Monthly Communication - March 2008 Edition

March is always a busy time for the School, with seniors completing assignments, new courses and increased clinical activities for our second and third year students, faculty and staff well into new ventures in educational, clinical and research activities. Some of these many activities are highlighted in this edition of the monthly communication.

-Martha

DENTAL COMMUNITY CONTACTS

In an effort to maintain our relationships and enhance the communication between the dental stakeholder community and our School, a Visiting Committee has been formed. The inaugural meeting of the twelve member committee occurred on March 26 and included representation from school faculty, staff, alumni and members of WSDA leadership. Each member provided input on the perceived challenges and opportunities we face as a school, and shared ideas on future directions for our School.

Dr. Rahime Nohutcu, a colleague of mine, was visiting Seattle for ten days in March. Dr. Nohutcu is a professor in the Department of Periodontics at the University of Hatcettepe, Turkey. She met with several faculty members from our School, as well as faculty from the UW Medical Center and College of Engineering to discuss research projects. We are hoping that these discussions will result in collaboration between faculty at the UW and the University of Hatcettepe focused on designing scaffolds to promote regeneration of periodontal tissue.

AMERICAN DENTAL EDUCATION ASSOCATION (ADEA)

Early in March I participated in a conference call with the American Dental Education Association (ADEA). Members of the Legislative Advisory Committee (LAC) and I discussed adoption of a policy statement to define ADEA’s and dental educators’ roles in health care reform and assisting ADEA in developing a dental home policy statement.

ACCREDITATION LEADERSHIP COMMITTEE

Preparation is well underway for our site visit from the American Dental Association (ADA) Commission on Dental Accreditation, which is scheduled for November 2009. Each dental school is visited every seven years by the commission to review the ways in which we conduct the business of the School. As you can imagine, the preparation that goes into a visit of this magnitude requires a great deal of time and effort. I’m pleased to share that we have already established committees for collecting the necessary information. Eleven accreditation committees are in place to develop our Self Study and are led by the School’s Accreditation Leadership Committee. This committee meets monthly and is scheduled to gather again on April 22nd. Please contact Dr. Timothy DeRouen, Committee Chair or Tara Adolfi, Director of Compliance with questions about this process.

ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR CLINICAL SERVICES SEARCH COMMITTEE

Dr. Thomas Beikler, Department of Periodontics, is chairing the search committee for the Associate Dean for Clinical Services, the position that was vacated by Dr. Werner Geurtsen in January of this year. The five-member search committee is comprised of Drs. Tim DeRouen, Bea Gandara, John Wataha and Ms. Sandra Phillips, with staff support from Ms. Jennifer Grant. They hope to fill the position as soon as possible and are seeking internal and external applicants. Nominations are welcomed and encouraged. An announcement about the position vacancy has been distributed to the faculty, U.S. dental schools, posted on academic keys and will appear in the May edition of the Journal of Dental Research. Search Committee members will be available to answer questions at the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) and the American Association of Dental Research (AADR) annual meetings in Dallas, Texas this month and next, and at the International Association of Dental Research (IADR) meeting in Toronto in early July. Interested individuals can e-mail: beikler@u.washington.edu

ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE

On March 20th, Dr. Jim Steiner, Associate Dean of Student Services, convened a meeting of the Advanced Technology Committee to discuss the related needs of our students and school. The Committee is made up of faculty members Drs. Curtis Chen, Thomas Flemmig, Simon Lin, E. Ricardo Schwedhelm and UW Dental Alumni Association president-elect Ed Dolan (‘00). The charge to the Committee is to ensure that the School provides students with opportunities to utilize and to evaluate new technologies in dentistry. The Committee is considering undertaking a pilot project for this purpose, with the hope of receiving sufficient support from industry to establish an Advanced Technology Center.

EARLY CHILDHOOD ORAL HEALTH (ECOH)

Bayley Construction has been hired to be the General Contractor/Construction Manager for the new Washington Dental Service Building for Early Childhood Oral Health (ECOH) slated to open in September of 2010. Additionally, an Operations Council comprised of nine representatives collectively from the UW School of Dentistry, Seattle Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical Center, and Washington Dental Service has begun meeting to help guide early decisions on the project. The Board of Regents voted to approve the project’s proposed budget on March 20, 2008. If you are interested in learning more about the ECOH program or lending your expertise, please contact Ms. Sara Paul, ECOH Program Manager: (206) 543-4885 or sarapaul@u.washington.edu.

DEPARTMENTAL NEWS

Dr. Thomas Flemmig, Chair of the Department of Periodontics, has received approval for an international clinical trial titled, “Multi-Center Phase 3 Trial of Minocycline HC1 1mg Microspheres for the Use in Subjects with Peri-Implantitis”. The trial will be conducted through June 30, 2009 and in collaboration with OraPharma for the study of Arestin, a locally-administered time-released antibiotic for the treatment of Peri-implantitis. To date, Arestin has been used in treating periodontitis associated with natural teeth. Twenty-five patients will be recruited and additional candidates are still needed. Patients will be seen by Ms. Diane Daubert in the Regional Clinical Dental Research Center (RCDRC) and by Mr. Greg Mueller, Research Study Coordinator.

