{ association insights } by Prabu Raman, DDS • President

Dr. Prabu Raman installed as 148th MDA President

T

he MDA congratulates Dr. Prabu Raman who was installed as the 148th MDA president at the second

session of the Association’s House of Delegates on Saturday, November 5, in Jefferson City by Dr. Roy Thompson, the new ADA Sixth District Trustee.

Dr. Raman was born in India and came to the U.S. in 1972, “driven by a desire to make a future in the land of opportuni- ties where hard work removes all limits,” he states. He received a bachelor’s degree in physics from University of Madras, another one in radiologic technology from William Jewell College, Liberty, Mo., and in 1983 his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Dentist- ry. He has been in private practice since and is the owner of The Raman Center for Advanced Dentistry.

Through many years of continuing education, he received his Master Aesthetic Dentist Certification and Neuromuscular Full Mouth Reconstruction Certification from the world-renowned Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies (LVI). Until 2013 he served as a Senior Clinical Instructor, fea- tured speaker and Regional Director of LVI, through which he instructed and mentored dentists from all regions of U.S., Canada, England, Germany and Australia. Since 2013, he has been working with Myotronics Inc. in lecturing and teaching live-patient Neuromuscular Dentistry courses for general dentists interested in treating TMD.

Dr. Raman’s Kansas City practice focuses full time on treating patients suffering from Temporo Mandibular Dysfunction (TMD)/

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Dr. Raman is involved in the local and national levels of dentistry, having served as former president of the Greater Kansas City Dental Society and as a dele- gate to the American Dental Association, where he also serves on the Council on Dental Education and Licensure. He also serves as Chair, Recognition of Dental Specialties and Interest Areas in General Dentistry Committee and has been ap- pointed to serve on the ADA Presidential Task Force on Specialty Recognition and on the 2017 Specialty Recognition Summit to be held in Chicago. Prior to becoming MDA president, he served as the Greater Kansas City Dental Society Trustee to the MDA Board.

Dr. Raman with his wife of almost 40 years, Woon Mi, who also is his practice concierge.

Cranio Cervical Mandibular Dysfunc- tion (CCMD), with common TMD/CCMD symptoms such as migraine, headaches, neck pain, ear symptoms etc. through non-surgical correction of mandibular discrepancy. His expertise in Physiologic Neuromuscular den- tistry has earned him Fellowship and Master- ship status with the International College of Cranio Mandibular Orthopedics as well as LVI Mastership. He was invited to participate in the Science Forum TMD Expert Panel at the 2011 ADA Annual meeting and was one of the four TMD experts invited to contrib- ute to the August 2014 issue of the Journal of the California Dental Association dedicated to the subject of TMD. He is a Fellow of the American College of Dentists and Fellow of Pierre Fauchard Academy.

As is tradition for the new president, the Focus has asked Dr. Raman a series of questions to help you get to know him better. He welcomes your questions, ideas and suggestions at president@ modental.org.

Please give biographical overview—whatever you wish to tell us about where you grew up, went to school, live now, family, etc. I was the youngest of six children born in a small town in India. With four older sisters that fussed over me, I had a happy childhood. My father was a ‘Tahsildar’, a state official in India in charge of revenues and taxation of a district, the equivalent of a county. It was a comfort- able life with four house servants. When I was 15, he died suddenly of a heart failure at age 50. He was the rock that never even got sick. Our world turned upside down. We moved in with my college professor aunt in the mega city of Madras, now called Chennai. Within eight months, my aunt had a brain tumor for which she had surgery and never

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