Faculty

Dr. Sanford L. Ratner has practiced oral and maxillofacial surgery in Orange County for the past 27 years and is an academic leader in his field. He practices the full scope of Oral and Maxillo-facial surgery, including skeletal deformity correction, cleft surgery, temporo-mandibular joint surgery, facial reconstruction, trauma, as well as dento-alveolar procedures, and dental implant placement.  He is a member of the Cranio-facial team at Children’s Hospital of Orange County, and works in conjunction with team members to successfully treat children with cranio-facial deformities.

Dr. Ratner is on staff at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Orange, where he presently holds the position of Chief of the Oral Surgery section.  He recently completed a four year term as the Chairman of surgical quality assurance for the hospital. He also maintains privileges at Children’s Hospital of Orange County, and UCLA Medical Center.  He is on the staff at UCLA School of Dentistry, Department of Oral and Maxillo-facial Surgery where he devotes time to teaching the oral surgery residents, as well as performing research.  He is also faculty of AO of North America, teaching principles of cranio-maxillo-facial trauma and fracture repair. Dr. Ratner is also and examiner on the American Boar of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and was recently appointed as the co-chairman of Section II of this board.
Over the past twelve years, Dr. Ratner has participated in many medical missions, providing surgical care and professional teaching throughout the world.  These missions have taken him to Australia, Japan, Korea, Nepal, the Philippines, Israel, and Vietnam. He is the lead surgeon and co-founder of the “Open Heart” team which travels to Vietnam twice a year to provide surgical management of craniofacial deformities on the children of Vietnam.

Education:

• Bachelor’s Degree from University California Los Angeles (UCLA)
• At UCLA he was enthusiastically involved in research in the chemistry department with Dr. Willard Libby, Nobel Laureate and Chairman of the chemistry department.
• Doctor in Dental Surgery from Northwestern University Dental School in Chicago.
• Graduated dental school with OKU honors in 1977, receiving the Clive Hadlow award for excellence.
• One year surgical internship at Highland General Hospital
• Oral and Maxillofacial Surgical residency program at Long Beach Veterans Administration Hospital/UCI Medical Center, graduated in 1984.

Dr. Bart J. Polder is a popular lecturer nationally and internationally with a focus on combined orthodontic and dental implant treatments. He mainly focuses on oral implantology and orthodontics in his practice as well.

Education

Bart J. Polder graduated with a degree in dentistry at the Radboud University Nijmegen in 1984.

Professional Info

In 1984 Dr. Polder started a private practice “Medisch Centrum de Houttuinen” as a general practitioner (with his colleague and wife G.C.G. Polder-Span) in the city of Emmeloord.

From 1996-2003 he did research on prevalence and treatment methods for dental agenesis at the department for Orthodontics and Oral Biology at the UMC Radboud Nijmegen. Dr. Polder is currently taking his doctoral degree in Nijmegen, at the Radboud University, Faculty of Dentistry, Department of Orthodontics and Craniofacial Biology (Head: Prof Anne Marie Kuijpers-Jagtman DDS PhD). His subject is the prevalence and signs of dental agenesis as the results of the treatment of agenesis patients.

From 1989 until now he has been associated with the Department of Special Dental Care (Centrum voor Bijzondere Tandheelkunde) at the Isala Clinics Zwolle. His work here concentrates on diagnostics, coordination and treatment of patients where implantology and/ or orthodontics is indicated. The treatment of oligodontic patients plays a large role in this. Since 2002, he started the referral practice of orthodontics and implantology at Emmeloord.

Areas of particular interest

• Orthodontics and maxillofacial orthopaedics
• Implant dentistry
• Dental radiology and imaging techniques
• He frequently gives and attends lectures on these topics.

-Registered dental Implantologist (NVOI)

-Member EAO

-Member editorial board WJMA (World Journal of Meta-Analysis)

Dr. David Dana has an esthetics and orthodontics private practice in Beverly Hills since 1984. He got his training in Prosthodontics at Boston University and his DDS at Universidad Tecnologica de Mexico. As a lead­ing tenured instructor at Progressive Orthodontics, Dr. Dana has taught thousands of students since 1994 and continues to teach so that students can reach the highest levels of dentistry.

Education

Dental Degree- Universidad Tecnologica de Mexico 1977-1981

Prosthodontics- Boston University 1981-1983
Professional Info

Lecturer for Progressive Orthodontic Seminars from 1994 to present.

In addition to his work with Progressive, Dr. Dana has lectured in Europe, Mexico, Australia, and Latin America on restorative and cosmetic dentistry, focusing on the use of Botulin toxin in dentistry and the use of lip filler for facial aesthetics.

Don McGann, DDS has been contributing to orthodontic research and education for 35 years. He is a leader in his field and has been expanding the boundaries of orthodontics from growth management to appliance design and education.

Dr. McGann graduated from the University Of Pacific Dental School with OKU honors and immediately went into private practice in Laguna Niguel and Santa Ana, California. While attending large amounts of dental continuing education during the 1970’s, he discovered his passion for orthodontics and began a thorough study of the field that has continued to this day.

Initially teaching for the United States Dental Institute (USDI) from 1980-1984, Dr. McGann continued to research orthodontics through exhaustive independent study, attending seminars offered by orthodontists, and practicing thousands of cases in a high volume clinical setting.

This immersion led Dr. McGann to a comprehensive understanding of orthodontics and the most effective methods of teaching ortho to the general dentist. In 1984, Dr. McGann created and began teaching his own orthodontic course, Progressive Orthodontic Seminars (POS). Progressive was designed to streamline the straight-wire type techniques taught in university orthodontic programs, allowing dentists to offer orthodontics to their patients at a standard of care identical to that of orthodontists.

Between editing the GP Ortho News, presenting lectures at the ADA and AGD annual meetings, and the worldwide success of Progressive Orthodontic Seminars, Dr. McGann has established himself as the world’s leader of GP orthodontic education. Dr. McGann holds several orthodontic patents and has been published in the Journal of Clinical Orthodontics, Asian Dentist, GP Ortho News, and numerous other journals.

Additional achievements include:

• The creation of the Internet Assisted Training program, which allows students to perform the majority of their orthodontic training through the Internet through over 8000 pages of cases, lectures, videos, and exercises.
• The development of Individual Patient Appliance (IP Appliance), the first customized orthodontic appliance, which accelerates case treatment time and eliminates wire-bending, 2003.
• He developed the McGann Growth Software in 2013 and continues to innovate in skeletal anchorage, growth research, and growth management analysis.