2012 Oral Examination

Dates: May 7-May 11, 2012

Location: Testing Center, Dallas, TX

Approved candidates will recieve their schedule letter no later than February 2012. Candidates will be scheduled for two 1 1/2 hour exam sessions conducted on the same day. Placement of candidates is on a first come/first serve basis. Ultimate placement of candidates is at the sole discretion of the Board. The American Board of Periodontology (ABP) will attempt to administer the Oral Examination as scheduled. Should the ABP cancel the Oral Examination or be prevented from appropriately administering or completing an Oral Examination at the appointed time and location, the ABP will not be responsible for any expense of the candidate in connection with the Oral Examination and any subsitute Oral Examination.

Candidates must arrive and depart from the testing center via the ABP shuttle bus. The shuttle bus will pick up and return candidates at the Fairmont Dallas Hotel, 1717N Akard Street, Dallas, Texas. Candidates are responsible for making their own individual reservations. Candidates may make their hotel reservations with the Fairmont Dallas Hotel by calling 800-441-1414 or the hotel's website at https://resweb.passkey.com/go/periodontology. Reservations request must be made by Friday, April 6, 2012.

Candidate Registration/Orientation

Candidate registration and orientation will be held the same day as the exam prior to exam at testing center. Candidates are reminded that electronic devices; i.e. cell phones, pagers, etc. are NOT PERMITTED at the testing center. Candidates will be required to show photo i.d. at time of registration. Candidates who may have a name change may be permitted to take the exam, but must provide legal evidence of name change prior to receiving results of the exam. Candidates must arrive and leave the testing center via ABP shuttle bus transportation . Daily shuttle Transportation will be provided by the Board from the designated candidate hotel lobby to the Testing Center with return to the Fairmont Dallas Hotel.

Oral Exam Format

Candidates are encourage to download and review a copy of the

ABP Guidelines for Certification.

All candidates must arrive and leave the testing center via shuttle transportation provided by the Board from the Fairmont Dallas Hotel. ABP Directors and Examiners serve as Examiner teams at the Oral Examination. The examination follows a presentation, interview, and discussion format to evaluate the candidate’s diagnostic and therapeutic skills. Candidates may request information from the Examiners in order to answer questions. Protocols developed by the Board form the basis of the testing process. Three protocols will be presented at each of the two 1 ½ hour session. Candidates will complete two 1 ½ hour sequential sessions (back to back) on the same day for a total of six protocols. Each session will be conducted by a team of two Examiners, for a total of four Examiners. Five of the six protocols will consist of a single case or procedure. Each will be graded in six skills : Diagnosis; Etiology; Prognosis; Treatment Plan; Therapy and Evaluation of Therapy; and Maintenance. The sixth protocol will consist of three ten (10) minute vignette protocols. These may include such topics as medical management, medical emergencies, periodontal or oral medicine, perio-pathology, post-op complications and management of failures. Each ten minute vignette protocol will be graded on two skills: Diagnosis and Therapy. This sixth protocol will therefore have six grades from each Examiner, which is the same number of grades as the other five protocols. Since the six grades for the vignette protocols are only in Diagnosis and Therapy catergories, these two categories will be slightly more weighted than the other four grading categories for the overall score. Candidates will be taken back to the Fairmont Dallas Hotel by shuttle transportation after their examination session is completed.

Hypothetical Protocol

The following hypothetical protocol is provided as an example of what one protocol may include. Actual protocols may be more or less comprehensive than the following example:

The patient is a 41 year old Caucasian male who presented with a chief complaint of a recently developed space between his front teeth. He reports that his general health is good, but premedicates before dental treatment with erthromycin for mitral valve prolapse. He states that he is allergic to penicillin. His gums bleed occasionally with brushing.

Candidate will usually receive charting of localized area.

