Treat the Child, Treat the Parent - Tufts University School of Dental

Transcription

sprin g 201 1 VO L . 15 NO. 1
M A G A Z I N E O F T H E t u ft s u ni v e r s it y d enta l a l u mni a s s o c iation
School of Dental Medicine
Nonprofit Org.
U.S. Postage
136 Harrison Avenue
Boston, ma 02111
Boston, MA
Permit No. 1161
Pai d
www.tufts.edu/dental
OPEN
SPORTS FOR SCHOLARSHIP
Dental medicine
Come join the Tufts University
Dental Alumni Association for the
Treat the Child,
Treat the Parent
29th Annual Wide Open
Golf & Tennis Tournament
Monday, September 19, 2011
Wellesley Country Club
390 Wellesley Ave.
Wellesley, Massachusetts
Leading man
Gerard Caron, D78, traded in a rural practice for a military career.
Along the way, he discovered he enjoyed being a leader—and that he
was good at it. He’s now the highest-ranking dentist in the Air Force
and commander of the medical wing that’s the first stop on home soil
for troops wounded overseas. For more on the story, turn to page 10.
Schedule of Events
Golf and Tennis Registration 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Golf Tournament 11 a.m. shotgun start
Lunch included
Tennis tournament 2 to 4 p.m.
Reception 4 p.m.
Awards Dinner 5 p.m.
TUFTS UNIVERSITY OFFICE OF PUBLICATIONs 8167 05/11
Tufts Dental alumni, faculty, family
and friends are invited to participate!
All proceeds benefit the
Dental Alumni Student Loan Fund
A toolkit for
handling your
pediatric patients
Registration Fees
Golf Tournament $350/player
$1,300/foursome if signed up together
Tennis Tournament $200/player
Photo: Kelvin Ma
Reception and Dinner Only
$75 for guests and noncompetitors
PLUS: the next dean
28062_cvrs_CS5.indd 1-1
n
artist among us
n
decoding ‘Dentist speak’
5/13/11 8:34 AM
2011 Wide Open Tournament
Registration Form
Name_________________________________________________
WIDE OPEN
Graduation year or affiliation with Tufts Dental___________
Guest(s) name(s)______________________________________
Address_______________________________________________
______________________________________________________
Daytime phone________________________________________
Email_________________________________________________
My handicap is___________.
Cost includes lunch, tournament, reception and awards dinner.
Golf Tournament
$350/player
My foursome will include:
2. ____________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________
4. ____________________________________________________
r Please check here if you would like to be placed in a foursome.
Dental Alumni
Student Loan Fund
Tennis Tournament
$200/player
Reception & Awards Dinner Only
$75 for guests and non-competitors
Can’t participate this year? Please consider
a $100 donation to help future students of
Tufts Dental and be listed as a tournament
sponsor in Tufts Dental Medicine magazine.
Please complete the registration form and
enclose your check, made payable to Tufts
University Dental Alumni Association, and
mail to:
Going the Distance
Nicholas Gordon, Marek Ogledzki and Inga Keithly, all D12, take to the city
streets for a training run prior to this year’s Boston Marathon. The three
competed on the Tufts President’s Marathon Challenge Team, which raises
money to support teaching and research at the university that promotes
healthy living. The dental students were among 200 Tufts runners who ran
the 26.2-mile course from Hopkinton to Boston on April 18. Gordon finished
in 4:15:19; Ogledzki in 3:35:48, and Keithly ran 4:54:59.
PAYMENT
_____ golfers @ $350 each = $_________
_____ tennis
@ $200 each = $_________
_____ dinner only@ $75 each = $_________
_____ I will be unable to attend the 2011 WIDE OPEN,
but I’d be proud to be listed as a sponsor for my
$100 donation to the Student Loan Fund.
r My check for $__________ is enclosed.
r Please charge $__________ to my
OFFICE OF ALUMNI RELATIONS
r MasterCard
Tufts University
136 Harrison Ave.
Boston, MA 02111
Card #_________________________________ Exp._______
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Phone 617.636.6773
Email [email protected]
http://dental.tufts.edu/alumni
TOTAL ENCLOSED
r VISA r Discover
$__________
Please mail this form and your check, payable to Tufts
University Dental Alumni Association, to Office of
Alumni Relations, Tufts University School of Dental
Medicine, 136 Harrison Ave., Boston, MA 02111.
Registration confirmation and directions will be
mailed to you prior to the tournament.
photo: alonso Nichols
5/13/11 8:34 AM
contents
spring 2011 volume 15 no. 1
features
10 The General Dentist
he unexpected path of Gerard Caron, D78,
T
the highest-ranking dentist in the Air Force.
By Julie Flaherty
cover story
14 On Good Behavior
nowing how to connect with pint-sized
K
patients—and their parents—is the key to a
successful pediatric visit.
By Julie Flaherty
19 ‘A Poet, Too, Was There…’
A
19th-century dentist, immortalized in a
Longfellow poem, earned a place in literary history.
By Gail Bambrick
22 Color His Career
ichard Goodkind, D62, approached his
R
profession with an artist’s touch. In retirement,
he continues to pursue his Muse.
By Helene Ragovin
22
departments
26 To Better Society
conversation with Anthony Monaco, the next
A
president of Tufts University.
By Taylor McNeil
2 letters 3 From the Dean
5 word of mouth
5
a scan of people, Pl aces & events
8 lab notes
a report on leading-edge science
30 on campus
d e n ta l s c h o o l n e w s
42 Beyond Boundaries
P r o v i d i n g t h e M e a n s f o r E x c e l l e n c e
44 UNIVERSITY NEWS
the wider world of tufts
46 ALUMNI NEWS
s tay i n g c o n n e c t e d
Cover illustration by James Yang
Tooth illustration by Alex Nabaum
letters
dental medicine
a salute to service
As I came through the Tufts clinic this
morning, I noticed a stack of Tufts Dental
Medicine magazines. Seeing Chris Pflipsen,
D10, in uniform on the cover immediately
caught my eye (“Dental Force,” Fall 2010).
Jacqueline Mitchell did such a wonderful
job with the article, not only describing
what the Health Professions Scholarship
Program is all about, but also giving us a
glimpse of how these exceptional young
people feel about serving their country and
their initial military experiences.
She caught the human side of it as well
as the professional side. Her description of
what Dr. Jenny Liang, D08, had to deal with
in Afghanistan was fascinating and interesting. Over the past several years, we have
had several of our dental alumni serve in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
Tufts University, not only the School
of Dental Medicine but the entire university, has a multitude of military alumni.
Every one of them, when they notice Capt.
Pflipsen on the cover, will do a double take
and appreciate the positive recognition of
military service from their alma mater.
charles rankin,
d79, dg86, d08p, d11p
professor of endodontics
tufts school of dental medicine
th e b est of tu f ts
I was getting nostalgic about Tufts and
excited to see all the endo people at the AAE
conference in San Antonio in April. I am
appreciative of my Tufts education. I really
do love Chicago, and the faculty at the
University of Illinois have been wonderful,
but being at a different school has allowed
me to appreciate a lot of aspects of Tufts.
The alumni and “family” atmosphere of
Tufts School of Dental Medicine is hard to
find elsewhere. I am so proud of the vertical expansion and the fact that much of the
money to build it was donated by alumni.
From an education standpoint, I feel
competent in many fields. The best class
at Tuf ts was medicine. I still use Dr.
[Kanchan] Ganda’s book as a reference. I
talk about Tufts all the time, and the other
residents and even the instructors are getting sick of listening to me!
vladana babcic, d10
first-year postgraduate
in endodontics
university of illinois at
chicago college of dentistry
correction Narayani Baliga, DI07, was
incorrectly identified in a photo from the Yankee
Dental alumni reception that appeared in the
Fall 2010 issue of the magazine. The Office of
Dental Alumni Relations apologizes for the error.
Your New Editor
With this issue, Tufts Dental Medicine
welcomes a new editor, Helene Ragovin,
who has been a senior writer in Tufts’ Office
of Publications for a decade. Before that,
she was a reporter and editor for newspapers in New Jersey, and her work has
been recognized by the New Jersey Press
Association. At Tufts, she has covered the
School of Arts and Sciences for the Tufts
Journal and its successor, Tufts Now.
In a way, Ragovin is entering the
“family business”: her father and grandfather were dentists. She’s eager to hear
from you. If you have a suggestion or a
story idea, please contact her at helene.
[email protected] or 617.627.2125.
talk to us
Tufts Dental Medicine welcomes letters, concerns and suggestions from all its readers.
Address your correspondence, which may be edited for space, to Helene Ragovin, Editor,
Tufts Dental Medicine, Tufts University Office of Publications, 80 George St., Medford,
MA 02155. You can also fax us at 617.627.3549 or email [email protected].
2 t u f t s d e n ta l m e d i c i n e s p r i n g 2 0 1 1
volume 15, no. 1 spring 2011
Executive Editor Lonnie H. Norris
Dean, School of Dental Medicine
Editor Helene Ragovin
Editorial Director Karen Bailey
Alumni Editor Vangel R. Zissi, D62, DG67
Design Director Margot Grisar
Senior Designer Betsy Hayes
Contributing Writers
Gail Bambrick, Julie Flaherty, Kristin
Livingston, Taylor McNeil, Jacqueline Mitchell
Contributing Editor Karen Kenny
Editorial Advisors
Maria Tringale, Senior Director,
Dental Development and Alumni Relations
Mark Gonthier, Associate Dean,
Admissions and Student Affairs
Mary-Ellen Marks, Faculty Secretary
Susan Ahearn, Associate Director,
Alumni Relations
Dental Alumni Association
President Mostafa H. El-Sherif, DI95
Vice President Peter A. Delli Colli, A69, D73
Secretary Lisa Vouras, D89
Assistant Secretary/Treasurer
John J. Millette, D91
Treasurer Nicholas T. Papapetros, D91
Directors
Cherie Bishop, D94; Joseph P. Giordano,
D79, DG84; Peiman Mahdavi, D91, DG94;
Raina A. Trilokekar, DG88, DI91;
Derek A. Wolkowicz, D97, DG00
Ex-Officio
Past Presidents: Tofigh Raayai, DG77, DI80;
John P. Ficarelli, D73, D10P, DG12P;
Nicholas T. Papapetros, D91
Dental M Club Chair
John P. Ficarelli, D73, D10P, DG12P
Historian Charles B. Millstein, D62, A10P
University Liaison
Thomas F. Winkler III, A62, D66, D10P
Chapter Presidents
Steven Dugoni, D79, A08P, A12P, California
EJ Bartolazo, D92, New York
William N. Pantazes, D90, DG08, Florida
John A. Vrotsos, DG82, Greece
Tufts Dental Medicine is published twice
annually by Tufts University School of Dental
Medicine, the Tufts University Dental Alumni
Association and the Tufts University Office
of Publications. The magazine is a publication
member of the American Association of
Dental Editors.
Send correspondence to:
Editor, Tufts Dental Medicine
Tufts University Office of Publications
80 George St., Medford, MA 02155
Tufts Prints Green
Printed on 25% post-consumer waste
recycled paper. Please recycle.
from the dean
Choices That Built a Life and Career
as i reflect on my life’s path to date, i think
of the Robert Frost poem The Road Not Taken:
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Some people form a decision about a professional career early in life. I did
not. Born in the inner city of Houston, Texas, during legal segregation
and with a core family that never left Texas, how could I ever imagine one
day becoming the dean of Tufts University School of Dental Medicine?
There have been times when roads diverged in my life—and my travels often
did not have a clear destination. However, along the way I always gave each
endeavor my best effort, intent on advancing. I made important decisions as
those roads divided, and I followed uncharted paths: leaving Texas to attend
Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., and not immediately entering professional
school after college, instead working as a plastics engineer in the automotive
industry. When I was drafted into the U.S. Army, I applied to Infantry Officer
Candidate School, which carried a longer service commitment.
After my military service, I decided to attend dental school. At that time,
with a wife and a year-old daughter, my goal was to become a general dentist
so I could return to the workforce quickly. I thought about working as a dental director at a community health center. But once I was in dental school, I
found the educational environment stimulating. I never left academia. I earned
D.M.D. and M.P.H. degrees at Harvard and then decided to specialize. I was
fortunate to be selected for the postgraduate program in oral and maxillofacial
surgery at Tufts, and I committed my career to a broader definition of “serving
the community.”
However, two decisions stand out as the most influential. The first was to
go to the Fisk senior dance, “Dutch treat,” with my chemistry major classmate,
Donna Farmer. Now my wife of almost 45 years, she has been the most inspirational and invigorating love of my life. The many of you who have met Donna
know of her commitment to our family and her devotion to Tufts School of
Dental Medicine. The second was to come to Tufts more than 34 years ago.
Of the 57 U.S. dental schools, only three have African-American deans. Since
2003, I have been the only African-American dean at a dental school that is not
“historically black.” My tenure at Tufts has been defined by an environment of
respect, unlimited opportunities, mentorship and support.
PHOTO: ROSE LINCOLN
During my 16 years as dean, I have
worked with, and had the support of, dedicated administrators, faculty, students, staff
and alumni. The university presidents, provosts, overseers, trustees and fellow deans
have all been supportive and worked collaboratively on the academic priorities that have
advanced the school. Together, we have been
able to enhance the stellar global reputation
the school has enjoyed over many years.
Through strategic planning, the school
has maintained a balanced budget for 15
years while making improvements to every
aspect: research, faculty, staff, facilities,
technology, academic standards, quality of
programs, diversity, alumni relations and
fundraising. Considering the changes in the
economic climate these past few years, these
are accomplishments not taken lightly, and
of which I am extremely proud.
In March, the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) Gies Foundation
recognized the school for its superior achievements in support of dental education(see
story, page 30). As I stood on the stage, along
with the senior members of my administration, to accept the award, I could not have
been more gratified by what we have accomplished together.
The most apparent, of course, is the fivefloor, 95,000-square-foot expansion of the
dental tower. The Tufts University sign atop
the building is a brilliant gateway to the
health sciences campus in Boston. However,
I think our most significant achievements
revolve around the enhancement of personnel and programs that are fostering an
environment for the highest academic standards and quality patient care.
While we are proud of what we have
done, we cannot rest on our laurels.
See CHOICES, next page
s p r i n g 2 0 1 1 t u f t s d e n ta l m e d i c i n e 3
From the dean
The dental school’s strategic focus
on improving every aspect of life
at One Kneeland Street received
national recognition in March
when the school received the Gies
Award for Vision, Innovation and
Achievement. Accepting the award,
from left, Joseph Castellana, Nancy
Arbree, Maria Tringale, Maria
Papageorge, William J. Gies II, the
grandson of the award’s namesake,
Lonnie Norris, James Hanley and
Mark Gonthier.
CHOICES, continued from page 3
Construction continues on the complete
renovation of the second floor, which, when
it opens in September, will contain 48 operatories for pre-doctoral training. Future facilities improvements will be needed to address
the pre-clinical space on the eighth floor, the
third- and fourth-floor pre-doctoral clinic
areas and the 20,000-square-foot shell space
on the tenth floor.
In academic planning, curriculum revisions must be completed; faculty recruitment
and development are paramount in succession planning; and additional laboratory
space is needed as our basic science research
enterprise grows. Innovative sources of revenue are necessary to offset some of the escalating costs of dental education, and we must
sustain our efforts to address the access-tocare needs of underserved patients who have
little or no dental insurance.
As people live longer and the links
between oral health and overall well-being
continue to be documented, dental educators and the oral health-care profession must
work in partnership with other health-care
professionals to provide comprehensive,
integrated, patient-centered care.
Each day I have had the privilege of
walking through the doors of One Kneeland
Street to be part of this engaging environment of motivated faculty, staff and students,
working to fulfill our missions of education, patient care, research and community
service. Each day has presented opportunities, and thus, those days have turned into
the years that have flown by quickly.
The school is now in an excellent position. A solid foundation has been built—
physically, financially, programmatically
and operationally—to transition to new
leadership and to continue to be preeminent
in dental education in the next decade and
beyond. Since 1868, each of the 14 previous dental deans has built on the school’s
heritage to grow its prestige. It has been my
responsibility, and pleasure, to do the same.
With your generosity and loyalty, and
the efforts of our outstanding development team, led by Maria Gove Tringale,
senior director of Alumni Relations and
Development; John Ficarelli, D73, D10P,
DG12P, president of the Dental M Club;
James Kane, D74, DG76, G78, DG79, D04P,
DG06P, chair of the capital campaign and
Thomas F. Winkler III, A62, D66, D10P,
vice chair, the school has met its $40 million goal for the Beyond Boundaries campaign, which will conclude in June.
By 2020, it has been predicted that 20
new dental schools will have opened in the
U.S. While dental medicine still has a strong
applicant pool, the ratio of applicants to
enrollees is likely to decrease when new dental schools accept their inaugural classes.
Our school continues to be a national
leader in the number of applications
received for the D.M.D. program. Every
year, approximately one of every three
dental school applicants nationally applies
to Tufts. Historically, dental school applications have been cyclical. In 1990, 5,123
applied. After a peak of 13,742 national
applicants in 2007, there has been a modest
decline, to 13,001 in 2010.
This data only magnifies the need for
Tufts University School of Dental Medicine
to continue to work hard to be a first choice
for dental education. I’m asking your
renewed commitment to that goal.
My mother, who is almost 92, sent me the
poem Counting. I think it helps explain her
ever-present influence on my outlook:
Count your garden by the flowers
never by the leaves that fall
Count your days by golden hours,
Don’t remember clouds at all,
Count your night by stars,
not by shadows
Count your life with smiles,
not tears
And all throughout your lifetime,
Count your age by friends
not years.
With conviction and generosity, we
have made a difference. Life is about transitions, and those roads less traveled. Amid
change, there is this certainty: by continuing to work together as a community, Tufts
University School of Dental Medicine can
become even greater. From my own family, Donna, Marlaina, M99, and Michael,
A01, to my Tufts family, thank you for a
wonderful journey.
lonnie h. norris, d.m.d., m.p.h.
PHOTO: american dental education association, www.adea.org
word of mouth
a scan of people, places & events
Too Much of a
Good Thing?
Federal government poised to lower recommended fluoride
levels in drinking water by Jacqueline Mitchell
A
s the baby boomers enter their 60s this decade, they will
have more of their own teeth than any generation of elders
before them. That’s thanks in large part to fluoridated community drinking water, a practice first implemented in 1945
and now considered one of the major public health achievements of the 20th
century. Today, about three-quarters of Americans, roughly 270 million,
drink fluoridated water. Dental decay and tooth loss—while still too high in
certain demographics—is at an all-time low.
Earlier this year, two federal agencies proposed changes in the recommended amount of fluoride used in public water supplies. The Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS), in conjunction with the Environmental
Protection Agency, suggested lowering fluoride levels from 1.2 milligrams per
liter of water to 0.7 milligrams per liter. After further review, HHS expects to
publish the new guidelines later this spring.
The guidelines were last adjusted in the 1960s. The original levels were
set according to a formula based on a community’s mean annual temperature, before air conditioning became a way of life, says Wanda G. Wright,
ILLUSTRATION: alex nabaum
an assistant professor of public health
and community service.
