and is clearly on the right path,” said Ferguson. “I am sure that it is going to make a significant contribution to education and training in this very important field.”
Among the many state-of-the-art equipment on offer at the facility is a teeth grinder, which creates bone morrow from extracted teeth. The teeth grinder, which was donated by US-based dental implant specialist Dr Jack Krauser, is used to particulate teeth tissue, making them into bone grafting material.
“The suite will be offering everything for implantology, bone grafting and regeneration … everything for wisdom teeth removal,” said Ogunsalu. “We have the latest surgical motors with backup and a monitor system for the sedative, which we have developed here at the college. This will allowed dentists to operate at the highest level and students to be exposed to the latest equipment, techniques and training.”