Digitized photographic slides to be used throughout the questioning period for this protocol include:

1. Maxillary anterior photograph demonstrating anterior open bite, and open contact 7-8.

2. Preoperative radiograph #6-11

3. Occlusal view demonstrating excessive occlusal wear

4. Surgical site #6-11

5. One-year post-op radiographs

6. One year post-op photographs #6-11

1. Diagnosis

Question: Describe how you would proceed in order to generate an accurate periodontal diagnosis including any intra-oral and extra-oral pathoses.

Candidates should consider the following factors in making the diagnoses of Localized Severe Chronic Periodontitis with Occlusal Traumatism:

Medical history

Occlusion – anterior open bite, centric prematurities

Plaque/calculus

Recession

Attachment levels/pocket depths

Bone loss

Mobility

2. Etiology

Question: What etiologic factors are pertinent in this patient?

Candidates should consider the following factors:

Space between #7 & 8

Open contacts

Food impaction

Occlusal trauma

Plaque and calculus

Anterior open bite

Centric prematurity

Habits

Genetics

3. Prognosis

Question: What would you consider the prognosis to be for individual teeth and for the overall dentition both short and long term in this patient?

Candidates should be able to discuss:

Short/long term prognosis of #’6-11, and how derived?

Will prognosis change after treatment?

Will prognosis change with different treatment modalities? Why? How?

4. Treatment Planning- Please proceed with your treatment plan for this patient. You may request to review any information that you believe important to this task.

Candidate should be prepared to discuss:

Which options are best for this patient and why

Order of treatment

Rationale for each treatment

What is the expected outcome for each treatment?

5. Selected Therapy- Discuss the rationale for the selected therapy.

Possible Questions: 1) Since you chose to extract #7,8 please provide your rationale; 2) If you chose to retain #7,8 what therapy(ies) would you consider; 3) Please provide in detail your technique for grafting #7,8. and why you chose this technique; 4) Describe the specific techniques you would use for the treatment of #’s 7 & 8 and how you would perform them; 5) Discuss implant placement in this region.

Candidate should be prepared to discuss:

GTR – flap design, materials, steps

Root treatment – how (manual, sonic, ultrasonic, rotary), why?

Root conditioning

Graft –choices

Barrier – choices

Suture

Dressing placement?

Antibiotics – localized- systemic

Post-op management

6. Evaluation and Maintenance of Therapy

Question: What factors would you consider when evaluating results of therapy?

Candidate should be prepared to discuss:

What were goals

How to measure results

When to measure results – why?

What is success?

What is failure?

Question: What factors would you consider in developing a maintenance schedule for this patient?

Candidate should be prepared to discuss:

How to maintain 0-3 mm pockets

How to maintain 3-5 mm pockets

How to maintain 5-7 mm pockets

When to retreat-Why

Reasons not to retreat

Hypothetical Vignette Protocol

The patient is a 63 year old Caucasian female for whom you placed an implant to replace tooth #5. The implant was placed 18 months ago and restored four months following placement. The patient has not been back to your practice since the implant was restored. Her general dentist referred her back to you because of swelling and soreness around the implant.

Candidate will be able to view photograph and radiographs of the area as well as charting completed when the patient arrived.

Charting demonstrated a 10mm. pocket over the facial of the implant with 5mm pockets in the palatal and interproximals.

A periapical radiograph demonstrated a radiolucency over the coronal 1/3 of the implant.

The clinical photo demonstrates edema and erythema #5 area,

Diagnosis

Describe how you would determine a diagnosis for the #5 area.

Candidate should be able to describe the clinical appearance, findings and history that would lead to the diagnosis of ailing implant/peri-implantitis.

History

Clinical findings

Radiographic picture

Symptoms

Therapy

Candidate should be able to describe his/her approach to treating this ailing implant and provide a rationale for treatment.

Surgical vs non surgical treatment

Disinfection of site

Flap design & debridement

Regenerative procedures including;

Grafting materials

Barriers

Suturing & Post-op

Post surgical meds

Post-op management and maintenance

Note: This example would represent one ten minute vignette, which is one third of the vignette protocol. Two addtional vignettes, consisting of unrelated topics, would also be included in the thirty minute vignette protocol.

2012 Oral Examination