Public health officials used to assume
that residents of the Sunbelt drank more
water. To make up for drinking less water,
people living in the northern tier of the
country would need higher fluoride concentrations in their water, up to 1.2 milligrams per liter. But today, Americans
likely consume the same amount of water
from Juneau to Jacksonville.
Meanwhile, we’re also getting more
fluoride from other sources. “Too much
or too little fluoride may be problematic
for children,” says Paul J. Vankevich, D81,
assistant professor of general dentistry.
Children under age 8 who ingest too
much f luoride are at risk for f luorosis,
which occurs when the fluoride ion interferes with the development of tooth enamel.
In 2007, the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention reported a marked increase
in f luorosis—which manifests as white
or brown stains on tooth surfaces—in
American teens since the 1980s. That spike
could be the result of how many more fluoridated products are available today, including over-the-counter toothpastes and rinses
as well as fluoride supplements and topical
treatments applied by dental professionals.
“The new federal recommendations
take these other sources of fluoride exposure into account in attempting to balance
its decay-fighting benefits against the risk
of fluorosis,” Vankevich says.
Not getting enough fluoride remains
the bigger problem. After a sharp decline
in the 20th century, tooth decay has been
making a comeback since 2000, especially among children living in communities where there is little access to oral
health care.
“The good thing [about f luoridating
public water] is that everybody benefits,
whether or not people are insured or have
access to care,” says Wright. “And in communities where there are access-to-care
issues, that’s where you especially want
fluoridation.”
word of mouth
Talking ’Bout This Generation
is being driven by our students . . . the majority now come to lecture with laptops,” says
Michael Thompson, a professor of general
dentistry who chairs the Student Promotions
Committee and directs the Student Teaching
Assistant Program. “This use of laptops has
altered, to some extent, how we provide
information to students.”
For example, the Tuf ts Universit y
Sciences Knowledgebase (TUSK) database houses a wealth of multimedia course
material, including slides that once would
have required an overhead projector. And
since much of the dental school building is
equipped with wireless Internet access,
students can download these teaching materials during class. That also
means professors
— M ic h a e l Thom ps on
can tinker with their
online course conor her students, says Maureen McAndrew, a
tent as the class progresses. And if students’
professor at New York University College of
intellectual curiosity takes a lecture slightly
Dentistry, who spoke to Tufts dental faculty
off the planned trajectory, laptops and
about teaching Generation Y.
smartphones keep them out of the weeds.
These young adults don’t remember a
“It’s cool if there’s a question I can’t answer
world without the Internet, cell phones and
during class; I’ll say, ‘somebody Google
social networking. Their expectation of
it.’ And we have the answer in 30 seconds.
instant access to information is one of the
I learn on the spot myself,” says Thompson.
Millennials’ defining characteristics.
But Thompson also worries that all
“To a large extent, technology use at Tufts
of this connectivity means less personal
they show up to class in flip-flops, and
they text their professors with questions,
even on holidays. They will bargain for
better grades, but they’d rather collaborate
than compete. They are the Millennials,
also known as Generation Y, born roughly
between 1980 and 2000, and they make up
the vast majority of pre-doctoral students.
The Millennials’ habits and preferences
are changing the educational landscape,
including here at Tufts School of Dental
Medicine.
There’s an unprecedented 30-year age gap
between the average dental professor and his
“It’s cool if there’s a question
I can’t answer during class;
I’ll say, ‘somebody Google it.’”
interaction. Most lectures at the dental
school are stored on TUSK. “The way we
teach now, we put all of our materials online,
as opposed to packing a classroom. So you
can look up sometimes and just a third of
the class is sitting there,” he says.
But Millennials aren’t that hard to get to
know. Accustomed to blogging and posting
video diaries, Millennials are comfortable
expressing their feelings and opinions.
For the last five years, students have
created class Facebook pages, where students can socialize online even before they
matriculate. All that texting and social networking “improve communication among
the class as well as help to build class unity,”
says Thompson.
Millennials leave the nest later, and, even
when they do take flight, many maintain
close ties to mom and dad. At the same time,
Millennials’ parents remain involved in their
adult children’s lives.
Some colleges have created staff positions just to handle students’ parents
concerns about everything from housing
to grades, says McAndrews. Tufts Dental
School now hosts an information session
for parents during its orientation for the
incoming class. “It’s nice to do that,” says
Thompson. “Now we build a relationship
with the parents, and that makes it a more
positive experience for everyone.”
— jac qu e l i n e m i tch e l l
The (Dental) Rite of Passage
remember poking at a wiggly incisor with the tip of your tongue? youngsters unsure
of what to expect when they lose their first tooth can follow along with 6-year-old
Amanda, the star of a picture book designed to prepare children for the big moment. The aptly-named I’ve Lost My First Tooth (PageOne Press, 2010) is written
by Dan Page and illustrated by Mark Bellerose, and includes an endorsement
from Stanley Alexander, D75A, professor and chair of pediatric dentistry at Tufts.
“In the tradition of the children’s poet Shel Silverstein, I’ve Lost My First Tooth
captures what goes on in a child’s head (no pun intended) during this ‘comingof-age’ milestone,” Alexander writes. “I would recommend this book to child and
parent alike for a quick and fun description of this important developmental period.”
6 t u f t s de n ta l m e dic i n e s p r i n g 2 011
ILLUSTRATION: MARK BELLEROSE
d
the
51%
Percentage of
Americans who say they are
most likely to floss just before
visiting the dentist.
A smattering
of dentistry tidbits
to inform, amuse
and amaze
list
September 20
The date China
celebrates “Love Your Teeth Day,” a national holiday promoting
oral health awareness among its 1.3 billion citizens.
lbs
Number
of awards
Tufts Dental
School received
this year from the
Council for Support
and Advancement
of Education (CASE):
a Silver Medal for
the publication for
the grand opening
of the Vertical
Expansion Project,
and an Honorable
Mention for the design
of this magazine.
June 3, 1868
Weight of an elephant’s molar.
Elephants can go through
six sets of molars in a lifetime,
according to the San Diego Zoo.
Date that the Massachusetts
Legislature granted a charter
to Boston Dental College,
later to become the Tufts
College Dental School. Its
first home was at 5 Hamilton
Place, opposite Park
Street Church.
$2,000,000,000
1.6 billion
What Americans spend every
year on toothpaste, mouthwash,
floss and other dental products.
Number of school days
U.S. children miss
each year because of
dental disease, according to a report from the
Commonwealth Fund.
$$
two
dollars
What the Tooth Fairy
is paying per tooth
these days, according
to Money Magazine.
ILLUSTRATION of chinese poster: Kimberly Lee Ai Fen; istock photo
24
Number of women
listed as dentists
in the 1870
U.S. Census.
%
73
The percentage of Americans who
would rather go shopping for groceries than floss.
leading-edge science
An electron micrograph image of
Treponema denticola bacterium in a
patient with periodontal disease.
healthy gums,
healthy aging
Researchers find link between periodontal disease
and late-life disability by Jacqueline Mitchell
eriodontitis, the chronic infection of the ligaments
and bone that support the teeth, can lead to tooth
loss. And the damage doesn’t end there: gum disease
has been linked to a variety of chronic illnesses,
including a higher risk of heart attack and stroke.
Now you can add one more thing to that list: physical disability in
the elderly, according to the findings of a research team, including Wai
S. Cheung, DG02, DI06, an associate professor of periodontology.
Their research suggests that increasing insurance coverage for periodontal care as we age could be a cost-effective way to keep us active
and socially engaged well into our golden years.
More people are living longer than ever before. In the United States,
the number of people age 65 and older is expected to reach 72 million
by 2030, double the 36 million seniors in 2004.
Periodontal disease is of particular concern to older people. A 2009
study in the journal Gerodontology, for example, found that 38 percent
of otherwise-healthy men over age 65 had severe gum disease.
That’s bad news—and not just for the mouth. The inflammation
and infections related to poor periodontal health are known risk
factors for heart disease, cognitive decline and metabolic disorders.
Likewise, other studies have demonstrated a correlation between
oral health and the ability to eat a nutritious, balanced diet, which
promotes overall health and confers some resistance to disease.
For their study, published in the March 2011 issue of the Journal
of the American Geriatrics Society, Cheung and colleagues she
trained with at National Yang-Ming University in Taiwan, including
Yu-Lin Lai, DG95, wondered if periodontal disease might be linked to
disability later in life.
“As periodontists, we see in our practices how various degrees of
disability affect quality of life, home care and access to treatment,”
says Cheung. “A couple of studies touched upon the topic briefly. This
is the first study I know of [that goes into] so much depth.”
To test their hypothesis, the team gathered data from the National
Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which assesses
the health and nutritional status of Americans. NHANES has been
compiling these statistics since the 1960s through detailed interviews and health examinations, including periodontal screenings.
Cheung and her colleagues analyzed NHANES data collected from
1999 to 2004 on nearly 4,000 study subjects ages 60 and older who
did not report any heart-related disease. The researchers found that
nearly half of them were totally edentulous, and more than a quarter
suffered from some degree of periodontitis.
After controlling for other factors, including age, sex, Body Mass
Index and smoking habits, the team found that edentulism was
significantly associated with a far greater likelihood of disability. For
example, those who had lost all of their natural teeth were 57 percent
more likely to report difficulty doing household chores and preparing
meals, and 63 percent were more likely to have trouble participating
in social events. Similarly, patients with severe periodontitis were
much more likely to report functional limitations than those with only
moderate or no gum disease.
Although cross-sectional studies, those done at one point in time,
cannot establish causation between gum disease and late-life disability, this research does demonstrate that poor periodontal health is an
independent risk factor for disability, Cheung says. Only a longitudinal
study, one that monitors the periodontal health of a group of people
with the same type of disability over a long period of time, could conclusively demonstrate such a relationship.
However, the team’s findings lend credence to the notion that
inflammation may be one mechanism underlying many of the chronic
diseases associated with old age.
Cheung and her colleagues suggest that paying closer attention to
periodontal health can pay dividends for everyone. The researchers
recommend that dental practitioners provide standard periodontal
care, including ultrasonic scaling or intensive periodontal maintenance, more frequently. They also say that increasing insurance
coverage for such treatments, starting in midlife, could keep seniors
smiling for years to come.
Jacqueline Mitchell, a senior health sciences writer in Tufts’ Office of
Publications, can be reached at [email protected].
photos: bsip/photo researchers inc.
Another Target in the War on Cavities
M
every six months, looking for changes in the composition of the
of types of bacteria that live in our mouths. Not so for
dental plaque and whether that correlated with the number of new
the Tufts pediatric dentists Cheen Loo and Nooruddin
cavities the kids developed. A third of the children in the study
Pradhan and their colleagues, who set out to create a
developed new cavities during the year after treatment, perhaps
more comprehensive catalog of the critters that live in kids’ mouths.
because oral hygiene and dietary habits don’t always change at
In oral exams of more than 80 children, the researchers collected
home, Pradhan suggests. But the researchers wondered if specific
a host of bacteria that had not previously been identified, including
microorganisms might also play a role.
one of particular note, Scardovia wiggsiae, which they have been able
At Forsyth, researchers led by Anne Tanner cultured the bacteria
to finger as another possible villain in causing severe caries.
clinging to the toothpicks and sequenced the DNA of unidentified
Researchers are already well acquainted with one kind of
microbes. Once they knew the DNA sequences, the researchers
bacteria known to cause cavities in kids and adults: Streptococcus
turned to the Human Oral Microbiome Database (HOMD), an online
mutans, which thrives on sugars. As it metabolizes those sugars,
information warehouse that Forsyth developed. The HOMD works
S. mutans produces acids that dissolve
something like a reverse telephone
tooth enamel, leading to decay.
book: enter the DNA sequence of the
But scientists had theorized that S.
bacterium, and the HOMD gives you the
mutans couldn’t be the only cavity-causing
species, if it’s known, or the group to
culprit. It’s not even detected at the scene
which the strain likely belongs.
of the crime in some cases of tooth deIn the samples Pradhan and his
cay. Likewise, plenty of people who play
colleagues collected from the children
host to S. mutans never develop cavities.
with severe decay, the Forsyth scientists
Other bacteria, including members of the
identified almost 200 groups of microbes,
Lactobacillus family, have been associated
including 45 that had not been found
with dental caries, but the association is
in the human mouth before. Among the
not strong for cavities in young children.
novel bacteria was S. wiggsiae, a member
To paint a clearer picture of the oral
of the Bifidobacterium family that also
Researchers suspect that newly identified, or as-yetecosystem, Loo, DI10, and Pradhan, DG93,
is significantly associated with severe
unidentified, bacteria may be contributing to tooth decay.
DG94, DI06, collaborated with researchers
caries—even when the notorious S.
at the Forsyth Institute, Goldman School of Dental Medicine at Boston
mutans is not present. “We were excited about the finding,” Pradhan
University and Harvard University School of Dental Medicine to compare
says. “We had anticipated there was something there.”
the bacterial composition of the plaque found in children, ages 2 to 6,
Learning more about the biology of S. wiggsiae could offer new ways
with severe dental caries to that of kids with no decay.
to prevent cavities, Loo says. “We’ve studied S. mutans so much, we
Over a year, Pradhan collected bacterial samples from 26 otherknow exactly how it works. If we study the metabolism of S. wiggsiae,
wise-healthy children with severe cavities as he performed restorative
we could learn if and how the species might cause cavities,” she says.
work or extracted decayed primary teeth. Pediatric dentists at Boston
The next step is to test whether S. wiggsiae is indeed cariogenic.
University collected bacteria samples from another 14 children with
One way to do that would be to introduce S. wiggsiae into the mouths
advanced decay. Loo and her colleagues at the other sites recruited
of laboratory animals to see if the new bug will cause cavities.
42 caries-free children for comparison.
If S. wiggsiae thrives on sugar, like S. mutans, that would be
When Pradhan filled or pulled cavity-ridden teeth from children
an even stronger incentive to limit sweets in children’s diets,
in the severe caries group, he used sterile toothpicks to scrape the
the researchers say. Conversely, if S. wiggsiae chows down on a
pathogenic plaque off the affected teeth. The samples were put on ice
completely different food group, dentists would have to include
and rushed to the Forsyth Institute for analysis. Pradhan also charted
that information in their dietary counseling for patients.
the amount of decay in each child, noting which teeth were affected.
Either way, says Loo, most dentists’ advice is unlikely to change.
A week later, when the children returned for follow-up, their
“Oral hygiene will probably remain the same,” she says. “The ultimate
parents were given dietary counseling and instruction in good oral
goal is to remove bacteria of all kinds from the mouth.”
—jacqueline mitchell
hygiene. Loo continued to sample the bacteria in the kids’ mouths
ost of us would rather not think about the hundreds
The
Gener
Dentist
al
Once a small-town practitioner, Gerard Caron, D78, commands the
medical wing at the country’s most renowned military base
By J u l i e F l a h e r t y P h oto g r a p h y by K e lv i n M a
t 1600 hours, the plane from
Germany lands at Joint Base
Andrews Naval Air Facility outside Washington, D.C. Maj. Gen.
Gerard Caron, D78, watches as
the sick and injured emerge from
the enormous belly of the slate-gray C-17 transport. Some
walk on crutches; others are carried on litters. One patient
is in critical condition. Buses wait on the tarmac, ready to
take the Marines to the National Naval Medical Center in
Bethesda, Md., the soldiers to Walter Reed Army Medical
Center, the airmen to the medical center at Andrews.
Were the general to walk over, the medical personnel
would undoubtedly come to attention. But Caron doesn’t
want to interfere. The tall man with thoughtful blue eyes is
still a little awed that this first point of return to home soil
for the nation’s “wounded warriors,” some of them coming from Afghanistan and Iraq, is part of his jurisdiction.
“Taking care of these injured airmen, soldiers and
Marines—there is probably nothing more important that
we do,” he says. “If there was anything that I never, ever
thought I would be involved with as a dentist, it’s this.”
As commander of the 79th Medical Wing, which is
based at Andrews, Caron is in charge of this three-times-aweek transfer operation, as well as the nearly 1,500 employees who provide health care to 400,000 airmen, veterans
and their families in the Washington area. He is also the
highest-ranking dentist in the Air Force and serves as its
assistant surgeon general for dental services.
This job wasn’t exactly what he was picturing when he
made the decision 25 years ago to leave his small solo practice in rural Maine to join the military. Becoming a general
is not a career path you can plan, he says.
But the military provides lots of opportunities for leadership. And Caron found that he not only was good at leading, he kind of liked it, too.
s p r i n g 2 0 1 1 t u f t s d e n ta l m e d i c i n e 1 1
Earlier in the day, at 1230 hours, Caron
is met with salutes as he walks through
the clinic at the 579th Dental Squadron at
Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in southeast
Washington. He was the commander here 10
years ago, and it’s clear that although most
of his time now is devoted to overseeing the
medical wing, his heart is still in dentistry.
He points out that military and civilian
dentistry are similar—with a few exceptions. The emphasis here is on keeping the
airmen “deployment-ready;” that is, free
from cavities, gum disease, fractures or
faulty restorations that are likely to need
emergency treatment during the next 12
months, longer than the average deployment. At the end of 2010, almost 95 percent
of uniformed Air Force personnel were
deemed ready to deploy, a statistic in which
Caron takes some pride.
The post-cleaning conversations in the
Air Force clinic might go a little differently
than they would in a typical civilian practice, with reminders to keep up dental care
even during deployment. You might not be
able to stand in front of a mirror every morning to floss, the military dentists advise their
patients, but you can do it in your tent. You’ll
find M&Ms at the end of every food line, but
make sure that the comfort foods don’t linger on
your teeth. Ditto for Mountain Dew.
Caron has helped oversee a number of
technological upgrades to Air Force dental
services. In the clinic lab, a state-of-the-art
machine can sculpt a new bridge in minutes,
ensuring an airman can be on to his next
assignment in just a couple of hours (rather
than days). In 2010, the Air Force completed a
four-year program to convert all 90 of its clinics at home and abroad to digital radiology,
supported by two central archives that allow
access to any digital image from any location.
But Caron says one of t he biggest
improvements in recent years has been the
Air Force’s adoption of risk-based assessments, which help dentists and hygienists
make specific cavity-prevention recommendations for each patient based on factors
such as a history of cavities, visible plaque,
diet, exposure to fluoride and dry mouth.
“We instituted that model across the
entire system,” Caron says. “We put it on the
inspection checklist. Nothing spurs a clinic
director to action like knowing they are
Maj. Gen. Gerard Caron is briefed on the residency program at the 579th Dental
Squadron clinic by Senior Airman Anita Fisher. Right: Caron has lunch with enlisted
personnel under his command at Joint Base Andrews Naval Air Facility.
going to be inspected on something.” In
the first four years after the plan was implemented, from 2000 to 2004, the percentage
of Air Force patients characterized as high
risk for cavities decreased by 31 percent.
Military Career Takes Off
Caron grew up in Nashua, N.H., in a family with no military or dental connections
to speak of. His father was a mechanic, and
he was the first in his family to go to college.
But his family dentist seemed to make a good
living, so he applied to Tufts Dental School.
