Dr. SANJIV NAIR

Dr. Sanjiv Nair, head of department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the Bangalore Institute of Dental Sciences And Research. He is also senior consultant with the B. M Jain Hospital, Mallya Hospital and Columbia Asia hospitals. He is qualified from the Trivandrum Medical College and did his fellowship at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

Dr. Nair has more than 18years of experience in the field of Maxillofacial Surgery. He is a reputed academician and researcher in the field of Oral and Maxillofacial surgery. He had been internal/external examiner for B.D.S and M.D.S examinations of numerous universities of the country. His surgical interests are ablation and reconstruction of orofacial malignancy, surgical treatment of vascular disorders and salivary gland surgeries. He has been an active fellow of the international association of Oral and Maxillofacial surgeon and has served as counsellor and member at large. He has contributed widely to books, scientific publications both nationally and internationally and recently had been elected for editor in chief for JOMS.

Warm wishes Dr. Nair. First of all accept our heartiest congratulations as the Indian Journal of Maxillofacial and Oral surgery has been officially indexed with Pubmed and thanks for giving your invaluable time to us...

AOMSI: You are now Editor-in-Chief of JOMS. What are your plans for the journal?
Dr. Nair: It was indeed a moment of jubilation when I received the information from the National Library of Medicine, Washington. This culminates years of effort put in by past Editors and their team in keeping our journal going. My future plans are to increase the number of issues to clear the article backlog, to give the journal a facelift and if possible archive past issues. All the above plans involve financial commitments and personal time. Let me see how much of this will realize.

AOMSI: The Internet, electronic communication and the technology of devices for accessing the Web are improving their liability and easiness of use day by day. For how long do you foresee that paper journals will survive?
Dr. Nair: It is ironical you ask me this. Because inspite of JMOS being both E-journal and paper, I receive letters from members regarding failure to obtain the journal issues. Springer distributes tokens for Electronic access to all members since 2011. There is only a handful, who actually utilizes this facility. I would in this context appeal to all members to make full use of the electronic access. Hence although printing and paper is an expensive option I do not forsee a death to paper journals at least in the near future.

AOMSI: India is one of the fastest developing country.... and the kind of patient which we deal here are not so easily ready for advanced investigations.. in that case to get your paper published is very tough... even though it is an appreciable work... what kind of consideration could AOMSI take for this kind of work?
Dr. Nair: Publication of papers in journals with lack of advanced investigation is a wrong notion. The use of indigenous techniques and implants supported by evidence is sufficient to get the article accepted. The AOMSI is supporting multicentre trials with AMD. If more such proposals are brought forward I am sure we can accommodate them.

Your question does give me the opportunity to highlight the Clinicians role in ordering unnecessary investigation. As a surgeon actively involved in treating vascular lesions, I find Angiograms being ordered without any basis. The fact that I have been able to publish an original research article in IJOMS with only less than 5% of my patients having angiograms is proof enough.. Our over indulgence in investigations only diminish our clinical skills in identifying a particular problem. In a country blessed with a large source of clinical material we can investigate the futility of many of the market driven investigations available. I hope this answers your questions satisfactorily.


AOMSI: Yes sir!!
AOMSI: What is the aspect of your editorial duties that you like most and which one do you least like?
Dr. Nair: The ability to see so many fresh manuscripts..... Some of them good, some of them poor and some really funny submissions. The least I like is being called and told that a submission is important for gaining points.

There is a fundamental flaw in how the regulatory authority insists on these requirements overnight. It only gives way to corruption. Most other journals today accept money for publication. I can quite proudly state that we allow only peer reviewed accepted publication.

AOMSI: What is the primary focus of your work and main areas of expertise?
Dr. Nair: The primary focus of my work is pathology. I concentrate mostly on head and neck pathology. I enjoy doing vascular lesions and have accumulated the experience in the ablation of head and neck vascular lesions.

AOMSI: What has been the most exciting moment in your career so far?
Dr. Nair: I am easily excitable. The satisfaction on my patients face is one such event. Becoming Editor, Getting the journal indexed. The events are innumerable.

AOMSI: If you could have dinner with any 3 people, past or present, who would they be and why?
Dr. Nair: I have a large circle of friends. My most enjoyable moments are laughing away with my dearest friends Georgie, Bob, Kishore, Varghese, Alex. I definitely hate formal dinners and would hate to have dinner with any idealist past, present or future.

AOMSI: What useful tips would you give to Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons who want to publish their work in AOMSI esteemed journal?
Dr. Nair: Original research is the priority, Review articles and case reports follow it. Look at your practice and base your research work on it. There are several outcomes in clinical work. Favourable and unfavourable inferences are equally important. An honest assessment of your study with adherence to scientific data helps. Retrospective study does carry its handicap. Prospective work, control based, even with a small data is encouraging. Just like rare cases happen rarely Case report, however unusual, happen unusually. Anecdotal inferences are the biggest disadvantage of alternate systems of medicine. Let us therefore publish and practice evidence based medicine.

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