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USOSM Commends Surgeon Partner Dr. Wendy Liao on Her Medical Mission Work in The Philippines
Team Provided Pro Bono Dental care to 1,739 Students
IRVING, TEXAS and ALAMEDA, CALIF. … U.S. Oral Surgery Management (USOSM) salutes its surgeon partner Wendy Liao, DDS, as she reflects on her first medical mission trip to The Philippines. Dr. Liao is the founder and head surgeon of Parkside Oral Surgery & Implant Center, an oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS) practice located in Alameda, California. She is a board-certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon, the highest credential that can be obtained in the specialty, according to the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.
The trip was Dr. Liao’s first medical mission trip. She recently joined a team of general dentists and oral surgeon volunteers from the San Francisco Bay Area, who traveled to General Santos – a highly urbanized city in the Soccsksargen region of The Philippines. While there, they treated 1,739 students from local elementary and high schools, providing 510 extractions of hopeless and/or severely decayed teeth and 952 fluoride/varnish treatments, as well as handing out free toothbrushes and providing dental hygiene demonstrations and education.
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“Dental hygiene in The Philippines, especially in more rural areas like General Santos, is quite poor. Most dentists are located in urban areas like Manila, and most rural towns don’t have dentists at all. The people of The Philippines suffer from a very high tooth decay rate, especially in children, due to lack of care, lack of knowledge about dental hygiene, and a lot of dietary factors – like high sugar and heavily processed foods,” said Dr. Liao. “The nationalized healthcare system does not cover dental care, so most people wait until dental pain becomes unbearable and then rely on tooth extraction.”
The trip was organized by the Phillips-Renner Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit that works to reduce inequities in nutrition, dental care, and education by delivering high-impact health services and products to children in need. “Dr. Bob Renner and Purobi Phillips are the most dedicated leaders I have ever met. I am so thankful to have learned from them,” said Dr. Liao.
Dr. Liao’s brother and sister-in-law, both general dentists in the Bay Area, were also a part of the care team, as were her husband, daughter, niece and nephew.
“Having the opportunity to treat the people of The Philippines really gave me a sense of perspective. In the U.S., we often take high-quality dental care for granted, but it can make such a difference,” noted Dr. Liao. “I feel honored that the children at each school we went to completely trusted our team. I’m particularly grateful that I got to serve this way with my family and friends. The two general dentists in our care team were my brother and my sister-in-law, and the other oral surgeon is a long-time friend. In addition, we all brought our families with us and drafted them in to help. Our children connected with the school kids. They were there to help with instructions and were ready to jump in when an anxious child needed a hand to hold.”
Dr. Liao is a long-time resident of the Bay Area, who grew up in Taiwan and earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley. She earned her DDS from the University of California, Los Angeles and completed her OMS residency through Highland General Hospital of the Alameda County Medical Center. Dr. Liao founded Parkside Oral Surgery & Implant Center in 2011 and continues to lead the care team today, providing highly individualized, personalized and attentive care for a wide variety of OMS needs.
Actively involved with a number of professional and community organizations, Dr. Liao is a member of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons and the California Association of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons. In addition, she is on staff at the regional trauma hospital, John Muir Hospital, in Walnut Creek. As a hospital staff surgeon, she treats patients who have experienced facial trauma from motor vehicle accidents, pathogens or violence.
Dr. Liao’s medical mission trip was sponsored in part by the USOSM Medical Reimbursement Program. Created in 2023, the program is designed to enable more surgeon participation in medical mission work. To be eligible, the mission trip must be aligned with USOSM’s medical mission philosophies. It must be medically related and within the scope of oral surgery and facial reconstruction, the majority of time must be spent on mission work, and most importantly, it must include a teaching/knowledge sharing component, so that each trip is as effective as possible.
“Our surgeons are making a tremendous difference in countries all over the world, and we’re honored to be a part of that process,” said USOSM CEO Doug Drew. “We commend Dr. Liao on her medical mission work in The Philippines, and we look forward to seeing what she does next.”