“I really started dental school with no idea
of how to pay for it,” he says. In his senior year,
a National Health Service Corps Scholarship,
which pays tuition in exchange for a pledge
of service in an underserved community,
helped soften the financial blow. After serving his year in a rural health center in Maine,
he set up his own practice in the scenic town
of Brooks, northwest of Belfast.
After seven years, the drawbacks of being
a solo practitioner in a small town were
clear. It was difficult for him to take time off,
yet he and his wife, Kathy, longed to travel.
And as their two children grew, they wished
they had better educational opportunities.
Caron knew a few dentists who had gone
into the service; they didn’t seem to have
those problems.
The couple hemmed and hawed about
whether they should look into the military
life. Then an uncanny sign arrived in the
daily mail. Right at the top of the pile was a
card from an Air Force recruiter. Soon after,
in 1986, Caron joined the Air Force as a major.
The Carons soon got the travel they
desired. Dr. Caron went on to treat patients
as a general dental officer in Maine, as a chief
of dental examination and diagnosis in the
United Kingdom, as a resident in comprehensive dentistry in Mississippi and as a clinical dentistry flight commander in the Azores.
And with 30 days off a year—much more
than his solo practice allowed him—he was
able to take his family on trips throughout
Europe and to the pyramids in Egypt. “I’ve
probably spent more time doing things with
our kids as they were growing up because
of being in the Air Force than I would have
otherwise,” Caron says. He also credits the
experience with giving their children, now
grown and living in New Jersey and Oregon,
the confidence to travel on their own.
But hands-on dentistry was just part of
the job. “Before you know it, you’re being
offered opportunities of leadership,” he says.
“W hen leaving an assignment to go to
another assignment, I used to write down
the things that inspired me about [that style
of ] leadership.” — A i r Forc e M aj. Ge n. Ge r a r d C a ron, D 7 8
He was assigned as dental squadron commander and worked in the Washington,
office of the Air Force surgeon general, editing the book on Air Force dental policy. In
2009, he was given his first deployment, as
commander of a medical group on an air base
in the Kyrgyz Republic during Operation
Enduring Freedom, the military operation
in Afghanistan.
But where did his ability to take charge
come from? Was he class president in high
school? Captain of the debate team? “No,”
he says, “but I was an Eagle Scout.”
This afternoon, his wife, Kathy, joins
him as he tours the Fisher House, a temporary home for families of patients receiving
care at the Andrews base medical center.
As the general asks the director about the
house’s fiscal health (holding strong), Kathy
Caron points out that her husband has long
been a student of authority. “He is always
reading books on leadership,” she says,
and indeed, his bookshelf has held everything from Lincoln on Leadership: Executive
Strategies for Tough Times to the story of
George C. Kenney, the air commander in
the South Pacific during World War II, to
Colin Powell’s autobiography.
But the reference he consults most often
is probably How Good People Make Tough
Choices, which is not a military primer or
a management guide, but a book on ethics.
“Choosing between right and wrong is not a
difficult thing to do,” he says. “But how do
you weigh two options when both are right
from a certain point of view?” He says one
of the most difficult parts of his job is disciplining—fairly and fittingly—someone
under his command.
He has also taken cues from his own commanders. “When leaving an assignment to go
to another assignment, I used to write down
the things that inspired me about their leadership,” he says. His first commander oversaw a
clinic with 40 people, and would go out of his
way to say good morning to everyone, to know
at least something about what was going on in
their lives. “I saw the importance of making
personal connections with people.”
He demonstrates that particular skill
at a lunch with enlisted men and women, a
monthly opportunity for some of the dental,
pharmacy and biomedical equipment technicians in the 79th Medical Wing to talk with
their commander. The smiling general joins
them in the cafeteria at 1100 hours, and, over
a meal of catfish, proceeds to put them at ease.
“Any of you seen Air Force One coming or
going?” he asks, bringing up the most famous
aircraft to use the base. “Have you gotten into
the city to see the sights?”
One staff sergeant says that most of his
time off is spent catering to his pregnant wife’s
needs. “Where does she go for her prenatal?”
Caron asks with interest, opening up a conversation about raising a family in the Air Force.
Someone brings up the Air Force’s new
fitness test, which many believe is more difficult to pass than the old one. Airmen and
airwomen are now tested twice a year, instead
of once, among other changes. “Wishing
and hoping that it’s going to change isn’t the
answer; spending more time on the track
probably is,” he says, with just the right mix
of empathy and encouragement. (Caron
learned from a previous commander—one
who grumbled about a policy change—that
openly criticizing higher authority causes
morale to fall. “You can argue when a policy is
being formulated,” Caron says. “Then the discussion is over, and it’s time to get on with it.”)
His challenge for the next couple of years
will be a different kind of reducing: cost-cutting. Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently
announced the military would be making
$78 billion in budget cuts. Caron is already
looking to see where the Dental Corps, which
performed an estimated $85 million in care
last year, can begin to save money.
Not to say that Air Force dentistry won’t
be moving forward. Caron is currently
overseeing the design of a new dental clinic,
scheduled to open at Anacostia-Bolling in
2016. By then he will most likely have finished his term as chief of dentistry, but he is
used to starting projects and then handing
them off to others. In most military careers,
Caron says, “you’ll be on to another assignment before your efforts will show anything.”
It took 10 years to get all the approvals for a
scholarship program he proposed that sends
enlisted airmen and airwomen to school to
become licensed dental hygienists.
“The thing is not to lose heart and not be
discouraged by how long it sometimes takes
to get things done,” he says. “If it’s important
enough, and you keep working at it, and you
get other people working with you, eventually you’ll get there.” tdm
Julie Flaherty can be reached at
[email protected].
On
Good
Behavior
Communication and connection make
dental visits easier for young patients—
and their parents
illustrationS by james yang
by j u l i e f l a h e r t y
N
ot long ago, pediatric dentist john ficarelli had a 6-year-old girl come
to his practice to have her teeth cleaned. Before they had even started, the nervous little patient began to cry. So the hygienist, hoping to develop a rapport with
the child, asked the mother to step out of the room.
The daughter was anxious, true, but the mother sitting in the waiting room was downright
distraught. Knowing that the hygienist was merely showing the girl how an electric toothbrush worked, Ficarelli went over and gently reassured the mom: “She’ll be fine.” The mother
looked up. “I can’t do this to her,” she replied. Ficarelli, D73, D10P, DG12P, managed to calm
the parent down and suggested that she might be projecting her own fears onto her child.
It’s rare that a simple cleaning leads to
high drama, but the takeaway is this: When it
comes to behavior management, handling the
pediatric patient is only part of the battle.
Alfred Rich, an assistant clinical professor who has taught at Tufts Dental School
for 36 years, remembers when he first
learned about handling young patients. “My
instructor told me that behavior management was not so much for the child, it was
for the adult,” he says. “I agree.”
As Laura Camacho-Castro, DG83, DI09,
an associate clinical professor of pediatric
dentistry, puts it: “You cannot treat a child
without treating the parent first.”
After all, caregivers are bringing more
than their child into the dental office. They
are bringing their own fears, parenting style,
attitudes towards authority and qualms about
scary stuff they read on the Internet.
Being able to address those issues is a skill
that not only benefits pediatric dentists. The
to the dental chair. A 1985 survey of pediatric dentists found that those who had been
practicing longer were less likely than recent
graduates to allow parents into the operatory. Camacho-Castro chalks this up to selfassurance: “As the clinician gains confidence
with years of experience, it is easier to transmit that confidence to parents, who will not
mind remaining in the waiting area, understanding that the child will be fine without
them during treatment,” she writes in The
Fearful Dental Patient.
But no matter how often she encourages
her own students to leave the caregivers in
the waiting room, she frequently sees them
come into the Tufts clinic “with the parents,
the grandma, everybody behind them.”
Camacho-Castro’s reasons for wanting
parents to remain in the waiting room are
simple. “We prefer them not to be in the
operatory so we can be ourselves, and the full
attention of the child will be toward us.” But
“Parents can be wonderful sources
of help, but can also make the job much
more difficult, particularly if they
preload the child with
their own anxieties.” — D e n n is McTigu e
American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry
counts about 5,000 practitioners as members,
compared to the more than 120,000 general
dentists who are practicing in the U.S.—
which means kids are much more likely to
see a family dentist than a specialist.
For new dentists, and even some more
experienced ones, glossing over communication with the parents is “one of the major
mistakes,” says Camacho-Castro, who contributed a chapter on pediatric behavior
management to the textbook The Fearful
Dental Patient (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010). “You
don’t ask enough questions, and then you fail
to know what the parents’ expectations are
before you engage in any treatment.”
In or Out ?
For dentists treating a new pediatric patient,
one of the first things to determine is
whether the parent intends to tail the child
she’s fine if a parent really wants to sit in. “You
have to tell them what you expect them to do.
Tell them to sit in the background, behind the
child, so the child cannot see them. We don’t
want the parent over us like a helicopter, hovering and watching our every move.”
Ficarelli, on the other hand, says he has
gladly welcomed parents into the operatory
since he started practicing more than 30
years ago. But the implication is that they are
there to observe. “The seats are functional,”
he says, pointing to a wooden stool in the
corner, “but they are not comfortable.”
As with the mother mentioned earlier, he
does occasionally ask a parent to step out.
“The only time I find I have to send a parent
out—and this is an intentional arrangement
with the parent; it’s not something I do as a
punitive thing—is if the child is not at all
interacting with us,” he says. “If the child
is only paying attention to the parent, you
can’t even fool around, you can’t even joke,
and you’re not getting anywhere.”
The goal is to make a connection. If the
dentist asks a young patient what her favorite
food is, or what school she goes to, parents
should resist the urge to jump into the conversation; the answer doesn’t really matter.
“Once a dentist gets a child looking in his
eyes and answering questions, he’s 90 percent of the way there,” says Dennis McTigue,
a former president of the American Academy
of Pediatric Dentistry who has researched
the use of behavior management techniques
in treating children.
Even if the child begins to cry or throw a
tantrum, it’s the dentist’s show. CamachoCastro explains: “I’ll say to the parent: ‘She’s
a little nervous, but I will handle that. Let me
do all the talking. If I feel it will be better for
you to talk to her, I will let you know first.’ ”
Dentists have an assortment of behavior
management techniques at their disposal (see
“The Pediatric Toolbox,” next page) But a
2005 analysis of research on behavioral management reported that parents “may object to
behavior management techniques … if they
aren’t fully informed of the rationale, timing
and contingencies associated with such techniques prior to their onset.” Another study
found that parents were much more accepting of unfamiliar management techniques if
dentists explained them beforehand.
“You can’t do anything that the parent
does not understand why you’re doing it,”
Rich says.
McTigue has run into just such a problem while trying to assess a child’s occlusion: “I’m trying to check the child’s bite,
and the mom is saying ‘Open your mouth!’
It all goes back to communication. The big
thing is talk to the parents and let them
know what the parents’ role is.”
Pass th e Anxie t y
“Parents can be wonderful sources of help,
but can also make the job much more difficult, particularly if they preload the child
with their own anxieties,” McTigue says.
Parents can unintentionally unnerve a
child when they are trying to offer comfort,
says Cheen Loo, DI10, who directs Tufts’ postdoctoral program in pediatrics. “Sometimes
the language that parents use—‘you don’t
See BEHAVIOR, page 18
THE Pediatric TOOLBOX
Dentists have a standard arsenal of behavior management
referring to the name often used for the suction straw. “If I try to
techniques. “Tell-show-do”—where the dentist tells the patient
do that, kids see right through it.” Ditto for the sweet, sing-song
about the procedure, shows him how it will be done and then
voice. “If you’re not honest and real, they’re going to see right
does it—is still the gold standard. Distraction, rewards and
through it, and you’ll lose them.”
modeling (where a child watches another child going through
the procedure with good results) are also used.
For the most part, these techniques have not been studied
scientifically for their effectiveness. The exception is voice
control, where the dentist gives commands firmly and praise in a
That’s not to say Fanikos doesn’t make kids’ appointments
entertaining.
“Let them play with the instruments, let them shoot water at
people as they walk by, make it a fun environment,” he says.
But perhaps the most distinctive part of his style is that he
gentler tone. It was found in a well-controlled study to be effec-
gives his young patients—particularly those who tell him flat out
tive in reducing interruptive behaviors in children.
“I don’t want to be here”—a chance to make their own decisions.
The one technique that has fallen away is the practice of
“I say, ‘I’m not going to make you stay. I’m here to help you,
calming a screaming child by putting a hand over his mouth,
but you need to take responsibility and want to help yourself.’
which was dropped from the American Academy of Pediatric
At 5, 6 years old—they get that. That’s one thing I’ve learned
Dentistry’s clinical guidelines in 2006. “People started saying
from my own kids. They may not be able to articulate it the way
I don’t want these heavy-handed techniques,” explains Dennis
adults do, but they get it … I’ve tried very hard to communicate
McTigue, a former president of the academy who has studied
it in terms they understand.”
the use of behavior management techniques in treating children.
Yet while all dentists are armed with the same behavior
management tools, the ways in which they are used vary.
“You meet it with the way you are, according to your
personality,” says Alfred Rich, an assistant clinical professor
of pediatric dentistry at Tufts School of Dental Medicine.
“That’s why teaching students behavior management
techniques is so difficult. It’s not something
John Ficarelli, D73, D10P, DG12P, a pediatric dentist who
practices in Brookline, Mass., is a big proponent of tell-showdo, but he stops short of showing a patient the needle, or
telling her how it will feel.
“If you tell a child, ‘Now you’re going to feel a little pinch,’
they are going to feel a pinch.” Better, he says, to distract them
by saying they will feel you shaking
their cheek, or feel their lip getting
you can mimic, because if your personality
fat, or hear their tooth going to
isn’t exactly the same, it’s not going
sleep, which Ficarelli accentuates
to work for you.”
by adding his own snoring noise.
For example, Daniel Fanikos,
“I’ve had kids laugh while
D09, a postdoctoral student in
I’m doing an injection,” Ficarelli
pediatric dentistry, can’t bring
says. One child, in the midst of the
himself to use the standard pediatric
injection, was so distracted by the
euphemisms for dental tools.
doctor’s comical snoring she said, “Dr.
“Mr. Thirsty—that doesn’t come out
of my mouth very well,” Fanikos says,
Ficarelli can’t sleep at a time like this!”
— j u l i e f l a h e rt y
BEHAVIOR, continued from page 16
have to be worried; the dentist is not going to
hurt you; you’re not getting the drill’—makes
the kids start to think, ‘Oh, maybe I should be
worried about this.’ ”
All the child may hear is “worry,” “hurt”
and “drill.” A better way of putting it, says
Loo: “We’re going to see the dentist so she
can make your teeth clean and maybe take
some pictures.”
Parents can also send non-verbal cues.
More than once, Ficarelli has had a mother
sit quietly in the corner while he explained a
procedure to the child, only to see her jump
up and hold the child’s hand once he was
about to start.
“That’s a warning sign if you’re a 4-yearold,” he says.
OK, so what should a parent do?
“If the parent just sits there and laughs at
our jokes,” Ficarelli says, “that really makes a
difference.”
Many dentists also believe that parents
have become more lax in disciplining their
kids, which can lead to problems in the dental office. In a 2002 survey, pediatric dentists
reported that by and large, parenting skills
have taken a nosedive, in their opinion.
Nearly 88 percent of them believed parenting
styles had “absolutely or probably changed”
during their lifetime, and the majority of
them felt parents were more willing to accept
their child’s disrespect and less likely to set
limits on their child’s behavior.
The dentists also opined that caregivers were increasingly overprotective of their
children, which can translate to unrealistic
expectations. “They are expecting everything
to run extremely smoothly
without any little bitty tiny
bit of pain,” Camacho-Castro
says. Often that is exactly
what dentists manage to do,
she says, but “I think it’s a little
bit unfair.”
In recent years, parents appear
to have become increasingly comfortable with the use of pharmaceuticals—and specifically general
anesthesia—to help get their children
through dental procedures. In a 1991
survey of parental attitudes towards
behavior management techniques, general
anesthesia was rated the least acceptable
option, worse than putting a hand over a
screaming child’s mouth or strapping the
child to a papoose board. By 2005, it had
jumped to the third most acceptable technique, after tell-show-do and nitrous oxide
sedation. While general anesthesia has
become safer over the years, dentists worry
that parents are unduly influenced by the
smooth sedations they see on television hospital dramas and the stories from friends
about sleeping through procedures.
“Pediatric dentists report increasing numbers of parents attempting to dictate the treatment approach,” Barbara Sheller, a pediatric
dentist, wrote in a 2004 conference paper
published in Pediatric Dentistry. “Parents
calling to request general anesthesia for recall
appointments because ‘my child cried at the
last visit’ clearly do not understand the indications, risks, benefits, limitations or costs of
anesthesia or sedation,” she wrote.
General anesthesia can be indicated for
very young children who need extensive
treatment or those with special needs, and
the Tufts pediatric dental clinic regularly
sees five or six such cases a week. The problem is when parents think general anesthesia
is the easy way out, or the only way the dentist will be able to look in their child’s mouth.
“They will demand it, sometimes, like it’s a
beauty parlor,” says Camacho-Castro. When
that happens, she explains that first she has
to try other options to get that mouth open.
“Many, many times we can achieve that, and
the parents change their attitude completely
and are very happy with us.”
The ability to turn a seemingly belligerent parent into an amenable one is something
that comes with experience, Camacho-Castro
“If the parent
just sits there
and laughs at
our jokes,
that really
makes
a difference.”
— Joh n Fic a r e l l i
says. Her students will often label a parent
who has a million questions as “difficult,”
but, she notes, that is a parent’s right.
“I tell them I’m amazed not every parent comes and asks me what kind of anesthesia are you using, what kind of experience do you have, how many children
have you treated?” Camacho-Castro says.
“Sometimes they appear aggressive, but they
are not, really. It’s that they are so nervous.
And once you explain everything to them,
the aggressiveness will go away.”
Making an accomplice of the caregivers
can’t come too early. That’s one of the real
reasons pediatric dentists advocate bringing
children for their first dental appointment
before their first birthday.
Dentists continue to need the parents’
support well into the teen years. Stanley
Alexander, D75A, an orthodontist and chair
of pediatric dentistry at Tufts, had one orthodontia patient who swore up and down that
he was putting the prescribed rubber bands
on his braces. The boy’s mother backed him
up, even though Alexander could tell that the
teeth were not adjusting the way they should.
So to prove a point, Alexander surreptitiously
left off the hooks where the rubber bands
attach. At the next appointment, it was the
same story. Only when Alexander asked the
patient to demonstrate to his mother how he
put the rubber bands on did the patient realize the attachments were missing. “I wasted
a month of time,” Alexander says, but both
the patient and his mother were embarrassed
into compliance. “It worked.”
While it may be true that parenting styles
have changed, Ficarelli says that parents who
are truly difficult are the exception. “The vast
majority of people are just as laid back as they
were 30 years ago,” he says.
As for the behavior of young children, he
says it’s healthy, after all, for them to test the
boundaries. He’s reminded of his favorite
response ever to the question “How do you
think your child will react to dental treatment?” that appears on the dental healthhistory form he uses in his practice.
