Down Fracture- A Podcast for Talkin' Jaws

About Down Fracture- A Podcast for Talkin' Jaws

Standing firmly somewhere between the worst and best jaw surgery podcasts of all time, we bring you Down Fracture, A Podcast for Talkin' Jaws. Down Fracture is intended for Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons and other healthcare professionals interested in learning about jaw surgery. Topics will include Orthognathic surgery, TMJ surgery, Obstructive Sleep Apnea Surgery, and more. This podcast is hosted by Drs. Bobek and Wasson whose practices are limited to Orthognathic, TMJ, and OSA Surgery.

Publisher

Drs. Wasson and Bobek

Category

education

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

4 Nov 2024

Latest episode

6 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

92 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   6 Oct 2026

   The Ethical Obligations of a Consultation

   In this episode, Dr. Bobek and Dr. Wasson talk about what a surgeon owes a patient during a consultation. They cover the position you are put in when a patient arrives with a treatment plan you disagree with, how to say so without undermining the referring provider, and what patients can reasonably expect from an hour in a surgeon's office. Topics covered in this episode: - Why a consultation becomes a tightrope when the patient was referred for something you would not recommend - Lower stakes in dentoalveolar practice: second molar implants, third molar referrals, grafting materials - Taking the role of the bad guy so the referring provider keeps the relationship - Why picking up the phone usually reveals a miscommunication rather than a disagreement - How fast patients now relay your opinion back to the referring office, often before you can call - Patients arriving with a specific request and expecting it executed, and what that asks of trust - The cost of expansion before MMA, and the obligation to say plainly what it buys - Asking a patient directly what their actual motivation for treatment is, and why they sometimes cannot articulate it - Cases where bite, airway, and aesthetics align, and cases where correcting one works against another - How much information is the right amount in a consult- Giving a contrasting opinion when the patient has already been told otherwise online - Why disagreeing with a plan is the service being asked for- Judgment calls versus errors, and why a bad outcome from sound reasoning is not a mistake - Research presented at the national meeting on pre-operative expectations predicting dissatisfaction - Whether calling yourself a specialist in a condition carries an obligation to stay current on treatments you do not perform - Conversion rates and billable chair time, and why both hosts refuse to track them - Red flags from the patient side: absolutes, assembly line consults, and minutes with the actual surgeon 📬 Questions or topic suggestions: downfracturedpodcast@gmail.com The Down Fracture Podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. All opinions expressed are solely those of the hosts and their guests.

2. 

   30 Sept 2026

   Building a Career Around Global Jaw Surgery With Dr. Shahid Aziz | Down Fracture Podcast

   In this episode, Dr. Bobek and Dr. Wasson are joined by Dr. Shahid Aziz, an academic oral and maxillofacial surgeon in New Jersey. Dr. Aziz spent twenty years on full-time faculty at Rutgers and now leads the development of an oral surgery department and training program at Hackensack Meridian Health. He trained at Harvard and at Columbia under Dr. Steven Roser, performs over 200 orthognathic cases a year, and founded Smile Bangladesh in 2005, a nonprofit that has now run 34 cleft and orthognathic surgical missions to Bangladesh. The conversation covers how the organization was built and funded, what it takes to make room for that work inside a surgical career, and what mission surgery has taught him about how he practices at home. Topics covered in this episode: - How Smile Bangladesh started, from family connections and a first mission of five people in January 2006 - What each mission costs, how it gets funded, and who keeps it running between trips - The OMS Foundation scholarship that helps residents cover travel for global surgery - Solving the logistics: in-country instrument storage, what still has to be carried in, and industry support for plates, screws, and virtual planning - Why visas, not willingness, are the barrier to bringing Bangladeshi surgeons to train in the States - Negotiating four to five weeks of global surgery into an employment contract rather than spending vacation on it- Choosing global surgery over becoming a board examiner, and how he thinks about that tradeoff now - Going back to non-custom technique abroad: positional screws for a double jaw, bending plates, and wire - Why he still has splints made and takes vertical measurements even on custom plate cases - Residents who have never seen a freehand genioplasty or done model surgery - Managing post-operative follow-up through local surgeons he has trained, with video calls and messaging - Inside his orthognathic fellowship, and where the fellows have gone - Why fewer residents choose orthognathic surgery, and how debt and reimbursement drive that - Patients arriving with specific millimeter requests from social media, and airway complaints with negative sleep studies - Reviewing every virtual surgical plan with the patient before signing off, and what he does when the trust is not there - How the measure of a successful case shifted from function and recovery to the measurements themselves - Getting hospital privileges and staying involved in maxillofacial trauma - Family first, and the one thing he says he would do differently 📬 Questions or topic suggestions: downfracturedpodcast@gmail.com The Down Fracture Podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. All opinions expressed are solely those of the hosts and their guests.

3. 

   23 Sept 2026

   Why TMD Patients Fall Through the Cracks with Dr. Suzie Bergman | Down Fracture Podcast

   In this episode, Dr. Bobek and Dr. Wasson are joined by Dr. Suzie Bergman, DDS, FTMJF, a general dentist in Vancouver, Washington, Adjunct Associate Professor at Pacific Northwest University School of Dental Medicine, Fellow of the TMJ Foundation, and Visiting Research Scholar in Neurological Surgery at OHSU. Dr. Bergman is also a TMD patient: a jaw injury at 19 led to two open joint procedures and, eventually, bilateral custom total joint replacement. She joins the podcast the week after speaking at the TMD IMPACT meeting, an initiative of the NIDCR and the TMJ Association. This podcast is produced for oral and maxillofacial surgeons, orthodontists, and other clinicians. The hosts discuss clinical reasoning that depends on training and experience, applied to specific scenarios, and nothing here is a treatment recommendation. The discussion assumes a clinical background and is not a substitute for an individual evaluation with your own surgeon. Topics covered in this episode: - Dr. Bergman's own history: 35 years from injury to bilateral joint replacement, and what she would do differently - Who should be the quarterback for TMD care, and why primary care and ENT do not want the job - Whether general dentists are the practical answer or the wrong pathway entirely - Dr. Wasson's proposed model: surgeon, physician assistant, and physical therapist, and why Dr. Bergman calls it an oversimplification - Splints: an average of four to five per patient, and what the evidence supports - Why the TMJ is the only joint not managed by orthopedics, and how dental billing shapes care - Orofacial pain: 14 programs nationally and a geographic desert in the middle of the country - Arthrocentesis for acute closed lock and the cost of delaying referral - Physical therapy with TMD-trained PTs, and the harm from untrained ones - The "money joint," profitable dogma, and whether colleagues are too polite to say so - Total joint replacement outcomes today vs the proplast era, and what most dentists still believe - TMJ Connect and Dr. Bergman's map of surgeons, orofacial pain specialists, and physical therapists Find Dr. Bergman on Instagram at @drsuzberg. 📬 Questions or topic suggestions: downfracturedpodcast@gmail.com *The Down Fracture Podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. All opinions expressed are solely those of the hosts and their guests.*

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

7 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

16 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 36 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

52

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

51

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