Headquartered in Irving, Texas, USOSM sets the standard for oral and maxillofacial surgery management. A management services organization spanning 31 states, USOSM has built a best-in-class network of premier oral and maxillofacial surgeon partners. USOSM provides operational, financial and administrative support services to fuel clinical excellence, innovation and wealth-creation. Visit: https://www.usosm.com.
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Technology plays a central role in improving mobile phlebotomy efficiency and reliability. Digital scheduling platforms allow patients, providers, and laboratories to coordinate appointments seamlessly. Automated reminders and real-time updates reduce no-shows and optimize route planning for phlebotomists.
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Workforce strategies evolve alongside technology. Mobile phlebotomy providers invest in specialized training focused on patient communication, home-based safety protocols, and diverse collection environments. Skilled phlebotomists adapt techniques to accommodate varying conditions while maintaining sample integrity and patient comfort.
Quality assurance remains a priority as services scale. Standardized procedures, temperature-controlled transport, and compliance monitoring ensure diagnostic accuracy regardless of collection location. Providers emphasize consistency to maintain trust among laboratories, clinicians, and patients.
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A person living with chronic pain rarely interacts with a single healthcare professional. The path often moves between physicians, rehabilitation providers and other specialists over an extended period. That reality helps explain why multidisciplinary chronic pain and injury clinics continue to attract attention across Canada.
The concept is straightforward. Patients living with ongoing pain often need support from more than one part of the care team. They may be working through physical rehabilitation while also being assessed by a physician. What happens in one part of their care can affect the decisions being made in another. When those conversations happen in separate places, updates can take longer to reach the right people, and important details can be lost along the way.
This is one reason referral coordination remains a recurring discussion around multidisciplinary clinics. The value is not limited to the services offered. It also relates to how information travels between people involved in the patient's care.
Complex cases rarely end with the clinical appointment. Once the assessment is done, another layer of work begins. Reports have to be read properly, recommendations need to reach the people who can act on them, and every follow-up adds another set of notes, updates and records. That work does not treat the pain itself, but it often decides whether the next step in care moves cleanly or gets held up.
This is one reason multidisciplinary clinics matter. They do not make difficult cases simple. Doctors may still disagree, and judgment will still depend on the patient in front of them. But when different specialists are working closer together, the conversation is easier to keep in one place instead of being scattered across separate offices, referrals and delays.
For insurers, employers and legal stakeholders connected to injury cases, communication can become almost as important as treatment itself. Questions about recovery status, functional limitations and future care plans often depend on information coming from several sources. The more people involved, the greater the need for consistent documentation.
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Finding the right mix of expertise has always been part of running a multidisciplinary chronic pain and injury clinic. The model depends on bringing together professionals whose roles may overlap at certain points while remaining distinct in others.
That sounds manageable in theory. In practice, scheduling alone can become complicated when several providers contribute to the same patient journey.
Chronic pain cases often develop over long periods. Patients may arrive with extensive medical histories, previous treatments and questions that do not fit neatly into a single appointment. The work requires time and attention. It also requires professionals who are comfortable operating within a shared care environment.
The challenge is not just finding people to fill open roles. Clinics need providers who bring real expertise to the table, but who can also work inside a larger treatment plan. One clinician may be focused on a specific part of recovery, but their decisions often depend on what others are seeing elsewhere in the patient’s care.
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One of the less discussed aspects of chronic pain treatment involves expectations. Patients often arrive at a clinic hoping for clear answers after spending months or even years searching for relief. Multidisciplinary care can broaden the range of expertise available, but it does not necessarily make recovery straightforward.
This creates a communication challenge for clinics.
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The conversation becomes more complicated in injury-related cases where employers, insurers or legal representatives are also involved. Each party may be looking at the same case through a different lens. One may be focused on whether the patient can return to work. Another may be tracking treatment progress. A third may need clear documentation to support a claim or decision.
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