“Fine,” the father wrote, “until she gets to
know you.” tdM
Julie Flaherty, a senior health sciences writer
in Tufts’ Office of Publications, can be reached
at [email protected].
‘ Poet, Too,
A
Was There…’
by g a i l b a m b r i c k
re you leading a double life?
Many dentists across the centuries
have combined their practices with other pursuits as poets or painters, inventors or craftsmen,
says H. Martin Deranian, who counts himself
among those with both vocation and avocation.
“In my own case,” he says, “I began with a
love of history and writing and thought I might
be an academic. But I wanted a profession
where I didn’t just spend time alone in a library,
where I could interact with and help people.
So I chose dental medicine.” Deranian taught
history at Tufts School of Dental Medicine
for 40 years and is the author of several books
and numerous articles on dental history. Now
retired from teaching, he maintains his practice
in Worcester, Mass., while continuing to write
and do research.
“I want my work to elevate the profession of dental
medicine so people see it and understand it from the
broadest possible perspective,” Deranian says.
So it is not surprising that he was struck by this bit of
information while reading Dental Chronology: A Record
of the More Important Historic Events in the Evolution
of Dentistry (1945), by the physician and oral surgeon
Hermann Prinz:
“The man referred to as the ‘Poet’ in Longfellow’s Tales
of a Wayside Inn was Thomas W. Parson, a dentist and
poet, who practised dentistry in Boston and London. He
devoted the last twenty years of his life to literature.”
photo: Courtesy Wayside Inn Historic Site
Thomas W. Parsons Jr.,
the dentist, bard and
classical scholar, is
immortalized in Longfellow’s
Tales of a Wayside Inn
And so began the intriguing case of
Dr. Thomas William Parsons Jr., (Prinz
had left off the last “s” in Parsons) that led
him from Boston and the Wayside Inn to
scholarly prominence and fame as a poet in
Italy. Parsons was among the first and finest American translators of Dante’s Divine
Comedy, “a visionary journey through the
horrors of Hell, through Purgatory and
finally into Paradise,” as Deranian
describes it.
“Can you imagine this? ”
Deranian says. “During a
festival marking the 600th
birth year of Dante, Parsons
was honored with a public
reception, crowned with
a laurel wreath and drawn
t hroug h t he streets of
Florence in a chariot.”
But let’s return to the
beginning.
Born in Boston in 1819 and
educated at the Boston Latin
School, Parsons spent a year in Italy,
in 1836–37, studying Italian literature
and the poet who eventually would define
his own life outside of dentistry. Parsons travelled extensively throughout Europe with his
father, Thomas William Parsons, a graduate
of Harvard Medical School and one of the
few physicians who specialized in dentistry
at the time.
Following in his father’s footsteps, the
son entered Harvard Medical School in
1841—the same year he published what may
be his most well-known poem, “On a Bust
of Dante,” in the Boston Daily Advertiser &
Patriot newspaper.
Two years later, at age 24, Parsons became
the first American and the youngest translator to publish a large portion of Dante’s work
in The First Ten Cantos of Dante Alighieri. In
1867, he completed the translation of all of
Dante’s work.
Of his achievement, the physician and
author Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. wrote:
“Dr. Parsons is as true a poet as we have
among us … to his life-long devotion to
Dante, by the absorbing study he has given
him, I attribute the facility of his style, the
exquisite art that characterizes this work.
He has written poems finer than any other
American poet has written.”
After spending 18 months at Harvard and
apprenticing with his father, Parsons opened
a practice on Winter Street in Boston. It
is known from his letters that his patients
included James Russell Lowell, the founding editor of Atlantic Monthly, which published 25 of Parsons’ poems, as well as the
author and social critic Charles Eliot Norton
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(1807–1882) and the cover
of his poetry collection
Tales of a Wayside Inn,
published in 1863.
and the aforementioned Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow, the friend who would immortalize the dentist/poet in his 1863 book.
While there are few details about Parsons’
dental practice, Deranian says it must have
been a successful one, judging by the size of
his estate when he died in Scituate, Mass., in
1892. “What I found in him is something that
truly does define our profession—the passion and compassion that drive individuals
to great heights,” Deranian says.
Despite the fact that he was prolific,
Parsons remained, as Deranian says, a
poet for poets, and not someone the general public read widely. His one book of
poetry was privately published through the
efforts of his wife, Hannah Allen, and did
not earn great public acclaim, even though
the preface was written by the literary giant
Norton.
But Parsons’ work is timeless, Deranian
says. Twelve of his poems are included in
Edmund Clarence Stedman’s An American
Anthology, 1787–1900, and five appear in
F.O. Matthiessen’s The Oxford Book of
American Verse (1950)—both considered
seminal works in the field.
Parsons’ mention as the “Poet” in the
preface to Longfellow’s Tales of a Wayside
Inn is testament to their friendship and to
Longfellow’s regard for his work:
A Poet, too, was there, whose verse
Was tender, musical, and terse;
The inspiration, the delight,
The gleam, the glory, the swift flight,
Of thoughts so sudden, that they seem
The revelations of a dream,
All these were his; but with them came
No envy of another’s fame…
Parsons’ presence as a character at
Longfellow’s fictional gathering in a local
tavern is marked by a photograph of the
dentist-poet, which hangs in the parlor of
the Wayside Inn on the Boston Post Road
in Sudbury, Mass. Before a fire in 1955, the
Friends and patients
of Thomas Parsons Jr.,
from left, the Harvard
professor Charles Eliot
Norton, also a Dante
scholar; James Russell
Lowell, the poet and
editor; and Oliver Wendell
Holmes Sr., the physician
and author.
photos: top oval, courtesy of the countway library of medicine; bottom spread, american antiquarian society
The inn on the
Boston Post Road in
Sudbury, Mass., was
the gathering place
for the characters
in Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow’s Tales
of a Wayside Inn.
Inset: an engraving
from the 1879
Houghton Mifflin
edition of the book.
inn also had a guest room known as the
Parsons Room.
In Tales of a Wayside Inn, Longfellow, the
most popular poet of his time, created a metaphor for the actual gatherings of the great
writers and thinkers of the day. Parsons kept
company with most of them, as a member of
the Dante Society with Longfellow, Lowell
and Norton, as well as with Holmes and
Nathaniel Hawthorne.
In 1894, two years after Parsons’ death,
t he poet and novelist Thomas Bai ley
Aldrich wrote about Parson’s poetry in
Century Magazine:
“Dr. Parsons’ lighter lyrics have a grace
and distinction which make it difficult to
explain why they fail to win wide liking.
That his far more serious work failed to
do so is explicable. Such austere poetry,
once created, becomes a part of the material world; it instantly takes to itself the
permanency of mountains, prairies and
rivers; it seems to have always existed.”
It’s impossible to look at a profession in
isolation from its history and tradition, says
Deranian, a former president of the American
Academy of the History of Dentistry. “History
lifts our horizons,” he wrote for the journal
Aesculapius. “We forfeit the chief source of
inspiration if we do not cultivate the lives of
those who have left their mark on the professions. They serve as much-needed models
after which to pattern our lives.” tdM
Thomas Parsons’ father was an itinerant dentist, not
uncommon for the profession back then. Here, an
advertisement for his services, published in a Worcester,
Mass., newspaper in 1822.
photos:Courtesy Wayside Inn Historic Site; Top image of inn, courtesy Andrew Belliveau
Gail Bambrick, a senior writer in Tufts’
Office of Publications, can be reached at
[email protected].
COLOR
HIS CAREER
In prosthodontics and in painting,
Richard Goodkind says it’s all about nuance
richard goodkind, d62, chose to become
a prosthodontist because he considered it a
specialty that required a particular artistic
touch.
“I thought I could use my artist’s abilities
to develop a beautiful smile for a patient,”
says Goodkind, who started painting long
before he thought about a career in dentistry.
Fabricating crowns; working with color to
match a patient’s teeth; crafting dentures,
partials and other restorative appliances—
all borrowed from the artistic sensibility
that Goodkind had expressed as a young boy
when his grandmother encouraged him to
draw and paint.
During his decades-long tenure as a faculty
member at the University of Minnesota
School of Dentistry, he developed a course
in oil painting for graduate prosthodontics
students to help them develop an eye for
the subtleties of color. He also published
extensively on the topic of tooth color.
Goodkind’s appetite for art goes back
to his childhood in Brooklyn, N.Y. Some of
his first subjects were the animals in nearby
Prospect Park Zoo—a prescient choice, it
seems, since he now specializes in painting
wild birds and fish.
He took art lessons at the Brooklyn
by H e l e n e R ag ov i n A rt wor k by R ichar d G oo d k i n d
The Missouri River in Craig,
Mont., bathed in afternoon light,
as captured in oils by Richard
Goodkind, D62.
Museum and the Pratt Institute, and flirted
with becoming a professional artist before
being persuaded to follow in the footsteps
of his father, Abraham Goodkind, D33.
(Richard Goodkind’s pen-and-ink drawing
of the old dental school building on Harrison
Avenue illustrates the inside covers of the
1962 Tufts Dental yearbook.)
He spent more than 30 years at the
University of Minnesota, as a professor of
prosthodontics, acting chair of restorative
dentistry and director of the graduate
prosthodontics program, before retiring in
1997. And he continued taking art lessons,
never losing his passion for paint and brush
and canvas. His medium is oil, and he says
he paints in the style of the classical realists
of the Boston School, who used vibrant
color and exacting detail to create a sense
of light and space.
Goodkind’s subject of choice is wildlife.
Top, Goodkind’s painting of an
autumn brook trout, which was chosen
as the 2010 Minnesota Trout and
Salmon Stamp; above, a work titled
“Boys of Summer,” depicting brown
trout gorging on mayflies.
An avid outdoorsman, he has paired his
love of hunting and fishing with his art,
capturing in exquisite detail the wildfowl
and fish he has encountered in Montana,
New Zealand, Wales, Norway, the Bahamas
and the Florida Keys. Most recently, he and
his wife celebrated their 50th anniversary
with a private safari to Tanzania; his most
recent painting, a departure from birds and
fish, is of a majestic African elephant.
In retirement, Goodkind has thrown
himself into his art to an even greater
degree—“I wonder how I had time to work all
my life,” he jokes—and has begun showing his
paintings. He won the 2010 Minnesota Trout
and Salmon Stamp contest—his painting was
used on a stamp for state trout licenses, and
revenue from the stamp sales supported trout
and salmon habitats in Minnesota. tdM
Goodkind combines his love
of the outdoors with his
passion for painting. Above, a
pair of northern shovelers in
flight; left, a male ruddy duck
in display; below, a pair of
northern pintails, in a work
titled “Serenity of the Marsh.”
A yellow-rumped warbler alights on a delicate branch.
To Better Society
That’s how Tufts’ incoming president, Anthony Monaco—in his first interview—
defines the role of academia
T
he next president of tufts holds a peculiarly
British title, pro-vice-chancellor, at that most British of
institutions, the University of Oxford. But there is nothing staid or tradition-bound about either the man or
his pioneering work in neuroscience. Anthony Monaco—Tony to
friends and colleagues—grew up in Wilmington, Del. He attended
Princeton University on a generous financial aid package and went
on to an M.D. and a Ph.D. from Harvard Medical School, specializing in the genetics of neurological disorders.
Monaco’s fascination with genetics took him to the U.K., then
the hub of this burgeoning field. He worked on the human genome
project at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London and
started the human genetics laboratory at the Institute of Molecular
Medicine in Oxford. At Oxford, he co-founded the Wellcome Trust
Centre for Human Genetics, which identifies the genetic underpinnings of common human diseases. Monaco’s own research has
focused on the genetic basis of disorders such as autism, language
impairment and dyslexia. Under his leadership, the Wellcome
Trust Centre doubled in size: it is now the largest externally funded
university-based research center in the U.K.
As Oxford’s pro-vice-chancellor for planning and resources
since 2007, Monaco developed strategies for academic, capital and
student-enrollment planning; senior academic appointments and
budgeting and resource allocation for Oxford’s academic divisions,
libraries, museums, administration and colleges. He has worked
to broaden access to Oxford, create and fund interdisciplinary
research ventures and boost support for the humanities.
At 51, Monaco has acquired just the skills one would hope to
find in the 13th president of Tufts University. Introducing him
to the Tufts community in November, James A. Stern, E72, chair
of the Board of Trustees, noted Monaco’s “record of exceptional
accomplishment as a university leader, biomedical researcher and
teacher.” He added, “Tony will bring to the presidency of Tufts
deeply held commitments to academic excellence, diversity, a
global perspective and the university’s central role in society.”
Tony Monaco—reader of historical novels, father of three active
boys, ages 9 to 12, who can’t wait to sled down the hill behind
the president’s residence on the Medford/Somerville campus, and
spouse of Zoia Monaco, a cell biologist who heads a research group
at Oxford—will succeed President Lawrence S. Bacow on August 1.
by tay lo r m c n e i l
While vacationing at his home in Delaware over the winter break,
he spoke about his aspirations, his science and his family.
What’s on your agenda for your first year as president of Tufts
University?
Anthony Monaco: I’ll be spending a lot of time meeting people and
listening. One of my major goals is to understand the strategic issues
facing each of the schools, and what the interdisciplinary issues are
that knit the schools together into one Tufts. I’ll spend time in each
school with the deans and their faculty and students to understand
what they do well, what things could be done better and strategically
what they would like to achieve. I will also spend much of my time
going out and meeting with alumni and friends of Tufts.
How would you describe your leadership style?
I try to approach leadership through transparency and consensus building. I want to synthesize and bring together strategic
approaches to develop innovative solutions to problems. For me, I
need to do that from the ground up. It’s about devising strategies
and making choices. The most important ingredient is to work with
people and listen to their views. That’s where I spend a lot of time
before making big decisions.
How do you see your research background serving you as
president of Tufts?
At the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, there were 30
different research groups, and I had to bring them together into
a mission where the sum was greater than the parts. I used that
approach when I became pro-vice-chancellor. At Oxford there are
four divisions—mathematical, physical and life sciences; medical
sciences; social sciences and humanities. Each had its own strategic
issues and its own funding problems. My job was to work together
with the heads of those divisions, match their objectives with funding and get the four divisions to cooperate to bring the entire institution to a higher level. I think those experiences are essential to
leading a major research university.
At Oxford, what has been your involvement with the humanities?
As pro-vice-chancellor, I spent a lot of time working with the
humanities division. They had their funding cut by government,
photo: rob judges
Anthony Monaco on the
Oxford campus, which he
will soon leave behind.
and were struggling to break even. We are reviewing how we teach
the humanities and trying to get a humanities center—which Tufts
already has—to create an environment in which faculty can perform interdisciplinary research and graduate education. I spent a
considerable amount of time trying to facilitate their top priorities
and assembling the resources, facilities and fundraising programs so
that they could have a more solid financial basis. More personally, my
own research crosses into the humanities in a certain sense—I work
on the genetics of language and communication and reading.
I think the humanities in particular foster an appreciation of the
creativity of the human mind. Humanities scholars are always challenging and questioning established ideas and modes of thought. So in
some ways, I don’t see the aims of humanities scholars as that different
from the aims of colleagues involved in science and math. Both disciplines try to challenge the current ways of thinking about an important issue. There are parallels between the sciences and humanities
that maybe aren’t appreciated as much as they should be.
What are some of the differences between student experiences in
the U.K. and the U.S.?
At Oxford, the tutorial system is based on very small classroom teaching with leading academics in a college environment. That’s very
difficult to replicate elsewhere, because it does have its costs. But the
practice of having more personal contact between faculty and undergraduate students in a small classroom setting or as advisers or mentors is something I value, and Tufts values as well.
I’m also very interested in developing the skills of graduate students beyond training in a particular discipline. Graduate students
need to acquire other skills that are important to their personal and
professional development. At Oxford and in the U.K. in general, there
has been increasing emphasis over the last few years in building up
transferable skills such as communication, presentation and writing,
time management and team management, in addition to the supervision of graduate students on their individual projects. Being able to
communicate your ideas and the excitement of scholarship and science—to the media and others—is vital. It’s an area I’ve been involved
in at Oxford for many years.
The other big difference is that undergraduate study in Oxford and
most U.K. institutions is subject-specific. For example, if you are going
to study chemistry at Oxford, you do not normally enroll in humanities and social sciences courses to round out your liberal arts education. So that system does create a different type of graduate at the end.
Is that better?
I prefer the American style. I think it is advantageous to give students
a bit of time to decide what they want to focus on and enable them to
experience a range of subjects in higher education.
performing research on K–12 educational issues or getting involved
in their local communities to the big international issues, such as the
international veterinary program at Tufts or the global health issues in
which multiple schools at Tufts are involved. These are all important
ways of being active citizens.
At Tufts, there’s increasing interdisciplinary collaboration, such as
between the engineering school and the medical school. Is that an
approach you’d like to see more of?
Yes, absolutely. It certainly needs to be a faculty-supported initiative.
For example, at Oxford, the biomedical engineers decided to work
in the medical school, right in the midst of the medical researchers
and some distance away from the rest of engineering. The biomedical engineers now have better access to clinicians and other medical
research programs. It’s an example of a great experiment in cross-disciplinary collaboration that is working well. Oxford also has a similar
issue to Tufts: our medical sciences division and the hospitals are on
two separate campuses, two miles outside the center of Oxford. So
you’re always trying to deal with cross-campus practical issues as well
as more strategic issues. That said, I think there are ways of integrating
across campuses.
The Boston area has many research institutions. How do you see
Tufts fitting into that mix?
I’d like to see Tufts build on its strengths as both a competitor and
a collaborator with other universities and institutes. Tufts should
focus on those areas in which it is identified as world-leading and
then ensure that we have the facilities, resources and people in place
to compete for external funding. Some of this can be accomplished by
collaboration. For example, if there’s an area where two institutions,
by working together, can win grants from the National Institutes of
Health, then the scientists will figure that out, and the central administration should facilitate that collaboration.
The life sciences are a niche area for Tufts, with the veterinary,
nutrition, medical and dental schools, as well as the basic science
research being performed on the Medford/Somerville campus.
There are ways of organizing different programs in the life sciences
that would build on the strengths of Tufts and involve other research
institutions in the Boston area.
How will you foster diversity in the student body?
I obviously want to continue the great tradition that Larry Bacow has
built up, trying to make need-blind admission at Tufts a reality. It’s
very close, but it’s not quite there yet and will require further fundraising and engagement with alumni and friends of Tufts. It does seem
that the admissions policies are quite robust at Tufts, and I want to
continue to create opportunities to attract a diverse student body.
Active citizenship is part and parcel of the Tufts identity. Is that
idea of service to others important to you, too?
A HAN DLE ON G E N ETIC S
Absolutely. You’re not just studying something to understand it
better—you’re trying to better society by demonstrating that your
research has an impact beyond its essential findings. I think you can
bring active citizenship to many different levels, ranging from people
As an undergraduate at Princeton, I was really interested in neuroscience and behavior. When I was in the neuroscience program at
Harvard, the geneticist Lou Kunkel gave us a talk on how he was
going to take on Duchenne muscular dystrophy using a genetic
What drew you to genetics in the first place?
approach. It was just clear to me that this was going to work. I
camped out on his doorstep, and when he came in the next morning, I said, “I have to do my Ph.D. with you.” He took me on—I was
his first student. He had just started his own lab and had received a
grant to try this genetic approach. We worked together for several
years. It was great fun, and also challenging.
lab and do lots and lots of repetitive things and isolate DNA using
big centrifuges. Collecting pieces of DNA from human chromosomes in those days before the genome project started was quite a
physical process.
