Lowcountry cancer specialist earns lifetime achievement award

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - A Trident Medical Center oncologic dentist received national recognition for her work in helping cancer patients.

Dr. Betsy Davis received a national Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Academy of Maxillofacial Prosthetics.

Davis is among a small group of sub-specialists in the United States who use 3D printing and other technologies to create prosthetic eyes, ears, noses and other parts of the head and neck to replace those patients have lost because of cancer, Trident spokesperson Rod Whiting says.

“I think head and neck cancer is the most devastating cancer because it can’t be hidden,” Davis said. “We live in a world where we are often judged by our appearance. My colleagues and I work to make a difference in how our patients look, eat and swallow. I believe our work is about function, quality of life and restoring the whole patient. I love what I do.”

The organization presented Davis with the Andrew J. Ackerman Memorial Award, its highest honor, over the weekend at the inaugural Head and Neck Oncology Symposium at Wild Dunes Resort on the Isle of Palms.

“Maxillofacial prosthetics is so rewarding for patients who lose a portion of the cranial facial region from cancer – their head and neck; or their oral cavity; or missing an eye, or nose or an ear - to be able to rehabilitate through a prosthesis that is customized, Department of Head and Neck Surgery Oral Oncology and Maxillofacial Prosthodontics Section Chief Dr. Mark S. Chambers said.

He said the result of work like Davis’s gives patients the dignity they need and deserve.

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