Dr. Eileen Watson, faculty member in the Departments of Oral Biology and Pharmacology, has recently completed three years of a five year term of service to the American Dental Association’s (ADA) Pharmacology Test Construction Committee. Only one other Pharmacology faculty member has served on this committee within the last twenty years. The Pharmacology Test Construction Committee is charged with writing fair and reasonable questions for the Pharmacology section of the dental boards. Each member of the four member committee is required to have a long-standing teaching commitment to Pharmacology. Dr. Watson is also a registered Pharmacist and has practiced for over 30 years. Dr. Watson trained in Pharmacology under Dr. Louis Goodman, who wrote what is referred to as the “Bible” of Pharmacology, known as The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics.

Dr. Bertha Barriga, emeritus faculty and long-time volunteer in the Department of Pediatric Dentistry clinic, has decided to retire. Dr. Barriga has been a consistent and unwavering advocate for children. She has mentored countless residents and pre-doctoral students over the years, and somehow she still found time to contribute to the success of the department and School. She served as chair of the Law/Lewis Lectureship Board until 2006, guiding the Board as it promoted the lectureship, bringing distinguished scholars in the field of pediatric dentistry to the University. She is admired greatly and will be truly missed.

Dr. Mariella Garcia joined the Department of Pediatric Dentistry as Acting Assistant Professor in March. A native of Lima, Peru, Dr. Garcia received her DDS from the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia School of Dentistry. She completed two years of Advanced General Education Degree (AEGD) training at the University of Connecticut Health Center School of Dental Medicine, as well as a Certificate in Pediatric Dentistry in 2007. Dr. Garcia will be working full- time, mentoring residents in our clinic and at Seattle Children’s Hospital and Medical Center, and assisting in departmental research. Please join us in welcoming Dr. Garcia to Seattle.

AWARDS and HONORS

Dr. Peter Milgrom, Department of Dental Public Health Sciences- On behalf of the School it is my pleasure to inform you that the University Board of the University of Bergen voted to confer an Honorary Doctorate upon Dr. Peter Milgrom, Director of the Northwest/Alaska Center to Reduce Oral Health Disparities. This tribute was made at the recommendation of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Bergen as a result of Dr. Milgrom’s “…contribution in developing the academic environment in the fields of social and behavioral dentistry, with particular stress on patients suffering from dental fear…” The conferment will take place during a ceremony in August of this year. Please join me in congratulating him on this achievement.

More than 650 members and guests attended the 57th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Fixed Prosthodontics, which was held in Chicago in February. Dr. E. Ricardo Schwedhelm was the Scientific Co-Chair. His responsibilities included recruitment and coordination of all speakers for the two day event. This was no small feat, and, as a result, also a significant honor. Faculty members from the Department of Restorative Dentistry were among the featured essayists. Department Chair Dr. John Wataha spoke on the topic of "Alloys versus Ceramics: A Challenging Dental Dichotomy". Dr. Keith Phillips served as an alternate speaker. Dr. Ariel Raigrodski has accepted their invitation to serve as the Scientific Chair in 2011. Please join me in thanking these department members for their service to the profession.

CONTINUING DENTAL EDUCATION (CDE)

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Philip Worthington, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, has been selected as the Seventh Washington Dental Service Foundation Distinguished Professor in Dentistry. Advisory Committee members Drs. Carrie York (’91), Mark Koday, Gerry Phipps, Ron Inge, Greg King, Gabriela Ibarra and E. Ricardo Schwedhelm decided on implants as the topic for the next symposium, which will occur in 2010. In this capacity, Dr. Worthington’s primary responsibility will be to plan and implement the symposium, and to edit and publish the resulting proceedings. The triennial symposium was established in 1989 with generous support from Washington Dental Service Foundation and continues to make a significant impact in dental education - drawing researchers, academicians and a community of practicing dentists together to share information and findings on state-of-the-art issues facing dentistry.

The 38th Annual Ernest M. Jones Memorial Lectureship featured Mark T. Murphy, DDS, FAGD of The Pankey Institute. Dr. Murphy spoke to more than 700 guests in UW’s Meany Theater, which was followed by a lunch time lecture from UW Dental Alumni Association President Dr. Michael Johnson (‘82) at “By George”. Using explanations, demonstrations and drawings, Dr. Murphy provided attendees new information about what is referred to as “Four-Dimensional Dentistry: A Team Development Program”. Additional information about the remainder of this year’s classes is available online: www.uwcde.com

RECEPTIONS, CONFERENCES and EVENTS

On March 13th, more than thirty guests joined us for an evening reception welcoming Dr. John Wataha, our newly appointed Chair of the Department of Restorative Dentistry. Representatives from the School’s faculty, members of various boards and leaders from local dental societies attended the event at the Crow’s Nest, just south of the Health Sciences Center. I was pleased to have this forum to underscore my support for the committee’s choice of Dr. Wataha and to officially introduce him to members of our dental stakeholder community. Dr. Wataha took advantage of this opportunity to share details of his aspirations for the future of the Department and contributions he hopes to make as a leader within the School of Dentistry, nationally and internationally.

NEWS

Without Dental Care, More Ending Up in the ER, Kitsap Sun (Sunday, March 9), Dr. Asuman Kiyak quoted

2008 Health Sciences Open House set for April 25 & 26, University Week (March 13, 2008), Dr Wendy Mouradian quoted

A complete list of School of Dentistry events and archived editions of the Dean's Monthly Communications are also available online.

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