RETU RN TO BOSTON
How have your three sons reacted to the big move?
What have you discovered?
For the last 15 years, I’ve focused on learning disabilities and other
neurodevelopmental problems in children—where language, the
ability to read and the right social skills don’t develop properly,
as is the case with autism, for example. There’s a lot of overlap
between these different areas. By studying all of them and taking
a general, non-biased genetic approach, we’ve been able to identify
genes that are specific to one disorder as well as some genes which
are involved in multiple disorders.
Some of these genes can be involved in reading and language;
some can be involved in language and autism. Our research, as
well as the research of others, has shown that these genes do have
effects across these different areas. The outcome can be autism or
epilepsy or a language problem, depending on other factors. Once
we get a handle on the genetics, we want to understand what those
other factors are. If you can influence these other factors and the
outcome, you can develop treatments or interventions that might
help children compensate for their neurodevelopmental problems.
You kept your research group together at Oxford after you were
appointed pro-vice-chancellor. Do you plan to continue with that
at Tufts?
I’m certainly not going to set up a lab at Tufts, but for a transition
period I’m going to try to supervise at a distance the students and
postdoctoral fellows I have at Oxford, with senior people there who
will be leading the group on a day-to-day basis. I will have to achieve
it with Skype and other methods of communication—as I do now as
pro-vice-chancellor. I have an obligation to those students and those
research programs to stay involved as best I can. I think I’ve already
shown that the group can be productive in this situation.
I think that they are quite excited because it’s a new opportunity.
There will be new schools, new sports—no more cricket, not much
rugby. They love soccer, so they will be trying that. Zoia and I keep
them involved, and we try to stay involved in what they are doing. We
support them and give them the opportunities, and they do the rest.
And they are moving into a home on a college campus.
It will be fun, with all the events going on at Gifford House, the
president’s residence. My sons are pretty outgoing, so I don’t think
they will shy away from meeting people. They certainly enjoyed
the announcement weekend at Tufts.
They also can’t wait for that first big snow so they can sled down the
hill behind Gifford House. Larry Bacow sent us some pictures of the
blizzard on December 27 so the boys could see what it would be like.
What’s on your reading list?
I like reading historical novels such as The Dancer Upstairs, by
Nicholas Shakespeare, and An Instance of the Fingerpost, by Iain
Pears. For nonfiction, I like history, such as The Greatest Benefit
to Mankind, a history of medicine by Roy Porter. I’ve also read
America, Empire of Liberty: A New History of the United States, by
David Reynolds, and The Ascent of Money, by Niall Ferguson. Also,
I just read An Entrepreneurial University: The Transformation of
Tufts, 1976–2002, by Sol Gittleman.
Have you and your family visited the U.S. much?
These last five years we’ve come over at Christmas, because we have
a house in Delaware, and we usually come over at Easter. During
the summer, we go to the beach near our home. The boys like
swimming, and they tried surfing last year and took sailing lessons.
What are you most proud of besides your family?
This won’t be the first time you’ve lived in Boston.
I’m really proud of the members of my lab who, as I have taken
a step back over the last three-and-a-half years, have risen to the
challenge and have kept the lab at the cutting edge. They developed themselves as the next generation of scientists in this area of
research and have been incredibly productive. They identified one
of the first genes involved in dyslexia and described its mechanism
of action in brain development. In addition, they have just identified one of the first genes involved in human handedness.
I spent seven years at Harvard Medical School, and I did my Ph.D.
at Children’s Hospital with Lou Kunkel. I did my clinical rotations at different hospitals—Massachusetts General, Roxbury VA
Hospital, Brigham and Women’s and Children’s.
What did you miss most about Boston when you were at Oxford?
The soft pretzels they sell outside Fenway Park.
How do Boston and Oxford compare?
What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done?
Identifying the gene for Duchenne muscular dystrophy with Lou
Kunkel, and overcoming problems that researchers hadn’t had to
face before. It was an intellectual challenge, and also a physical
challenge, because of the way we performed molecular biology
back then. It wasn’t a thought experiment: you had to get in the
I would say the biggest difference is that Oxford has one major university. In Boston there is the excitement of having so many major
universities in one city. That’s one thing I missed about Boston
when I was in Oxford. When I leave Oxford, I am going to miss
the city, its traditions, my colleagues and friends that we’ve built
up over 20 years. tDM
on campus
dental school news
Another Jewel in the Crown
Gies Award recognizes leadership in teaching, research, service and diversity by Helene Ragovin
hen tufts school of dental medicine completed its
ambitious expansion project in November 2009, adding five
stories of teaching and research space atop its building on
Kneeland Street, it marked—both figuratively and literally—
the crowning achievement of a transformative phase in the school’s history.
During the past several decades, the dental school not only elevated its physical
presence, but has made strides in research, curriculum, diversity, faculty recruitment and development, community service and leadership in the profession.
Those achievements haven’t gone unnoticed: the American Dental Education
Association (ADEA) Gies Foundation has given the school its 2011 William J.
Gies Award for Outstanding Achievement by an Academic Dental Institution.
“In a whole variety of areas, Tufts School of Dental Medicine has shown significant achievement, and this award was sent to honor those areas of achievement,” says Richard Valachovic, executive director of ADEA and president of the
Gies Foundation.
The award, named for the pioneering dental educator William J. Gies (pronounced “guys”), was presented on March 14 during ADEA’s annual meeting in
San Diego. Based in Washington, D.C., ADEA represents all U.S. and Canadian
dental schools, many allied and postdoctoral education programs and numerous
corporations working in dentistry.
“I am so very pleased that the school
received the Gies Award,” said Dean Lonnie
H. Norris, DG80. “This recognition reflects
on the dedicated teamwork of administrators, faculty, staff and students, with the
support of alumni, in elevating our educational standards and enhancing patientcare services. President Lawrence S. Bacow
has been exceptional in his support of the
dental school by fostering mutual respect
and collaboration across the university.”
“In bestowing this award, now the rest
of the world knows what those of us at Tufts
have always known: what a great place the
School of Dental Medicine is,” said Bacow.
“Our dental school is a true gem.
In fact, for many people in New
England, and indeed throughout the world, when they think
of Tufts University, they think
of our dental school,” he said.
The dental school, Bacow
added, “has been blessed with
fabulous leadership. Our dean,
Lonnie Norris, has clearly
helped raise the school to new
heights.”
Indeed, in honoring the
School of Dental Medicine,
ADEA is also honoring the
Students and faculty have
moved into the expanded space
at One Kneeland Street. Left,
the periodontics clinic on the
12th floor; above right, students
work in the Simulation Learning
Center on the 14th floor.
photos: alonso nichols
“In a whole variety of areas, Tufts School
of Dental Medicine has shown significant
achievement.”
— R ic h a r d Va l ac hov ic , a de a
tenure of Norris, who became dean in 1996
and is retiring on August 1.
“Although the award goes to the institution, it clearly recognizes the dynamic and
substantial leadership of Lonnie Norris in
identifying these areas of achievement to
focus on,” says Valachovic, an overseer to
the dental school. “It’s not just about the
bricks and mortar, but about the research
monies that have come in, the innovations
in which dental education is delivered to
the dental students, the residents and the
other post-docs, all the incredible things
that have happened during his tenure.”
Shortly after Norris became dean, the
school took on the goal of promoting a more
vigorous research enterprise. That goal has
been accomplished in many ways; notably, in 2003, the school received a one-year
grant from the National Institute of Dental
and Craniofacial Research to develop a
sustainable research program. Since then,
it has received nearly $6 million annually
in sponsored research grants from federal,
corporate and other sources and recruited
funded researchers to the faculty.
A Dean’s Research Scholarship, an honors
scholarship awarded to five incoming students interested in basic science, was established five years ago. The scholars receive a
merit award and mentoring from a faculty
member while they work on a research project. Tufts faculty have played a leadership
role in the creation of a Consortium for Oral
Health-Related Informatics that coordinates
clinical data from 20 dental schools to support research on treatment outcomes.
Improving the school’s diversity has also
been one of Norris’ major goals. Tufts is
now among the top 10 dental schools in the
country in the number of African-American
and Hispanic/Latino students enrolled,
according to ADEA. The school has also
taken an active role in support of GLBT
applicants and enrolled students.
In keeping with the university’s commitment to active citizenship, expanding the
dental school’s community outreach efforts
has been a priority. In 2006, the Department
of Public Health and Community Service
was established, following a $5 million gift
from Delta Dental Plan of Massachusetts
that endowed a faculty chair in community
service and public health and provided support for electronic patient records at eight
off-site clinical facilities.
Tufts was also the first dental school in the
country to offer off-site externships for students, now available at 26 sites. Dental students have also provided services to victims
of domestic violence and the special needs
population and participated in Boston’s Step
Up program, bringing oral health services to
the city’s low-income public schools.
“The realization of this vision and significant enhancement to the school’s operating
environment would not have been possible
without Dean Norris’ tireless emphasis on
finding a way to expand the school’s capacity
to do even more than was done in the past,”
said Mark Gonthier, the school’s associate
dean for admissions and student affairs.
“The Gies Award is a huge recognition of
this,” Gonthier said.
Helene Ragovin, the editor of this magazine,
can be reached at [email protected].
on campus
Translating ‘Dentist Speak’
A new movement is helping health-care professionals communicate
better and improve outcomes by Helene Ragovin
W
hen some tufts dental students
were learning how to communicate better with their patients, one
repeatedly used the term “caries” to
describe a common oral health problem. The teacher
kept correcting him.
“Who uses the term ‘caries’ for ‘cavity’? No one.
Only dentists,” said the instructor, Sabrina KurtzRossi. “They were so involved in their own field and
their own learning that they had forgotten how people
outside the field talk.”
The use of discipline-specific language isn’t limited
to dentistry. For health-care students and practitioners,
there is too often a gap between what the provider is
intending to say and how their patients interpret and act
on that information. Bridging that terminology gap is
one goal of the growing field of health literacy, a movement designed to increase communication and understanding in health care.
“You’d think it would be so obvious, but health
literacy has only recently been recognized on a
national level by the surgeon general and the Institute
of Medicine,” says Kurtz-Rossi, an adjunct clinical
instructor who teaches a seminar on health literacy as
part of the School of Medicine’s health communication program. The course, one of only a handful on
the topic taught at medical schools across the country,
draws students from the medical and dental schools,
the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
and other public health students at Tufts.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
defines “health literacy” as the ability to read, understand and act on health information. “Within the field,
we see it as much broader than that,” Kurtz-Rossi says.
“Health literacy is a two-way street. It’s not only the skills
the patient brings to the clinical encounter, but the skills
of the health-care provider and ability of the system to
communicate health-care information.”
Of specific importance to dentists, the American
Denta l Association in November introduced a
illustration: alex nabaum
strategic action plan to improve health literacy in the
field. Limited health literacy is “a potential barrier to
effective prevention, diagnosis and treatment of oral
disease,” says the ADA’s action plan report. “Clear,
accurate and effective communication is an essential
skill for effective dental practice.”
Wake- u p C all
The consequences of poor communication go far beyond
confusion. “Miscommunication is one of the top causes
of medical errors,” Kurtz-Rossi says. Patients who don’t
understand hospital discharge instructions for home
care or dosing instructions for their medication are more
likely to be re-admitted.
Within the past two decades, assessments of adult literacy in the U.S. have revealed that nearly 50 percent of
the population has basic or “below-basic” literacy skills,
according to the National Institute for Literacy. “That
was a wake-up call to the health
field,” Kurtz-Rossi says. “If millions of people have limited
literacy, that raises questions
about the ability of a large part
of our population to navigate
the health-care system and our
ability to reduce health-care
disparities.”
At the same time, researchers
have documented the mismatch
between written health information that is being disseminated
and the reading skills of patients. “We’ve built a lot of
evidence documenting that we’re not doing such a great
job communicating health information to patients and
the larger community,” Kurtz-Rossi says.
The patients at greatest risk for not understanding what is being communicated include the elderly,
those who haven’t completed high school, the poor
and those for whom English is not the first language,
Kurtz-Rossi says.
But they are not the only ones. “If you have a Ph.D.
but know nothing about heart disease, and your doctor
starts talking about angioplasty, you may not understand,” she says.
That leads to another element of expanding health
literacy: promoting a shame-free environment when
communicating with patients. “You don’t know who
doesn’t understand and who may be too embarrassed to
say so,” Kurtz-Rossi says. “We talk about establishing an
atmosphere of helpfulness, encouraging questions and
engaging all staff.”
During the past decade, more medical schools and
schools of public health have recognized health literacy
as a core competency for students. That wasn’t always
the case. “One physician told me that 20 years ago when
he was in training, he got marked down for using common language rather than medical terminology” when
talking to a patient, Kurtz-Rossi says. “That’s changing
now, but doctors need to almost unlearn what they’ve
learned” when they talk to their patients.
“In medical school, you communicate with your students and colleagues in one way,” she says. “When you’re
working with patients, you need to speak about health in
‘living room language,’ also known as plain language.”
It isn’t as simple as it sounds. “Sit down and try to
write in everyday language about a health-care topic—
it’s not so easy,” Kurtz-Rossi says. “Students are often
surprised; they’re challenged by it.”
For example, she says, “think about communicating
risk. It’s a fairly complex concept. When you’re counseling patients about cancer treatment or other treatments,
we expect people to understand the concept of risk and
“If millions of people have limited literacy,
that raises questions about the ability of a large part of our population to navigate
the health-care system and our ability to reduce health-care disparities.”
— Sa br i na Ku rt z-Ro s si
make life decisions based upon the information provided
to them. Communicating the concepts is just as important as communicating the vocabulary.”
Culture also has a bearing on health literacy, KurtzRossi says, and there are times when health-care concepts
and vocabulary literally don’t translate. “For example, in
Navajo there is no word for chemotherapy,” she says. “If
you’re working with an interpreter, not only the word,
but the whole concept has to be explained.”
Kurtz-Rossi teaches her students about working with
interpreters, stressing the importance of using professionals instead of a patient’s family members.
A guest speaker in one of Kurtz-Rossi’s classes
was a “cultural broker” from Maine Medical Center
in Portland who helps members of Maine’s growing
Somali immigrant community navigate the healthcare system and helps providers better understand
Somali culture and health-care needs.
“One of my students recently described to me how a
Somali woman missed an appointment at the hospital
and had to reschedule because her sister served as the
interpreter and confused the location,” she says, which
illustrates the need for trained interpreters.
on campus
From Research to Reality
There’s much to consider as stem cell therapies make their way to the clinic, Bates-Andrews
speaker says by Jacqueline Mitchell
moving science from the lab and into
the clinic can lead to a host of issues that
few beginning researchers ever consider.
Janet M. Hock, an adjunct faculty member at Tufts School of Dental Medicine
who worked in the pharmaceutical industry, discussed the challenges of bringing
new treatments to market—particularly
stem cell therapies— during her keynote address at the 2011 edition of BatesAndrews Research Day.
An expert in bone marrow-derived stem
cells, Hock’s research looks at how our
stem cells can be coaxed into fixing badly
broken or osteoporotic bones, including
jaw bones damaged by periodontitis.
“Humans are not particularly good at
healing,” says Hock, the executive director of the Maine Institute for Human
Genetics and Health, a research collaboration of Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems,
the University of Maine and the Jackson
Laboratory. “Stem cells allow patients to
become healing competent.”
Mercurial young cells that can mature
into a variety of tissues, stem cells themselves present the first logistical hurdles.
For example, scientists are just now beginning to understand the complex interaction between stem cells and the environment in which they are grown. “The
micro-environment is really important; it
can change what kind of tissues you can
regenerate,” said Hock, a former professor of medicine and periodontics at the
schools of medicine and dentistry at the
University of Indiana.
More important, she urged young scientists to think beyond the bench and plan
for the manufacturing process. “When it
comes to stem cells, what are you going to
use for quality control?” she asked. “How
do we ensure they’re consistent? From lot
to lot, they can be very different. The FDA
doesn’t like that.”
The federal regulation process—based
on the model for drug approval—can be
even more complicated for stem cell therapies. Not quite medical devices, not quite
drugs, stem cells fall into the FDA’s “biologic” category, which also includes blood,
tissues, vaccines and gene therapy—anything created by biological, versus chemical,
Early on in their lab work, stem cell
researchers would be wise to consider their
products’ final destination: the operating
room, Hock said. With stem cell therapies
costing $20,000 to $30,000 per procedure,
researchers must think about “how the
cells are actually going to be used and how
to educate your clinician,” said Hock, who
processes. Before human clinical trials can
begin, the FDA, not unreasonably, wants to
know exactly what’s being tested.
“OK, so what’s your product?” asked
Hock, who was the chief scientific officer for Eli Lilly and Co. in the 1990s. “A
cookie has a list of ingredients. How do we
describe the composition of cells?”
described long dinner discussions with
surgeons about adapting existing surgical
protocols to accommodate stem cells.
Defining the success of stem cell therapies
also presents special challenges. For a drug
developed to treat diabetes, for example, the
goal is clear: lower blood sugar to a specific
level. Likewise, withholding that drug from
half of the study subjects gives you a builtin control group. But for stem cell therapies, the parameters are less clear. “How the
heck do you show the stem cells caused the
healing and that it didn’t occur by chance
alone?” Hock asked.
One of her study subject’s legs had been
shattered during the running of the bulls
in Spain. The man came to Hock’s clinical trial after 14 conventional surgeries had
failed. When surgeons treated the man with
her stem cell therapy, “the guy healed up in
two weeks. Two years later, his bone looked
more dense and stronger than [that in the
uninjured leg],” she reports.
Tonsil cancer left another of Hock’s study
subjects with extreme bone loss in the lower
jaw, nerve damage, dry mouth and pain so
intense the man was suicidal. After treatment with the experimental stem cells, the
man’s pain and swelling began to subside.
Nine months later, the man’s nerves had
regenerated and his skin ulcerations had
healed. Within two years, his salivary gland
started working again.
“None of these patients had controls,”
said Hock. “With a [study group] of one,
photos: kelvin ma
we can’t say the healing is a result of the
stem cell therapy.”
Forethought about the research process
can help smooth the approvals process,
Hock said. “Some of us see the FDA as a
hurdle, but I think the responsibility lies
with us, as clinicians and scientists, to advise
them,” she said. “You have the chance to be
leaders in thinking about this.”
Jacqueline Mitchell can be reached at
[email protected].
Clockwise from far left: Janet M.
Hock, executive director of the
Maine Institute for Human Genetics
and Health, delivers the keynote
address at Bates-Andrews Research
Day; Hubert Park, D11, speaks
with Susana Ferreira, DI08, adjunct
assistant professor; classmates
Marek Ogledzki and Dimitri
Tripodakis, both D12, examine
posters; Lily Hu, D12, shows her
work to Walter Meinzer, assistant
clinical professor.
on campus
Up Close with 3 Bates-Andrews Day
J e f f r e y T s a i , D12
The Power
of Epidemiology
jeffrey tsai, d12, is no stranger to
research. He logged time at the bench as an
undergraduate and spent the summer after his
first year of dental school as a student fellow
at the Boston Biomedical Institute. But during his second year at Tufts, Tsai had something of a revelation in his epidemiology class.
