How I Do It Session: Reconstruction

Dr. Eric Dierks is a graduate in both medicine and dentistry from the University of Louisville. His OMFS residency was done at the Christiana Medical Center of Delaware, and his ENT residency was completed at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. He is board-certified in both specialties. Dr. Dierks has practiced within the Head and Neck Institute in Portland, Oregon where his academically-affiliated practice consisted of head and neck oncologic surgery and associated reconstruction, craniomaxillofacial trauma, as well as traditional oral surgery. Along with his excellent partners, he created a fellowship in Head and Neck Oncologic and Reconstructive Surgery in 1992 and a second fellowship in Advanced Craniomaxillofacial and Trauma Surgery in 2001, and has seen many of his former fellows go on to leadership roles both nationally and internationally. Dr. Dierks has trained almost 100 residents and fellows and has over 140 publications and book chapters in his areas of interest. For over 30 years he has been and adjunct faculty member at OHSU and was recently honored with the designation of Emeritus Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Oregon Health and Science University.

James C. Melville, DDS, FACS, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston UTHealth and specializes in Oral, Head & Neck Oncology, and Microvascular Reconstructive Surgery. He graduated from the University of Michigan School of Dentistry in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 2005 and completed a General Practice Residency at the University of California San Francisco in 2006. He completed a residency in oral and maxillofacial surgery in 2012, followed by fellowships in oral, head, and neck oncology and microvascular reconstructive surgery at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital. He was appointed to the UTH OMFS internship director in 2017.

Dr. Melville was awarded the Faculty Educator Development Award (FEDA) in 2019 by the American Association of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS). An award given to promising young academic surgeons. He was awarded the AAOMS Advocacy Challenge Coin by the AAOMS Board of Trustees and AAOMS Committee on Government Affairs in 2020. AAOMS designed its own Challenge Coin to recognize oral and maxillofacial surgeons who have made significant advocacy contributions on behalf of the Association. The AAOMS Challenge Coin is awarded to those elite few who transcend the efforts of their colleagues to further the specialty through advocacy. Dr. Melville serves as the Vice-President of the Oral & Maxillofacial Section of the American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (AADOCR) / International Association of Dental Researchers (IADR) and will be become the President in 2023. He was appointed the Vice President of the AAOMS Clinical Interest Group (CIG) in Neurologic Disorders 2021. He also serves on the International Academy of Oral Oncology (IAOO) as a scientific committee member for its 2022 conference.

Dr. Melville is a diplomate and examiner of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and a fellow of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, the American Academy of Craniomaxillofacial Surgeons, American College of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons, and the American College of Surgeons. He has been an invited visiting professor and lecturer at over 15 academic institutions including Case Western University, Columbia University, Harvard/MGH, Emory University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Michigan, UOP/ Stanford University UCLA, USC, and UCLA.

He has written a Springer textbook on maxillofacial reconstruction and contributed to 25 chapters in textbooks concerning oral and maxillofacial surgery, oncology, maxillofacial reconstruction, microvascular reconstruction, and tissue engineering. In addition, he is the author of more than 40 articles in peer-reviewed journals. He is a reviewer for the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (JOMS), Triple OOOO Journal, Journal of Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery, Journal of Tissue Engineering, PLOS ONE, Bioengineering & Translational Medicine (Wiley), Journal of Biomedical Materials Research, Experimental Dermatology, Japanese Dental Science Review, and of Journal of American Dental Association (JADA).

Mark Wong, DDS, FACS, FACD, is a professor and chair of the Bernard and Gloria Pepper Katz Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Dentistry, where he also serves as Director of Residency Training. In addition, he is on the faculty of McGovern Medical School at UTHealth in the Department of Surgery's Oral and Maxillofacial Division.

Dr. Wong is a diplomate of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and a fellow of both the American College of Dentistry and the American College of Surgeons. He is a past president of the ABOMS, American Academy of Craniomaxillofacial Surgeons, and the International Board for the Certification of Specialists in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.

His clinical and research interests are focused on reconstructive surgery, tissue engineering of bone, and the biomechanical characterization and regeneration of the temporomandibular joint. His research is funded by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Defense.

Dr. Wong holds the Dr. Bernard and Gloria P. Katz Endowed Chair in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.

Dr. Fleisher is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the New York University College of Dentistry and an attending surgeon at the Bellevue Hospital Center and New York University Langone Medical Center in the department of Plastic Surgery. He participates in the didactic and clinical training of dental students, international dentists and postgraduate oral and maxillofacial surgery residents. Dr. Fleisher’s is committed to scholarship and teaching, and he is the recipient of the AAOMS Faculty Educator Development Award. Dr. Fleisher is recognized by NYU Dentistry, NYU Langone Medical Center, and Bellevue Hospital for his clinical expertise in managing patients with Medication-Related Osteonecrosis of the Jaw and Osteoradionecrosis.