Global Health Nexus, Winter 2004

Customized Continuing Education Courses Lure Brazilian Orthodontists

Last spring a group of young Brazilian orthodontists eager to pursue continuing education in the United States were looking for a customized program covering a wide range of topics presented by top experts from universities across the United States. Initially, they were not very optimistic. “We thought it would be difficult to find the right combination of classes, facilities, and instructors,” said Dr. Celestino Nobrega, International Program Director for Ortogeo, an independent Brazilian dental school where the orthodontists did their specialty training.

But after learning that NYU Dentistry was working closely with groups of overseas dentists at its newly opened continuing education center housed in the Rosenthal Institute for Aesthetic Dentistry, Dr. Nobrega knew that he was moving in the right direction. Weeks later, Dr. Nobrega and 39 of his former students arrived for a one-week program created especially for them by NYU Dentistry with participation by faculty members from the orthodontics departments at Boston University’s Goldman School of Dental Medicine, the University of the Pacific School of Dentistry, the University of Louisville School of Dentistry, the Louisiana State University School of Dentistry, and the University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine. The program was organized by Assistant Dean for Continuing Education H. Kendall Beacham, in cooperation with Dr. Mladen M. Kuftinec, Professor of Orthodontics and Director of NYU Dentistry’s International Program in Orthodontics, and Dr. George J. Cisneros, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Orthodontics.

Workshops included a demonstration of Invisalign®, a method of teeth straightening without wires and brackets that is gaining wide acceptance in the U.S. but is not yet commonly used in Brazil; a seminar on the relationship between periodontics and orthodontics, both taught by Dr. Robert Boyd, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Orthodontics at the University of the Pacific School of Dentistry; and a class on the Bidimensional Technique, a system of brackets which allows orthodontists to fine-tune treatment for different parts of the mouth, presented by Dr. Anthony Gianelly, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Orthodontics at the Goldman School of Dental Medicine. The group also toured NYU Dentistry’s orthodontics clinics.

Describing himself and his group as “very satisfied with the courses,” Dr. Nobrega added that he plans to bring additional groups of Brazilian orthodontists to NYU Dentistry to take advantage of the customized continuing education experience.