“I was fascinated by how this information
about populations could influence policy and
how that policy in turn affects
the lives of millions of patients,”
he says. “That was powerful
motivation to do research.”
Tsai found a willing mentor in John Morgan, an associate professor of public health
and community service and
the former dentist-in-chief at Tufts Dental
Facilities (TDF) Serving Persons with Special
Needs, a network of seven clinics that provide care to 9,000 developmentally disabled
patients across Massachusetts. Special-needs
patients sometimes require general anesthesia to undergo dental treatment, making it a
lengthy and costly procedure. That’s one reason the developmentally disabled are thought
to suffer disproportionately from poorer
oral health compared to the general public,
though there hasn’t been enough research
about this population to know for sure.
“This is not a well-studied group,” says
Tsai, who combed through records from the
seven TDF clinics to learn more about the
special-needs patients who received dental
care there over a one-year period. Tsai found
that 347 of them required general anesthesia,
most for preventive care such as examinations and X-rays. Seventy percent of them
required interventional treatment, including
extractions and restorations.
More than half of the 347 patients had a
history of receiving care while under general anesthesia, Tsai discovered, but there
was a wide variation in how frequently
they sought treatment. Though the median
time between clinic visits was five years,
the range varied, from every two years to
24 years for one individual.
“A logical next step could be to compare
the demographics and cooperation levels of
patients for whom the time span between
dental treatment using [general anesthesia]
is less than five years with those for whom it
is more than five years,” says Tsai.
While Tsai intends to continue collaborating with Morgan to follow up on his project,
which earned the Bates-Andrews Research
Day Oral Disparities Award, he hasn’t
medical histories of 120 patients with periodontal disease to those of 120 people with
healthy gums, recording the prevalence of
allergies and asthma, smoking, diabetes and
other medical conditions in each group.
Indeed, Brown found a signif icant
inverse correlation between respiratory
allergies and periodontitis. Among the people with periodontal disease, fewer than 6
percent also suffered from allergies. In contrast, almost a third of people with healthy
gum tissue also had allergies or asthma. His
work also confirmed previous studies that
“You develop relationships with the faculty
and the research department when you present your project.”
— Je f f r e y Brow n, d1 2
decided whether he wants to work in the lab
or in the clinic after graduation. Either way,
he says, he considers his research experience
at Tufts a boon to his career. “Research gives
us the opportunity to improve our patient
care, and it really plays an extraordinary role
in advancing the profession,” he says.
J e f f r e y b r ow n, D12
Nothing to Sneeze At
when jeffrey brown, d12, decided to take
on a research project, he knew he wanted
to do something in periodontology, a specialty that already interested him. Then
Wai S. Cheung, DG02, DI06, an associate
professor of periodontology, told Brown
about a curious phenomenon: epidemiological studies suggested that people with
allergies had less periodontal disease. Was
the association a fluke, or could people with
seasonal allergies and asthma really be less
susceptible to gum disease?
To find out, Brown screened some 1,500
patient records, examining full-mouth
digital radiographs to determine patients’
periodontal health. Then, he compared the
found that smokers are more likely to have
gum disease than non-smokers.
Brown wants to expand the research to
include 200 subjects in each group, which
will strengthen the statistical significance of
his findings. Though the work is time consuming—it was a full-time job over three
weeks last summer—he says, “the pros far
outweigh the cons. It’s very rewarding when
you can see the results of something you’ve
worked on for a year.”
Although Brown intends to be a clinician, his Bates-Andrews project uncovered
a hidden talent. Inspired by Associate Dean
for Research Gerard Kugel, D85, M.S.93,
who has published and lectured extensively
on restorative materials and techniques,
Brown realized he would be interested in
hitting the lecture circuit someday, too,
helping keep his colleagues current on novel
science and techniques. Brown says that
research isn’t a solitary pursuit in a lab; it’s
about relationships. “You develop relationships with the faculty and the research office
when you present your project,” he says. “A
lot of people think of research as a resumé
builder, but you learn so much by doing
more than what’s expected of you.”
Researchers
m a u r e e n t i m m e n y, D12
the abcs of the
research process
roughly one-third of patients with
temporomandibular disorders (TMD)
also suffer from obstructive sleep apnea, a
condition in which the tongue and/or soft
tissues lining the throat collapse into the
airway, causing pauses in breathing and
loud snoring that disrupt sleep. In addition, people with both sleep apnea and
TMD report more discomfort and have
lower pain thresholds than those who have
TMD, but sleep peacefully.
Maureen Timmeny, D12, wondered if
there was a correlation between the conditions. “I wanted to look at the relationship
between TMD and apnea to see if, as a dentist, it would make sense to refer a TMD
patient to a sleep medicine specialist.”
A former psychology major and nursing student, Timmeny had gathered data
for research studies before, but had never
run her own, full-scale study. “I wanted
to have that experience before I left dental
school,” she says. Working with Leopoldo P.
Correa, DG11, an assistant professor at the
Tufts Craniofacial Pain Center, Timmeny
recruited 84 men and women undergoing
sleep studies at Tufts Medical Center and
asked them to complete a survey to determine if they had TMD. After the sleep
technicians and physicians scored the sleep
studies, Matthew Finkelman, an assistant professor and statistician at the dental
school, crunched the numbers.
Although the data didn’t demonstrate a
correlation between TMD and sleep apnea,
Timmeny’s project earned the Omicron
Kappa Upsilon (OKU) Hilde Tillman Award
at Bates-Andrews Day. She says the work gave
her a deeper understanding of the research
process in general and of sleep medicine in
particular. It also rounded out her career at
Tufts. “You get exposed to a different aspect
of the school students don’t see unless you do
[research],” says Timmeny.
— jac qu e l i n e m i t c h e l l
2011 AWARD WINNERS
Best Postgraduate Poster Presentation (cash prize donated by Jess Kane,
David Tesini and Nancy Jo Soporowski): Ala Ali, “The Influence of Different
Convergence Angles and Resin Cements on the Retention of Zirconia
Copings”; faculty mentors: Roya Zandparsa and Gerard Kugel
Best Scientific Research Presentation by a Senior, Andrews Society Award
(cash prize donated by Jess Kane, David Tesini and Nancy Jo Soporowski):
Rebekah Lucier, “Whitening Products Delay Re-epithelialization in a 3D
Wound-healing Model”; mentors: Susana Ferreira, Jonathan Garlick,
Gerard Kugel and Christophe Egles
ADA/Dentsply Student Clinician Award for Best Overall Pre-doctoral Table
Clinic (travel to present research at ADA annual session): Eunice Lee,
“Effect of Chlorhexidine on the Bond Strength of a Self-etch and Total-etch
Adhesive to Dentin”; mentor: Gerard Kugel
Second Place for Pre-doctoral Table Clinic: Cathy Zhao, “Angiogenic and
Wound Repair Potential of ES and iPS-derived Fibroblasts”;
mentor: Jonathan Garlick
Third Place for Pre-doctoral Table Clinic: Jeremy Plourde, “Marginal and
Internal Fit of E4D CAD/CAM All-ceramic Crowns”; mentor: Gerard Kugel
Research Committee Award for Basic Science Research: Julianna Bair,
“FAK/Src-depleted Fibroblasts Alter Epithelial-Stromal Crosstalk and Enhance
Human Carcinoma Progression”; mentor: Addy Alt-Holland
Massachusetts Dental Society and ASDA Public Health Award (cash
prize donated by the Massachusetts Dental Society): Ramya Bhat,
“The Correlation between BMI and Early Childhood Caries”;
mentor: Catherine Hayes
Omicron Kappa Upsilon (OKU) Hilde Tillman Award (cash prize donated by
OKU): Maureen Timmeny, “The Association Between Temporomandibular
Disorder Symptoms and Obstructive Sleep Apnea”; mentor: Leopoldo Correa
Procter & Gamble Traveling Fellowship Award (donated by Procter &
Gamble): Nicolas Freda, “Light Consistency and Heavy Consistency within
Group Comparison”; mentor: Ronald Perry
Dr. Chad Anderson Family Award for Innovative Methodology and Research
Design: (cash prize donated by Chad Anderson): Sheila Soroushian,
“Rinse Time of Hemostatic Retraction Pastes”; mentor: Ronald Perry
Multicultural Award for the Advancement of Dental Research (travel award
donated by Kistama Naidu): Corey Decoteau, “Bond Strength of Multi-step
Cements to Enamel and Zirconia”; mentors: Ronald Perry and Gerard Kugel
Oral Health Disparities Award: Jeffrey Tsai, “Dental Treatment of
Developmentally Disabled Patients Requiring General Anesthesia”;
mentor: John Morgan
on campus
Faculty notes
GENERAL DENTISTRY
Jinkun “Jake” Chen, professor and director
of Division of Oral Biology, won the top award,
the Excellent Overseas Scholar, at the Global
Congress of Chinese Dentists in Xiamen, China,
December 1–4, 2010.
PRESENTATIONS:
■ First International Conference on Dental and
Craniofacial Stem Cells, New York Academy of
Science, New York, N.Y. April 27–29, 2011.
■ “Current Trends of Dental Clinical Technology
and Concepts in North America,” “MicroRNAs
Regulate Osteogenic Differentiation through
Targeting Canonical Wnt Signal Antagonists”
and “Application of Induced Pluripotent
Stem (iPS) Cells in Periodontal Tissue
Regeneration,” Global Congress of Chinese
Dentists, Xiamen, China, December 1–4,
2010.
■ Guest professor, Peking University, for a
series of dental research lectures to dental
students, graduate students, residents and
faculty in the School of Stomatology,
November 2010.
■ Distinguished lecturer, 14th International
Symposium on Dental Technology and
Products, Shanghai, China, November 2010.
■ “Translational Studies of Oral and
Maxillofacial Tissue Regeneration,” College of
Stomatology, Nanjing Medical University, China,
November 2010.
PUBLICATIONS:
■ “Application of Induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS)
Cells in Periodontal Tissue Regeneration,”
X. Duan, Q.S. Tu, J. Zhang, J.H. Ye, C. Sommer,
G. Mostoslavsky, D. Kaplan, P.S. Yang and J.
Chen, Journal of Cell Physiology, 226:150–157,
2011.
■ “Effects of miR-335-5p in Modulating
Osteogenic Differentiation by Specifically
Down-regulating Wnt Antagonist DKK1,”
J. Zhang, Q. Tu, L.F. Bonewald, X. He, G. Stein,
J. Lian and J. Chen, Journal of Bone and Mineral
Research, February 23, 2011 (E-publication
ahead of print).
■ “AKT1 Is a Downstream Target of APPL1
Mediating Adiponectin Signaling and Inhibition
in Osteoclasts,” Q. Tu, J. Zhang, E. Saunders,
F. Liu, L.Q. Dong and J. Chen, Journal of
Biological Chemistry, February 7, 2011
(E-publication ahead of print).
■ “Roles of SATB2 in Osteogenic
Differentiation and Bone Regeneration,”
J. Zhang. Q. Tu, R. Grosschedl, M.S. Kim,
T. Griffin, H. Drissi, P. Yang and J. Chen,
Tissue Engineering A, March 8, 2011
■ “Critical-size Calvarial Bone Defects Healing
in a Mouse Model with Silk Scaffolds and
SATB2-modified iPSCs,” J.H. Ye, Y.J. Xu,
J. Gao, S.G. Yan, J. Zhao, Q.S. Tu, J. Zhang,
X.J. Duan, C.A. Sommer, G. Mostoslavsky,
D. Kaplan, Y.N. Wu, C.P. Zhang, L. Wang and
J. Chen, Biomaterials (in press).
Matthew Finkelman, assistant professor
PUBLICATIONS:
■ “A Zero- and K-inflated Mixture Model for
Health Questionnaire Data,” M.D. Finkelman,
J.G. Green, M.J. Gruber and A.M. Zaslavsky,
Statistics in Medicine (in press).
■ “Stochastic Curtailment of Health
Questionnaires: A Method to Reduce
Respondent Burden,” M.D. Finkelman, Y. He,
W. Kim and A.M. Lai, Statistics in Medicine
(in press).
Richard S. Harold, D80, A00P, D06P, assistant
clinical professor, presented a Minuteman
Lecture on “Dentistry and the Law” at Yankee
Dental Congress in Boston on January 27.
In March, he presented a Lunch and Learn
session at the American Dental Education
Association meeting in San Diego titled
“The Lost Art of the Case Note.” Harold served
as moderator during the session on ethics,
licensure and malpractice at the annual
conference of the American College of Legal
Medicine in Las Vegas February 24–27. During
the same meeting, he gave a lecture on “Ethical
Guidelines of Prescription Writing.” He was
also awarded the designation of fellow of the
American College of Legal Medicine.
William Lobel, D72, associate clinical
professor, was inducted as a fellow of the
International College of Dentists during
the annual meeting of the American Dental
Association in Orlando, Fla.
David Paul, D89, associate professor,
returned for a sixth year to Nicaragua from
January 29 to February 13, this time leading
a four-member oral health-care team from
the School of Dental Medicine. Twelve
students and faculty from Tufts School of
Medicine also joined the mission to provide
care to those from the most isolated and
underserved areas of Nicaragua. In addition
to Paul, the Tufts Dental team included three
D11 students, Nathan Clem, Brock Olson and
Elizabeth Turner. The team was again based
in the small village of Tadazna, where they
spent 12 days living and working without any
running water or bathroom facilities. The Tufts
contingent treated 250 surgical patients and
extracted 800 teeth. They also performed
consults, fluoride treatments, exams and
other preventive care. Paul said the goal
of this combined medical/dental school
project is “to immerse ourselves in both the
community and culture to get a true feeling
for what these people are living with on a
day-to-day basis. There is nothing like 22
people all sleeping on simple bunk beds in
one room and eating rice and beans at every
meal to get you into the swing of things.” Paul
hopes that through introductory experiences
like these, Tufts students will continue to
volunteer after graduation.
Paul Stark, associate professor and director
of advanced and graduate education, gave a
presentation on “Oral Health Quality of Life
in Adults with Developmental Disabilities”
at the annual meeting of the International
Association for Dental Research in San
Diego. This is a collaborative project with
John Morgan, associate professor of public
health and community service, and Matthew
Finkelman, assistant professor.
PROMOTIONS:
Harish Gulati to associate clinical professor.
David Leader, D85, to associate clinical
professor.
ORAL AND MAXILLOFACIAL
PATHOLOGY
Michael A. Kahn, professor and chair,
attended the National Roundtable for Dentistry
meeting in Chicago January 7–8. He was a
visiting professor at the University of Southern
Nevada Postgraduate Dental School, where he
conducted oral pathology training to prepare
students for their boards.
COMMUNITY SERVICE:
■ Dental screening for seniors, Foxboro Council
on Aging, Foxboro, Mass., October 30, 2010.
PRESENTATIONS:
■ “Practical Oral Pathology,” Yankee Dental
Congress, Boston, January 29, 2011.
■ “Oral Pathology: Short Stories and Tales”
and “Oral Cancer Adjunctive Screening
Devices,” Alexandria International Dental
Congress, Alexandria, Egypt, November 3,
2010.
■ “Oral Cancer Screening: Where Are We and
Where Are We Going?,” Canadian Association
of Dental Consultants, Toronto, October 2,
2010.
Publication:
■ “Clinical Pathological Conference: Case 3,”
J.M. Hall, K.R. Torske, M.A. Kahn,
A.A. Moreland and S.L. Moschella, Head
and Neck Pathology, 4:226–9, 2010.
Lynn Solomon, associate professor, attended
the 100th annual meeting of the U. S. and
Canadian Academy of Pathology in San
Antonio, Texas, February 26–March 3. She
participated in the Tufts Academic Leadership
Development Program’s workshop on handling
difficult communications last December.
PRESENTATIONS:
■“Fibro-osseous Lesions of the Jaws,”
Schofield Barracks Dental Clinic, Honolulu,
Hawaii, March 16, 2011.
■ “Partners In Pathology,” a continuing
education course, Yankee Dental Congress 36,
Boston, January 29, 2011.
■ “Head and Neck Cancer Examination for the
Dental Team,” a continuing education course,
Massachusetts Dental Society, Southborough,
Mass., December 10, 2010.
■ “Diagnosis and Management of Oral Cancer,”
a continuing education course, presented
with Maureen Sullivan, Buffalo Niagara Dental
Meeting, Buffalo, N.Y., November 5, 2010.
■ “Oral Pathology Potpourri: Histopathologic
Interpretations,” University of Vermont
Department of Anatomic Pathology, Burlington,
Vt., November 1, 2010.
■ “Head & Neck Cancer Examination for the
Dental Team,” continuing education course,
Tufts University School of Dental Medicine,
October 6, 2010.
■ “Clinical Cases on Solitary Fibrous Tumor and
Eruption Cyst,” Eastern Society of Teachers of
Oral Pathology, Milwaukee, Wisc., October 1–3,
2010.
PUBLICATIONS:
■ “Tp63 in Oral Development, Neoplasia and
Autoimmunity,” R. Romano, L.W. Solomon and
S. Sinha, Critical Reviews in Oral Biology and
Medicine (in press).
■ “Chronic Ulcerative Stomatitis: Evidence
for Autoimmunity Etiology,” M.A. Carlson,
J.A. Garlick and L.W. Solomon, Oral Surgery,
Oral Medicine, Oral Patholology, Oral Radiology
and Endodontology (in press).
■ “Relationship between Chronic Ulcerative
Stomatitis and Lichen Planus—Preliminary
Report,” A. Banka-Wrona, L. Solomon, D.
Zoukhri and M. Olszewska, Abstract, 19th
Congress of the European Academy of
Dermatology and Venerology, October 2010.
Pamela C. Yelick, G89, professor and director,
Division of Craniofacial and Molecular Genetics
PRESENTATIONS:
■ “Mineralized Tissue Development and
Regeneration,” Fourth Aegean International
Conference on Tissue Engineering, Crete,
Greece, scheduled for May 31 to June 5, 2011.
■ “Applications for Dental Stem Cells in Tooth
Tissue Engineering,” the keynote speech,
First International Conference on Dental and
Craniofacial Stem Cells, New York Academy of
Science, New York, N.Y., April 27–29, 2011.
■ “Applications and Current Limitations of
Dental Stem Cells in Regenerative Medicine,”
fifth annual Regenerative Conference, Miami,
Fla., February 18, 2011.
■ “Biologic and Synthetic Scaffolds for Dental
Tissue Engineering,” Tissue Engineering and
Regenerative Medicine International Society
of North America and the American Society for
Matrix Biology, Charleston, S.C., October 24,
2010.
PUBLICATIONS:
■ “Molecular Pedomorphism Underlies
Craniofacial Skeletal Evolution in Antarctic
Notothenioid Fishes,” R.C. Albertson, Y-L Yan,
T.A. Titus, E. Posano, M. Vacchi, P.C. Yelick,
H.W. Detrich and J.H. Postlethwait, BMC
Evolutionary Biology 10(1):4, 2010.
