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Dental Tribune Middle East & Africa Edition

tion was more academic at the beginning and than I integrated the professional chan- nel, but due to the increase of the amount of work in both directions, I was obliged to become more selective in my teaching and more research oriented. I tried to limit my professional contribution to my position as a member of the Executive Committee of the World Federation of Orthodontists rep- resenting the Middle East and Africa. You are asking me “How far?” You know in life we learn through our experience that there is no dead end and that we have to follow a lifelong learning process and ap- ply a continuous self development philoso- phy in order to attain our best and acquire new expertise depending on the need of our profession. Then you may ask me “But how can we define the need?” Well, we can do it by looking to the present, learn- ing from the past and trying to predict the future of our profession in a way to create a vision. We have to “think out of the box” and don’t be afraid to “violate our comfort zone” continuously in order to expand our personal limits, apply a strategy to attain our objectives and achieve our vision. What are your future expectations for or- thodontics? Orthodontics has evolved dramatically during the past ten years, we have had ma- jor developments in different areas: 3D im- aging in diagnosis, lingual orthodontics, mini-implants and accelerated tooth move- ment in treatment and evidence based or- thodontics as a whole approach of our dis- cipline. This evolution had traced a bor- der between orthodontists before 2000 who haven’t followed it and orthodontists after 2000 who have get the possibility to do it. “We can’t treat our patients in 2012 with an orthodontics before 2000”. As future expectations, we may have more development in diagnosis toward the “vir- tual face” by getting all our data, as x-rays and models and photos, under a digital form and then make the virtual reconstruction of the face including hard tissues as bone and teeth by scanning as well as soft tissue con- tour using scan and three-dimensional pho- tography. We will have the possibility to navigate into the virtual face, acquire not simply linear and angular measurements as actually done in two dimensions but more based on volumetric calculations. Treatment planning will be done in three dimensions using new software with prediction of treat- ment outcome, which can be modified by the practitioner to adapt it to the individual need. Orthodontic appliances will evolve by using more and more the CAD-CAM tech- nology and try to be less and less practitio- ner and patient dependent. Every person faces profitable productive moments. Would you talk to us about the most rewarding incident you had and the biggest accomplishment you have reached. I consider that the most rewarding incident that I had was my election as a member of the Executive Committee of the World Fed- eration of Orthodontists (WFO) where we can serve our profession at the highest-lev- el possible and acquire another vision by looking to the big picture of our discipline. My biggest accomplishment was reaching my dream to establish the first postgrad- uate diploma in orthodontics in Lebanon in 1997 and bring our orthodontic depart- ment at Saint-Joseph University to be rec- ognized worldwide through our oral con- tributions in different national and interna- tional meetings as well as by published pa- pers in peer-reviewed journals with impact factor. This achievement wouldn’t be pos- sible without a team effort and I would like to thank especially Dr. Nayla Bassil-Nassif who was the co-pilot during this long jour- ney from 1997 to 2010, period in which we have been in charge of the department as Head and/or Program Director. Would you describe your knowledge of current technology and procedures? I finished my orthodontic specialty in 1986 and learned the main different tech- niques used at that time. This scientific ar- mentarium helped me to treat my patients till 2000 where new technologies emerged and obliged me to develop myself in differ- ent new areas: I followed too early cours- es about mini-implants and obtained a di- ploma in Lingual Orthodontics from Paris VII University, a diploma in Dental Clini- cal Research and another one in 3D Imag- ing from Toulouse University. These sci- entific acquisitions helped me to level my- self with all new technologies and proce- dures and to develop another vision com- bining clinical expertise to evidence based research. At this occasion, I would like to thank my old friend and colleague Profes- sor Ziad Salameh, well-known researcher, exceptional communicator and team moti- vator, who have been lately the motor for creating our Orthodontic Research Group in Beirut. In what way your fruitful knowledge and rich experience will assist you in handling your responsibilities? Actually, I have the professional responsi- bility at the WFO