For more than four decades, patients looking to improve their smiles—form and function alike—have been turning to the skilled surgeons at Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Associates of Chester County.
Some patients come to the practice’s West Chester or Kennett Square office to “feel whole again” by having their failing natural teeth replaced with perfectly placed dental implants. Others seek relief from the discomfort of impacted wisdom teeth. And others still need to have an improper bite or misaligned jaws corrected so they can live their lives to the fullest.
Although the circumstances might change from one patient to the next, the outcomes tend to be the same: satisfaction. Patients of this well-established oral surgery practice benefit from the expertise of not just one doctor but from a seasoned surgical team with more than a century’s worth of experience in addressing maladies related to the jaws and teeth—namely, James F. Gustainis, D.M.D.; Amin Kazemi, D.M.D., M.D.; Cynthia Trentacosti, D.D.S., M.S.; and Michael Walker, D.D.S., M.D.
“We are here and available to provide very safe and efficient minor surgery,” says Dr. Trentacosti, who has been providing oral and maxillofacial surgical services to Chester County residents since 1994. “We’re all about making the experience as easy and as comfortable as possible. I tend to treat a lot of children in my practice, and there are times when we can get a procedure done with local anesthesia but if the patient is anxious we can use a level of anesthesia that is safe yet profound to make them ‘drift off.’ Safety is our No. 1 priority, and patient comfort is a close second.”
Dr. Trentacosti and her fellow oral surgeons at Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Associates of Chester County are among the most skilled and educated in the region. In other words, whether someone requires dental implants, oral pathology or the removal of wisdom teeth, or even complex orthognathic surgery, the patient quickly realizes he or she is in the care of a skilled clinician.
“I think what we do here is unique, in that there is a lot of interaction between our medical/surgical team, the hospital and other members of the patient’s [health care] network, like their primary dentist or orthodontist,” says Dr. Kazemi, who joined the practice in 2008. “This specialty as a whole allows you as a surgeon to interact with your colleagues in a very unique way, which is sort of a lost art in this day and age.
“I especially enjoy corrective jaw surgery to fix a problem that was caused by a deformity or trauma,” he continues. “Beyond what it can do to help the patient, what I enjoy most about it is that there is so much planning and interdisciplinary communication needed to treat the person properly. This is one realm that enables you to interact closely with your fellow clinicians, and when that happens the patient benefits; they truly get the sense that they are being taken care of.”
Collaboration is an everyday occurrence among members of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Associates of Chester County’s surgical team. “We all benefit from working with each other,” Dr. Kazemi says of his colleagues, including Dr. Gustainis, who has honed his reputation as “a master clinician” since he first started practicing in Chester County in 1982.
“I think one of the things that set us apart from other practices is that all four of us will go above and beyond to get a good result,” Dr. Kazemi adds. “On a regular day, we’re all working individually to remove wisdom teeth, place implants or do biopsies for individual patients, but when you’re planning more complex surgeries, everyone works together. It allows you to step back, plan and collaborate.”
Technology such as high-resolution cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) has helped ensure consistently positive patient outcomes. The CBCT scanner provides a three-dimensional evaluation of a potential implant site, among other important anatomical aspects of the patient’s head and neck. This assists surgeons in the planning and placement of dental implants, all while exposing the patient to significantly less radiation compared with traditional X-rays or CT scans. Likewise, the practice can utilize a Piezosurgery ultrasonic surgical unit to cut through bone while minimizing trauma to vital soft tissue surrounding the surgical site, thereby enabling a surgeon to better perform a number of delicate procedures, ranging from teeth extractions to orthognathic work.
“You used to go into a surgery armed only with experience and what limited data you had available, but with the advent of 3-D imaging, you know what to expect and where the potential challenges will be,” says Dr. Kazemi. “As a result, you can fine-tune your analysis and come up with a specific treatment plan well before the surgery begins. This helps the patient have a better sense of what to expect. That reminds me of the definition of happiness, which is how closely reality matches up to a person’s expectations.”
Although cutting-edge technology can be incredibly helpful, patients are drawn to Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Associates of Chester County for reasons other than “bells and whistles.”
“The atmosphere and the staff we employ make us unique in this area,” says Dr. Walker, who joined the practice in July 2014, to fill the vacancy left by the retirement of practice founder Frederick C. Disque, D.M.D. “We try to make it a good experience from start to finish. A lot of people come into an office like ours with fear and anxiety, but by the time they leave here, they are pleased and happy.”
Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Associates of Chester County will be moving and expanding its Kennett Square office this fall to better accommodate patients in the southern Chester County area.
“The new office will make it easier for us to accommodate patients in a timely manner,” she says. “It’s going to be a beautiful, state-of-the-art surgery center, taking up an entire floor of the brand new Kennett Medical Arts Building at 721 East Baltimore Pike. Like everything we do, it’s going to keep the needs of the patient front and center.”
Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Associates of Chester County Ltd.
610-431-2161 | www.oralsurgerychestercounty.com
600 E. Marshall Street, Suite 106
West Chester, PA 19380
630 Cope Road
Kennett Square, PA 19348
Coming Soon: Look for the practice’s newly expanded surgery center within the Medical Arts Building at 721 E. Baltimore Pike in Kennett Square, due to open later this year.
Photograph by Jody Robinson