■ “Modern Methods for Visualizing the Teleost
Skeleton: Capturing Autofluorescence of
Alizarin Red,” M. Connolly and P.C. Yelick,
The Journal of Applied Ichthyology (in press).
■ “Mineralized Craniofacial, Axial Skeletal and
Tooth Development and Regeneration,”
P.C. Yelick and M. Connolly, The Journal of
Applied Ichthyology (in press).
■ “Bioengineered Periodontal Tissue Formed
on Titanium Implants,” Y. Lin, G.O. Gallucci,
G.D. Busser, D. Bosshardt, U.C. Belser and
P.C. Yelick, Journal of Dental Research,
December 13, 2010 (E-publication ahead
of print).
■ “Tooth Tissue Engineering: Optimized
Dental Stem Cell Harvest Based on Tooth
Development,” M.T. Duailibi, S.E. Duailibi,
E.F. Duailibi, R.M. Negreiros, W.A. Jorge,
L.M. Ferreira, J.P. Vacanti and P.C. Yelick,
Artificial Organs (in press).
■ “Influence of Aqueous and
Hexafluoroisopropanol-based Silk Scaffolds
on Human Dental Pulp Cells,” W. Zhang,
I. Pruitt Ahluwalia, R. Literman, D.L. Kaplan
and P.C. Yelick, Journal of Biomedical Materials
Research (in press).
■ “Identification of Adult Mineralized Tissue
Zebrafish Mutants,” V. Andreeva, M. Connolly,
C. Stewart-Swift, D. Fraher, J. Burt, J. Cardarelli
and P.C. Yelick, Genesis, January 10, 2011
■ Special Issue on Craniofacial Development,
V. Andreeva and P.C. Yelick, Genesis, 2010.
■ “CRC’s Biomedical Engineering Handbook,
fourth edition, W. Zhang and P.C. Yelick, 2010.
■ “Morphogenesis of the Jaw—Beyond the
Embryo,” R.C. Albertson, V. Andreeva and
P.C. Yelick, Methods in Cell Biology, (in press).
■ “Tissue Engineered Dental Epithelial and
Mesenchymal Cell Sheets,” S. Sengupta and
P.C. Yelick, an abstract for the TERMIS North
America Annual Conference and Exposition,
Orlando, Fla., December 5–10, 2010.
■ “Phenotypic and Genotypic Characterization
of the Zebrafish Craniofacial Mutant 100N,”
A. Asante Hatcher and P.C. Yelick, an abstract
for the annual Biomedical Research Conference
for Minority Students, November 12, 2010.
■ “Friend of GATA-2 (FOG-2) Regulates FOXM1
Expression and Cardiomyocyte Proliferation,”
S. Greytak, P.C. Yelick and G.S. Huggins, an
abstract for the American Heart Association,
Chicago, November 12–15, 2010.
■ “Analysis of the Zebrafish Craniofacial Mutant
69N/lyon,” Serena Kankash, DG13, and
Pamela C. Yelick, abstract for Bates-Andrews
Research Day, Tufts School of Dental Medicine,
March 1, 2011.
■ “Localization of Dental Stem Cell Niches in
Zebrafish, Danio Rerio,” Stephen N. Cagliostro,
DG13, Yujin Lee, M.S.10, and Pamela C. Yelick,
abstract for Bates-Andrews Research Day, Tufts
School of Dental Medicine, March 1, 2011.
ORAL AND
MAXILLOFACIAL SURGERY
Lonnie H. Norris, DG80, dean and professor,
was one of three Boston community leaders
honored by the Wang YMCA of Chinatown
at a dinner celebration on November 7,
2010. In a statement in the event program,
Tufts President Lawrence S. Bacow praised
Norris for his dedication to “education,
inclusiveness, excellence and community. He
has strengthened the school’s commitment to
service and increased the capabilities of its
clinics to reach out to Chinatown’s children,”
the president said. The dean received the
District One Distinguished Service Award
from the International College of Dentists on
January 28, 2011, during the Yankee Dental
Congress in Boston. Tufts Provost and Senior
Vice President Jamshed Bharucha said Norris
exemplifies “leadership as service.”
Morton B. Rosenberg, D74, professor and
head, Division of Anesthesia and Pain Control
PRESENTATIONS:
■ “Preparing Yourself and the Office for a
Medical Emergency,” Middlesex District Dental
Society, Waltham, Mass., March 16, 2011.
■ Lead faculty for “High Fidelity Human
Simulation for Anesthetic and Medical
Emergencies,” eight courses at the annual
meeting of the Association of Oral and
Maxillofacial Surgeons, Chicago, September
27–October 2, 2010.
■ “Pharmacology for the Dental Assistant,”
annual meeting of the Association of Oral and
Maxillofacial Surgeons, Chicago, September
27–October 2, 2010.
■ “Update for BORID Medical Emergency Kits
for the General Dentist,” “BORID Review of
Medical Emergency and Office Preparedness,”
“Nitrous Oxide-Oxygen Sedation Competency
Course” and “The Difficult Child: Behavioral and
Pharmacological Approaches,” Tufts University
School of Dental Medicine Division
of Continuing Education.
■ “Preparing Your Office for a Medical
Emergency,” Cape Cod District Dental Society,
Hyannis, Mass., 2011.
on campus
■ “Current
Concepts and Controversies on
Deep Sedation and General Anesthesia for the
Ambulatory Patient,” Illinois Society of Oral and
Maxillofacial Surgeons, March 12, 2011.
ORTHODONTICS
Barry Briss, D66, DG70, professor and chair,
received the Dr. Frederick Moynihan Award
for Outstanding Contributions and Service to
Orthodontics, presented by the Massachusetts
Association of Orthodontists. Moynihan
graduated from Tufts Dental School in 1951
and practiced in Massachusetts for more than
40 years.
Lokesh Suri, DI01, DG03, DG04, associate
professor
PRESENTATIONS:
■ “Interdisciplinary Treatment: Integrating
Orthodontic Treatment into Complex Cases,”
Department of Orthodontics and Dentofacial
Orthopedics, Center for Dental Education
and Research, All India Institute of Medical
Sciences, New Delhi, India, March 22, 2011.
■ “Interdisciplinary Treatment: Treatment
Options and Making Treatment Decisions,”
Department of Orthodontics, Maulana Azad
Institute of Dental Sciences, New Delhi, India,
March 21, 2011.
■ “Use of Bone Plates for Orthodontic
Anchorage,” meeting of the Boston division of
the Seattle Study Club, November 4, 2010.
■ “Orthodontic Treatment: Timing and Options,”
Franciscan Hospital for Children, Boston.
PEDIATRIC DENTISTRY
Nooruddin Pradhan, DG93, DG94, DI06,
assistant professor, has attained diplomate
status with the American Board of Pediatric
Dentistry.
PERIODONTOLOGY
Timothy Hempton, associate clinical
professor, was named the 2011 Clinician
of the Year during the 2011 Yankee Dental
Congress in recognition of his decade of
service as a speaker and volunteer at the
annual dental meeting in Boston. Hempton
continues to teach periodontics to sold-out
crowds of dentists, hygienists and assistants
at the convention. He has served on several
Yankee Dental program committees and last
year was one of four program chairs. Hempton
was the lead author of the article “Implant
Maintenance: Techniques and Tools for
Effective Debridement of Artificial Anatomy”
in the January 2011 issue of Dimensions of
Dental Hygiene.
Aidee N. Herman, associate clinical professor,
received the Presidential Award from the
National Hispanic Dental Association and the
Latino Excellence Award from the nonprofit
Latin Roots for her dedication to improving
Latino children’s education in New England.
In February, Herman was nominated as one
of the 100 most influential Latinos in Boston
by El Planeta, the largest Hispanic newspaper
in Massachusetts. On March 3, she gave
a keynote speech at Middlesex Community
College in Lowell, Mass., titled “Our History/
Our Strength: Latino Women Moving Forward.”
Rory O’Neill, associate clinical professor,
delivered a lecture on “The Orthodontic–
Periodontal Connection” on October 2, 2010,
in Nice, France, during the congress of the
International Academy for the Advancement of
Interdisciplinary Dentistry (IAAID). O’Neill was
also named president-elect of IAAID.
PROMOTION:
Wai Cheung, DG02, DI06, to associate
professor.
PROSTHODONTICS AND
OPERATIVE DENTISTRY
Nathan Birnbaum, associate clinical professor,
was a co-author of “Digital Dental Impression
Systems,” published in Inside Dentistry in
February 2011.
Hamasat Gheddaf-Dam, assistant professor
PRESENTATION:
■ “SAC Classification in Implant Dentistry,”
ITI Study Club Boston South, February 2011.
PUBLICATION:
■ “Comprehensive Oral Rehabilitation of a
Patient with Dentinogenesis Imperfecta,”
H. Gheddaf-Dam, P. Papaspyridakos, M. Chen,
G. Benic, G. Gallucci and H.P. Weber, Clinical
Advances in Periodontology, accepted for
publication, 2011.
Gerard Kugel, D85, M.S.93, professor and
associate dean for research
PRESENTATIONS:
■ “All Ceramics and CAD/CAM Dentistry,”
New York Dental Society, March 3, 2011.
■ “Adhesive Dentistry: Is Newer Always
Better?,” Academy of Operative Dentistry,
Chicago, February 24, 2011.
■ “Esthetic Dentistry: Keys to Success,”
North Carolina Academy of General Dentistry
annual meeting, Raleigh, N.C., February 12,
2011.
PUBLICATIONS:
■ “Non-carious Lesions Due to Tooth Surface
Loss: To Restore or Not to Restore,” Mabi L.
Singh, Gerard Kugel, Britta Magnuson and
Athena Papas, Inside Dentistry, March 2011.
■ “Influence of Resin Cements on Retention
of Zirconia Copings,” A. Ali, R. Zandparsa,
G. Kugel, J. Kelly and P. Stark, abstract
presented at the annual meeting of the
International Association for Dental Research,
San Diego, March 15–19, 2011.
■ “Strength Analysis of Rebonded Composite
Using Seventh-generation Bonding Agents,”
C. Decoteau, C. DeFuria, B. Magnuson,
S. Sharma, M. Gonzalez, G. Kugel and
M. Finkelman, abstract presented at
the annual meeting of the International
Association for Dental Research, San Diego,
March 15–19, 2011.
■ “Bond Strength of Multi-step Cements
to Enamel and Zirconia,” C. Decoteau M.
Ogledzki, R. Perry and G. Kugel, abstract
■ “Shear Bond Strength of CAD/CAM-milled
Lithium Disilicate Luted to Dentin,” D. Nill,
M. Harsono, G. Kugel, M. Finkelman and
L. Fox, abstract presented at the annual
meeting of the International Association for
Dental Research, San Diego, March 15–19,
2011.
■ “Bleaching of Teeth Treated with Unique
Treatment for Early Caries,” D. Nobrega,
R. Perry, M. Finkelman, G. Kugel and
M. Harsono, abstract presented at the annual
2011.
■ “Microleakage in Rotary-prepared Dentin
vs. Laser-textured Prepared Dentin,”
A. Samad-Zadeh, E. Doherty, G. Kugel and
W. Tao, abstract presented at the annual
2011.
■ “Changes in Early Dentin Bond Strength of
Self-etch and Total-etch,” E. Lee, G. Kugel,
W. Tao, V. Maeng and J. Lee, abstract
■ “Effect of Chlorhexidine Application in
Dentin Bond Strength with Time,” E. Lee,
E. Doherty, E. Kaminsky, M. Finkelman and
G. Kugel, abstract presented at the annual
2011.
■ “Marginal and Internal Fit of E4D CAD/CAM
All-ceramic Crowns,” J.R. Plourde, G. Kugel,
T. Hill and M. Harsono, abstract presented
March 15–19, 2011.
■ “Bond Strengths of Pre-coated Brackets
with Different Curing Directions/Lights,”
K. Mahoney, N. Mahoney, M. Harsono and
G. Kugel, abstract presented at the
■ “Shear Bond Strength of Different Products
on Etched Dentin,” L. Fox, M. Harsono,
J. Towers, R. Perry and G. Kugel, abstract
■ “Viscosity As a Function of Time of
Light-bodied Impression Materials,”
M. Ogledzki, C. Decoteau, R. Perry and
2011.
■ “Bond Strength of Non-coated Brackets
Based on Curing Light Directions,”
M. Harsono, K. Mahoney, N. Mahoney and
2011.
■ “Shear Bond Strength in Brackets Using
Different Curing Lights,” N. Mahoney, M.
Harsono, K. Mahoney and G. Kugel, abstract
■ “Evaluating the Flexural Loading Conditions
of Three Restorative Materials,” N. Shakourian,
M. Harson, J. Orfanidis, G. Kugel and R. Perry,
abstract presented at the annual meeting
of the International Association for Dental
Research, San Diego, March 15–19, 2011.
■ “Whitening Products Delay Reepithelialization
in a 3D Wound-healing Model,” R.N. Lucier,
O. Etienne, S. Ferreira, J.A. Garlick, G. Kugel
and C. Egles, abstract presented at the annual
2011.
■ “Five-year Clinical Evaluation of CAD/
CAM-generated Zirconia Bridges,” R. Perry,
G. Kugel, S. Ferreira, S. Sharma and B.
Magnuson, abstract presented at the annual
2011.
■ “Shear Bond Comparison of Bonded Resinmodified Glass Ionomers,” C. DeFuria,
A. Samad-Zadeh, J. Towers, S. Macdonald,
R. Perry, M. Finkelman and G. Kugel, abstract
■ “Effect of Anti-microbial Agents on Shear
Bond Strength to Dentin,” A. Samad-Zadeh,
C. DeFuria, J. Towers, G. Kugel, R. Perry
and M. Finkelman, abstract presented at
the annual meeting of the International
March 15–19, 2011.
■ “Comparison of Radiopacities of Composite
Restorative Materials to Dentin,” C. DeFuria,
A. Samad-Zadeh, J. Towers, M. Finkelman,
G. Kugel and R. Perry, abstract presented
March 15–19, 2011.
Vasiliki Tsakalelli, DI10, assistant professor,
gave a presentation on “A Prospective
Clinical Trial of Implants Restored Using the
Medialized Seating Technique in the Aesthetic
Area of Maxilla” at the 26th annual meeting
of American Academy of Osseointegration,
which took place in Washington, D.C., March
3–5, 2011.
Hans-Peter Weber, professor and chair
PRESENTATIONS:
■ “What Every Surgeon Needs to Know
About Prosthodontic Concepts,” annual
meeting of the Academy of Osseointegration,
Washington, D.C., March 2011.
■ “Real-world Occlusion: Considerations for
Occlusal Designs and Loading Protocols in
Implant Dentistry,” Center for Craniofacial
Esthetics continuing education course
with Noshir Mehta and Gerard Kugel, Tufts
University School of Dental Medicine,
March 2011.
■ “Predictable Dental Implant Therapy,”
implant continuing education for local
dentists, Muskegon, Mich., February 2011.
■ “Predictable Dental Implant Therapy,” local
implant continuing education, Grand Rapids,
Mich., February 2011.
■ “Fundamentals of Implant Dentistry” and
“Peri-implant Tissues,” Harvard School of
Dental Medicine, February 2011.
■ “Biological and Clinical Rationales for
Various Implant Designs,” Massachusetts
General Hospital Maxillofacial Surgery Grand
Rounds, Boston, October 2010.
■ “Soft Tissue or Bone-level Implants for
Esthetic Success,” 40th annual meeting of
the American College of Prosthodontists,
Orlando, Fla., November 2010.
PUBLICATIONS:
■ “Effects of Nicotine on Gene Expression
and Osseointegration in Rats,” S. Yamano,
J.A. Berley, W. Kuo, G.O. Gallucci, K. Wada,
H.P. Weber and G. Sukotjo, Clinical Oral
Implants Research, 21:1353–1359, 2010.
■ “Clinician and Patient-reported Long-term
Evaluation of Screw and Cement-retained
Implant Restorations: A Five-year
Prospective Study,” S. Sherif, S.M. Susarla,
J.W. Hwang, H.P. Weber and R.F. Wright,
Clinical Oral Investigations, September 1,
2010 (E-publication ahead of print).
■ “Comparison of Initial Stability Parameters
and Histomorphometric Analysis of Implants
Inserted into Extraction Sockets: Human
Fresh Cadaver Study,” S.H. Jun, B.M. Chang,
H.P. Weber and J.J. Kwon, International
Journal of Oral & Maxillofacial Implants,
25:985–990, 2010.
■ “Early Peri-implant Tissue Reactions on
Different Titanium Surface Topographies,”
S. Yamano, G.O. Gallucci, K. Wada, H.P.
Weber, G. Sukotjo, et al., Clinical Oral Implants
Research, December 27, 2010 (E-publication
ahead of print).
■ “A Five-year Prospective Multi-center Clinical
Trial of Non-submerged Dental Implants with
a Titanium Plasma Sprayed Surface in 200
Patients,” D.L. Cochran, J.J. Jackson,
A.A. Jones, J.D. Jones, D.A. Kaiser, T.D. Taylor,
H.P. Weber, J. Richardson, F.L. Higginbottom
and T. Oates, Journal of Periodontology,
January 14, 2011 (E-publication ahead
of print).
■ “Comprehensive Oral Rehabilitation of a
Patient with Dentinogenesis Imperfecta,”
H. Gheddaf-Dam, P. Papaspyridakos, M. Chen,
G. Benic, G. Gallucci and H.P. Weber, Clinical
Advances in Periodontology, accepted for
publication, 2011.
PROMOTION:
Ali Muftu, DG95, DG96, DI97, DI02, DG08, to
professor.
PUBLIC HEALTH AND
COMMUNITY SERVICE
Kanchan Ganda, professor and head of the
Division of Medicine
PRESENTATIONS:
■ “Partners in Health Care: The Role of
Medicine in Dentistry,” with Diana J. Esshaki,
D11, American Dental Education Association,
San Diego, March 2011.
■ “Pharmacology in Dentistry” and
“Medical Alerts in Dentistry,” Jamaican
Dental Association, February 16–19, 2011.
Carole Palmer, G69, N69, professor and
head of the Division of Nutrition and Oral
Health Promotion, is the 2011 recipient of
the Leadership and Expertise Award from the
Friedman School Alumni Association. Palmer
is a professor at the Friedman School and
directs its Combined Dietetic Internship/
Master’s Program. She published an article
about the connection between diet and oral
health, “Feeding a Healthy Relationship,”
in the November 2010 issue of the British
magazine Preventive Dentistry. The article
was reprinted as “Promoting Good Nutrition”
in the Irish Dentist in February 2011.
beyond bounda r i e s
providing the means for excellence
Teaching assistant Steven
Nguyen, D11, assists Ivy
Ahluwalia, D14, during a
weekend pre-exam practice
session in the Simulation
Learning Center.