where I can be useful by helping to the advancement of our special- ty through the establishment of a region- al orthodontic board or motivating ortho- dontists to get through other orthodontic boards, by integrating different orthodon- tic societies in the WFO and by facilitating their communication together. I am han- dling my teaching responsibility through lecturing in major scientific events and giv- ing courses in more and more countries mainly on a new “Individualized orth- odontic Philosophy”. I am expanding my research responsibility by co-creating the Orthodontic Research Group, already men- tioned above, as well as being a part of an- other multidisciplinary research team in- cluding researchers from different Leba- nese universities or others abroad. Can you tell us about your experience with the business and administrative side of running an orthodontic practice? I have had the opportunity to establish the postgraduate program and run the orth- odontic department inside an academic in- stitution: Saint-Joseph University. In the meanwhile, I developed my private prac- tice, which comprises today six orthodon- tists within three locations, the main office being in Beirut where I installed a CBCT scan to follow the new developments. This opportunity, for handling both struc- tures: institutional and private, gave me a huge experience in management, neverthe- less and in order to ameliorate my perfor- mance, I was obliged to read books about self-development in the areas of manage- ment, teamwork, leadership and commu- nication. Can you please identify your goals and ambitions for the next 2 years and your specified plan to achieve them? I would like to finish my scientific com- mitments in the Angle Society East Com- ponent as well as to present my PhD the- sis that I am preparing at the University of Li ge. On the other hand, expanding my teaching through courses and developing our research group to get published exten- sively will be my main interest. To achieve all these goals, I have to be a good time manager and I learned from books and life when I have to say NO… What have you learned from your mis- takes? I have learned that you can’t change the past and you are unable to predict the fu- ture then live the present moment. We have to admit that Life is difficult, full of rewards and deceptions, of good and bad, we have to accept it as it is and adapt our- selves as possible as we can. I learned to stick to my principles to keep my internal peace contrary to throwing them looking after the external peace: we haven’t to for- get that peace is coming from the inner of us. Now I am a free person, looking ahead and never behind. I am enjoying my life without compromises because I discovered myself. How would you handle stress and pres- sure? At the beginning it was difficult to do it. I faced these problems by a good time man- agement, a daily period of meditation, do- ing sport, creating teamwork and having good friends on whom I can rely. I define my priorities for each stage of my life and saying NO sometimes is helpful to prevent stress and pressure as well as establishing equilibrium of different components of our life is of prime importance. Do you prefer to work independently or with a team? I prefer to work definitely with a team. In our research group and our study group, we are doing a brainstorming, which is beneficial for everybody. The input from each of us will lead to a more logical and better decisions and results. Communica- tion is enriching and being open-minded is a must for self-development. What motivates you and are you a self- motivator? In general, I am more a self-motivator be- cause I got the chance to have my profes- sion as my hobby. If you are ambitious, you will create indefinitely more and more new objectives to attain in your life, you will look after new challenges, which keeps you motivated. Everybody has his own mo- ments of weakness, being a part of a CON- FIDENT team is essential to overcome these moments; everybody becomes support- ive to the other. A tight family link consti- tutes a solid base, which motivate us to go further and further. I would like to express my profound gratitude to my wife Liliane, my daughter L a and my son Philip whose sacrifices and support gave me this energy and motivation to face new challenges and overpass all obstacles in my life. To this end, I deeply appreciate the im- mense generosity in providing us with valuable richly deserved information and enlightened profound experience shown by Dr Joseph Bouserhal Your careful re- search and instrumental input played an important role in our field and impressed everyone present with us today. Meeting distinguished influential professors like Dr. Joseph certainly is our distinct mission hoping to meet your needs. Wishing you Dr all the best in your future accomplish- ments 15DENTAL ORTHO TRIBUNEDENTAL TRIBUNE Middle East & Africa Edition | Jan-Feb 2013

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