MicroSurgical Endodontics

Dr. Allen Ali Nasseh contemplates his practice, endodontic education, and innovation

For the past 25 years, my endodontic practice, MicroSurgical Endodontics (MSEndo.com), has been a small, boutique dental practice in the heart of Boston’s Copley Square. Over these years, and as we expanded from a solo practice to a multi-specialty group practice, our mission of providing quality endodontic care in a warm, caring atmosphere has slowly expanded to providing world-class endodontic education and medical device innovations to our colleagues around the world. This transition took place soon after I began to lead Real World^® Endo (realworldendo.com) 10 years ago. At that point my responsibilities doubled as a leader and manager of an endodontic practice while simultaneously leading and managing the full-time duties of an independent, long-established endodontic education and innovation company, Real World^® Endo. From its inception and founding by Drs. Koch and Brave in 1999, Real World Endo’s goal has been to develop techniques and technologies while educating our dental colleagues on improving their efficiency of the care they render.

While our clinical practice caters to Boston’smany elite legal and financial firms in the downtown area, we also focus on the providing affordable care to Boston’s student and general population. As the owner of this practice, I’ve now completed over 28,000 root canal procedures and apicoectomies in my 30-year career; but despite this large number and after so many cases, I still consider myself a student in this field. I learn and grow every day as I practice or even when I assume my Real World Endo duties. I owe this to the people I work with — both on the practice side and the educational side at Real World Endo. My colleagues, coworkers, staff, and large faculty of speakers embody the true spirit of professionalism, conscientiousness, care, and empathy. Furthermore, using both my clinical skills with my hands while thinking creatively to solve clinical challenges for my colleagues through development of novel techniques and technology is satisfying to me. The work is at times time endless and arduous at best. But the rewards of seeing satisfied patients leave the operatory or getting messages of gratitude from colleagues worldwide who are thankful for the products and techniques we’ve developed for them is endlessly fulfilling.

To share a bit of endodontic history, it was here in our practice where the very first case of hydraulic condensation using bioceramic obturation was performed in North America, and where BC Putty (Brasseler USA^®), the very first bioceramic putty, was conceived and prototyped to be used with the novel surgical and nonsurgical Lid-Techniques. Today hydraulic cement usage and bioceramic materials usage for various facets of endo — spanning from obturation, repair, and surgery — have revolutionized our field and have changed the way we practice.

More recent innovations in the area of irrigation, using all-in-one irrigation solutions, thinner gauge needles, activation of these solutions, all-encompassing negative and positive pressure systems, handpieces with exotic built-in motions and apex locations, 3D imaging, digital dentistry, and many other great technological advances are here already. And many more developments in the near future are moving the field forward.

There has never been greater interest in endodontics as a field. The future is indeed bright. But the most important thing we try to abide by in our practice, which happens to be the core mission of Real World Endo — is a relentless dedication to simplicity and efficiency of care. This is why in the words of our cofounder, Dr. Anne Koch, we “don’t worship at the altar of technology.” Instead, we try to minimize the tools we need and focus on the important concepts of care in a patient-centered practice model. I’m grateful for being part of this profession and look forward to being an integral part of many upcoming innovations in our field in the years to come.