Practice Makes Perfect
Simulation Learning Center eases the transition from class work to patient care by Kristin Livingston
few nights a week, after the dental clinics close for the
day, the new Simulation Learning Center is still abuzz. To help
prepare first- and second-year students for their practical exams,
fourth-year dental students and teaching assistants, including
Shauna Basil, D11, Diana Esshaki, D11, and Steven Nguyen, D11, are tutoring
their peers—with a bonus: they’re also honing their own teaching skills.
“It’s a really wonderful system,” says Dean Lonnie H. Norris, DG80. “I’m
so impressed when I see the teaching assistants. They look like junior faculty members. I can see them maturing and becoming more knowledgeable
through teaching.”
Says Esshaki, “I want to teach—and this is a great learning environment
for that.”
At roughly 10 to 15 students per TA, first- and second-years are not only benefitting from a high-tech environment that eases the transition to real-world
dental practice, they’re able to break down
problems in a more intimate setting with
folks who already know the routine.
“Our sessions are more structured for
easier access to answers, versus a lecture
where there are 180 students in the room,”
says Nguyen. Students are able to work
on more than one project at a time while
interacting with successful fourth-years
who appreciate their growing roles as leaders and educators in the community.
“We’re trying to show [the first- and
second-years] that although this is a difficult period in the curriculum, there is a
Photos: alonso nichols
“Annual Fund dollars and financial support are so important
because they give us that extra boost to keep our
facilities technologically advanced.” — D e a n L on n i e H . Nor r is
Above, Nguyen demonstrates the
technique of applying amalgam to a molar;
right, students work on individual projects
in the Simulation Learning Center.
light at the end of the tunnel,” adds Basil.
The Simulation Learning Center spans
the length of the 14th floor at One Kneeland
Street. Day and night, students are treated
to spectacular views of Boston from each
of the 108 simulation stations. Each station
is equipped with lights, water, suction tools
and a computer monitor, and students stay
connected via a control center operated by
an instructor, who uses a microphone and
video camera to demonstrate technique.
“We invest in our students and give
them the best, because they’re going to be
the best,” says Dorothy Vannah, an associate professor and director of the Simulation
Learning Center. “They have so little
time—there’s so much we want to share
with them and teach them,” she says. “The
Simulation Learning Center allows for a
very smooth transition from the classroom
to actual patient care.”
Work in the learning center involves
different typodonts, or tooth-filled jaws,
secured within a plastic mannequin head
that is encased in a skin-like mask. The
mannequin-patient is also positioned in the
chair more realistically than was possible in
the old sim clinic. Students can no longer
twist and turn the head to make things go
easier, or open the mouth wider than what
a real patient would be capable of.
“New ventilators will soon be added
to soak up the dust from drilling,” adds
Vannah, “and laptops will be added to each
simulation station for access to paperless
records systems and the Tufts University
Sciences Knowledgebase (TUSK), which
means that 108 different projects can be
going on at the same time in one room.”
In addition, two classes can occur simultaneously. With the push of a button, a divider
splits the Simulation Learning Center in two.
Lectures will also begin to appear online as
recording devices are added to the control
center camera. That will make it easier for
students to study even when the clinic is
closed—a rare occurrence these days.
“Annual Fund dollars and financial
support are so important because they
give us that extra boost to keep our facilities like the Simulation Learning Center
technologically advanced,” Norris says.
“And while the lab is an impressive sight
to see on its own, when the activity is in
there, that’s when the real significance of
what we’re doing shines through.”
Kristin Livingston, a writer in the Advancement Communications office, can be reached
at [email protected].
university news
the wider world of tufts
Huw F. Thomas will become the dental
school’s 16th dean on August 1.
The Next Leader
Huw Thomas, dean of dentistry at University of Alabama,
heads to Tufts this summer by Jacqueline Mitchell
H
uw f. thomas, the next dean of tufts school of dental
Medicine, offered words of praise for the institution he will
inherit this summer and promised to “work tirelessly” to
advance its mission during his formal introduction to the
Tufts community in April.
“I can’t tell you how honored I am to become the sixteenth dean of Tufts
School of Dental Medicine,” Thomas told the faculty, students and staff gathered
on the sunlit fifteenth floor of the dental school. “Tufts has an outstanding reputation, not just for its clinical work and research, but for the legacy it’s created.
I look forward to working with each and every one of you on the many challenges ahead. Working together, we can face them and continue Tufts’ wonderful
legacy,” said Thomas, who starts his new job on August 1.
Thomas has been dean of the School of Dentistry and a professor of pediatric
dentistry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) since 2004. He
helped bring UAB to the forefront of dental education reform with a progressive
curriculum and a strong research enterprise.
Tufts President Lawrence S. Bacow called Thomas “a highly respected scholar,
a gifted clinician and a talented administrator. You are joining a fantastic team. I
hope you find Tufts to be as welcoming and warm as I have these past 10 years,”
said Bacow, who is stepping down this summer.
“I really want to welcome Huw,” said
Dean Lonnie H. Norris, DG80, who is retiring this summer after leading the school
for 15 years. Both men have met before, as
members of the American Dental Education
Association’s Council of Deans. Norris
said that his successor “fostered positive
relationships” and is currently chair of the
council. “He is a well-respected chair, and
I know he has the leadership vision and the
credentials. I am very pleased he decided to
accept the position here at Tufts.”
Prior to joining UAB, Thomas held
positions of increasing responsibility at
the University of Texas Health Science
Center at San Antonio and the University
of Connecticut Health Center. He is the
author or co-author of more than 150
articles, chapters and abstracts in numerous scientific journals. His research focuses
on tooth development, particularly that of
the tooth root and periodontium. Most
recently his studies have examined nutritional inf luences on the development of
tooth enamel.
A fellow of the American Academy of
Pediatric Dentistry, American College
of Dentists and International College of
Dentists, Thomas chaired the section on
dentistry and oral health sciences of the
American Association for the Advancement
of Science, and in 2010, received an Award
for Excellence from the Society for Executive
Leadership in Academic Medicine.
A native of Wales, he earned his dental
degree from Guy’s Hospital at the University
of London. He received a pediatric dentistry
certificate from the Eastman Dental Center
in Rochester, N.Y., and a master’s in dental
research from the University of Rochester.
He earned a doctorate in biomedical sciences from the University of Connecticut
Health Center.
Tufts School of Dental Medicine and
UAB share an interesting history. In 1949,
dental school Dean Joseph Volker left Tufts
to head the newly established School of
Dentistry at UAB, and went on to become
president and chancellor. And Charles
“Scotty” McCallum, D51, H88, is a former
president of UAB and served as dean of its
dental school from 1962 to 1977.
“It’s about time Alabama gave something
back to us,” joked Norris.
photo: alonso nichols
Our Man at Treasury
Fletcher’s Michael Klein gets up close and personal with the global economy by Taylor McNeil
T
he view from michael klein’s
office window is a bit different from his usual one at the
Fletcher School at Tufts, where
he’s a professor of international economic
affairs. Now he sees the White House.
Klein has been on leave from Fletcher
since last summer, serving as the chief
economist in the U.S. Treasury’s Office of
International Affairs. He’s leading research
and writing policy briefs on current economic topics. Working in the main Treasury
building on Pennsylvania Avenue, he finds
the view isn’t the only thing that’s changed.
While the articles he writes for academic
journals might be years in gestation, now if
he takes more than a week to draft a policy
brief, it’s stale—yesterday’s news.
Klein and his colleagues, permanent
staffers at Treasury and interns from schools
like Fletcher, provide the background for
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to formulate U.S. international economic policy.
The goal of the international office, says
Klein, is to help foster sustained growth
and economic stability in the United States
and encourage policies that do the same in
other countries.
Seeing the political dimensions of economic policymaking “has been eye-opening,” Klein says, something that academic
economists don’t always pay enough attention to. “That’s a very important aspect to
how policy gets done, both domestic politics and international politics.”
He was offered the job by his current
boss, Lael Brainerd, the undersecretary
for international affairs at Treasury, who
reports to Geithner. Klein got the call
because of his policy-oriented research
on topics such as exchange rates, and, he
suspects, because as a college professor,
On leave from Tufts, Michael Klein is the chief economist
in the U.S. Treasury’s Office of International Affairs.
people assume he stays abreast of the latest
economic policies and can explain them in
plain English.
International economics is more important than ever. “The crisis that we’ve had
over the last few years has demonstrated
the way in which events in one country
can affect what happens in other countries,” Klein says. “So in the Office of
International Affairs, there is a real focus
on how international events affect the U.S.,
and how the U.S. affects the world.” That
has meant, for example, dealing with debt
challenges in Europe, which threatened to
stall the U.S. economic recovery last spring,
and controversy over U.S. monetary policy,
which led to “cries of currency wars from
some in emerging market countries in the
fall,” he says.
His role, Klein says, “is to provide intellectual heft and depth to what’s going on
in the international affairs division.” In
meetings and policy briefs, he draws on
his knowledge of—and contributions to—
scholarly research on topics to provide
background about current concerns for
top-level policymakers at Treasury. “It’s
providing a context and framework for
thinking about issues,” he says.
Klein is a bit cagey about the exact issues
he’s working on at the moment—that’s
part of playing politics in Washington.
But he does offer one general topic as an
example: rebalancing. That’s about trying
to find a healthy equilibrium in the current account balance between countries—
essentially between surpluses that are too
big (think China) or deficits that need to
come down (think you and me, buying all
those goods from China, and the U.S. not
selling enough in return). It’s a topic Klein
has written about for academic journals,
and that knowledge is useful in formulating U.S. economic policy.
Taylor McNeil, the senior news editor
in Tufts’ Office of Publications, can be
reached at [email protected].
photo: toby jorrin
alumni news
staying connected
A Big Turnout and Lots of Awards
Mark Yankee Dental Congress 36
N
early 1,000 alumni turned out for the annual tufts
University Dental Alumni Association reception at Yankee
Dental Congress 36. Dean Lonnie H. Norris, DG80, and
Mostafa El-Sherif, DI95, president of the alumni association, welcomed the alums to the gathering, which was held at the Westin
Waterfront in Boston on January 28.
Overall, more than 7,000 dentists were among the more than 27,000
participants at Yankee Dental, New England’s largest dental meeting, which
took place January 27–29 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.
The Tufts Alumni Lounge on the exhibit hall floor was a hub of activity, with
alumni stopping by to meet with classmates and colleagues between courses
or grab a snack.
At the annual dental meeting, Norris received the District One Distinguished
Service Award from the International College of Dentists (ICD). Tufts Provost
Jamshed Bharucha said the dean exemplifies the ideal of “leadership as service.”
Maria Papageorge, D82, DG86, DG89, A12P, professor and chair of oral and
maxillofacial surgery, reflected on the years she worked with Norris, a Tuftseducated oral surgeon, in the department and praised him for being “hard
working, energetic and caring to his patients.”
And Joseph Kenneally, D81, District One
regent of the ICD, recalled his first tooth
extraction in the clinic, for which Norris
was his clinical instructor. Kenneally said
he was grateful to have Norris guide him
through the procedure.
Norris expressed his appreciation for
the recognition and extended thanks to
all who have supported him throughout
his career.
Timothy Hempton, associate clinical
professor of periodontology, was named
the 2011 Clinician of the Year in recognition of his decade of service as a speaker
and volunteer at Yankee Dental. Hempton
continues to teach periodontics to sold-out
Right: Kelly Wojcicki, Nora Zaki and Joyce Gitangu, all D08.
Below: Santhosh Veeranna, DG10; Kathleen O’Loughlin, D81, executive
director and chief operating officer of the American Dental Association.
Golnaz Goodarzi, a general dentist who practices in North Andover, Mass.;
Mostafa El-Sherif, DI95, president of the Dental Alumni Association; Lioubov
Richter, DI96; and Ron Richter. Bottom right: Paul Schoenbeck, D94 and
Janis Moriarty, D94, general chair of Yankee Dental Congress 36.
PHOTOs: bethany versoy
crowds of dentists, hygienists and assistants
at the convention. Hempton has served on
several Yankee Dental program committees and last year was one of four program
chairs.
Barry Briss, D66, DG70, D95P, DG97P,
professor and chair of orthodontics,
received the Dr. Frederick Moynihan
Award for Outstanding Contributions
and Service to Orthodontics, presented
by the Massachusetts Association of
Orthodontists. Frederick Moynihan graduated from Tufts Dental School in 1951
and received his postgraduate certificate in
orthodontics from Tufts two years later. He
practiced in Massachusetts for more than
40 years.
Ross Icyda, D11, president of the Class
of 2011, received the senior student award
from the American College of Dentists on
January 29, the same day that David Leader,
D85, associate clinical professor of general
dentistry, presented a talk on “Rheumatic
Diseases and Oral Health.”
Mark your ca lendars for t he 2012
Yankee Dental Congress, which will take
place at the Boston Convention Center
from January 25–27. The Tufts dental
alumni reception will be held on January
26 at the Westin Waterfront.
Filling out their
class gift forms,
from left: Katie
Wych, class
treasurer, Anna
Czechowski,
Christy Cowell,
Hannah Beatty and
Farah Assadipour,
secretary for the
Class of 2011.
Class Presidents Genko Stanilov
and Ross Icyda.
D11 classmates Morgan Pierce,
Joellyn Ferro and Allison Piper.
Senior Enthusiasm
at Yankee Dental
The Office of Dental Development and Alumni Relations hosted
a senior class reception during Yankee Dental Congress in
Boston on January 28. Dean Lonnie H. Norris, DG80; Mostafa
El-Sherif, DI95, president of the Tufts Dental Alumni Association;
Jess Kane, D74, DG76, G78, DG79, D04P, DG06P, and Pamela
Maragliano, D04, talked to the seniors about staying engaged
with the school, attending lectures and events and becoming active as reunion co-chairs and members of the alumni board.
Class Presidents Ross Icyda, D11, and Genko Stanilov, D11,
and Vice President Hubert Park, D11, asked their classmates
to consider contributing to the senior class gift to support
health services offered to the public at the Sharewood Clinic,
a free clinic run by Tufts dental and medical students in Malden,
Mass. Of the 107 seniors who attended the reception, 59
made a gift at the Dean’s Inner Circle level that night. Many of
the gifts were made in honor of retiring Dean Norris, who was
named an honorary member of the class.
PHOTOs: alonso nichols
alumni news
the best of times
As our profession
continues to grow
and dental technology improves,
dentists are
continuing to
enjoy practicing
and improving
their lives and the lives of millions
of patients.
We are truly living in the best
time for our profession. Our school
and alumni association are strong
and will continue to grow with the
support of our dedicated alumni.
During Dean Lonnie Norris’ 16-year
tenure, he has improved our school
and elevated the bar for excellence.
Now it is our responsibility to maintain
that excellence.
I am privileged to be serving as
your alumni association president,
and I will continue working hard to
add more benefit to your membership.
Currently, we are in the process of
searching for opportunities to endorse
companies to allow our members the
benefit of getting the best rates and
service. If you have any ideas for
other services or benefits, please
contact me or any members of the
Executive Board.
On behalf of all of the association
members, I would like to thank Dean
Norris for his dedication to the dental
school during his deanship. He will be
missed by all of us.
Yours truly,
mostafa h. el-sherif, di95
president, tufts university dental
alumni association
[email protected]
register now!
Tufts Dental
Career
Link
• Search job openings and practices for
sale or rent. (Searches can only be
made by members of the Tufts Dental
community. Postings are available to
non-alumni and multiple members
of an office.)
• Use the Alumni Advisors Network,
an opt-in directory that connects Tufts
students and alumni for advising,
networking, referrals or just keeping
in touch.
• Create or enhance resumes with
templates from Resume Builder. dental.tufts.edu/careerlink
PHOTO: kelvin ma
Above: Joanna Claustro, D11,
Bryan Katz and Kristine
Concepcion, D14.
Below: Lorraine Archambault,
Roland Archambault, Maris
Mann-Stadt, Cole Archambault,
A10, D14, Joan Archambault,
A10P, D14P, and Gary Archambault,
D79, A10P, D14P
Above: Shari Mandel, D77, D14P;
Alex Mandel, D14P and Jonathan Mandel, D14;
Top: Nicanor Concepcion, D06P, D14P;
Fatima Concepcion, D06P, D14P; Rona Hsu, D14;
Chao-Chung Hsu, DI81, D14P; and Hui Chin Hsu, D14P.
the family
business
More than 70 incoming and current Tufts Dental
students who are related to a dental alum
celebrated their family connections during the
Amanda Stone, D14; Genevieve Stone,
D14P; and Walter Stone, D82, D14P.
fourth annual Dental Legacy Reception, held at
the W Hotel in Boston on August 30, 2010.
PHOTOs: bethany versoy
alumni news
The Wellesley Country Club
ABOVE: Joe Giordano, D79, DG84, left, and
Donald LeClair, D79, watch Richard McNulty, D79,
make his putt.
LEFT: John Millette, D91; Peiman Mahdavi, D91,
DG94; Scott Fitzgerald, D91; Matt Giamarco, D89;
Barry Bornfriend; and Derek Wolkowicz, D97, DG00.
Fitzgerald, Giamarco and Bornfriend, the
Team Gross Champions, hold their trophies.
BOTTOM: Tennis tourney winner
Boris Bacanurschi, D06; Sheldon Sullaway, D62;
and David Mitchell Singer, D98, DG00.
Swing for Scholars
Wide Open raises $21,000 for Student Loan Fund
more than 90 alumni and friends enjoyed a perfect fall day for
golf and tennis during the 28th annual Wide Open Golf and Tennis
Tournament, held on September 20, 2010, at the Wellesley Country
Club. The tournament, which is supported by dental alumni and corporate sponsors, raised $21,462 for the Student Loan Fund, bringing
the 28-year cumulative total to $292,757. The 2011 tournament will
again be at the Wellesley Country Club, on September 19.
PHOTOs: kelvin ma
WIDE OPEN CHAMPS
Team Gross Champions:
Hole in One Sponsor:
Silver Level: ($475)
Scott Fitzgerald, D91;
Matt Giamarco, D89; Barry
Bornfriend; Tim O’Brien
Wagner Motors
Benco Dental
Glidewell Laboratories
Ivoclar Vivadent
Team Net Champions:
Barry Regan; Jack
Dombeck; Steve
McKenna, D87, DG90;
John Isenburg
Tennis Champion:
Boris Bacanurschi, D06
Awards Dinner and Raffle
Sponsors: ($6,000)
Reception Sponsor:
Gentle Dental
Standard Golf Foursome:
($2,500)
Dental Associates of
Walpole
Designs for Vision Inc.
Eastern Dentists
Insurance Co.
Rosen and Associates,
LLP
3M Unitek
Solmetex
Sullivan Schein Dental
Sybron Endo
Tee Hole Sponsor:
($1,250)
Golf Gift Sponsor:
($6,000)
Keystone Dental
Patterson Dental
Spring Insurance Group,
LLC
Davis & Towle
Crown Healthcare Apparel
Gold Level: ($650)
Par Club: (Cash, less than
$475, and/or prizes)
William Accomando, D67
Barr & Barr Inc.
Cherie Bishop, D94
Chaba Florists
Mostafa El-Sherif, DI95
Erbaluce
Joseph Giordano, D79,
DG84
Jacob Wirth Restaurant
JP Licks
The Langham, Boston
Radisson Hotel, Boston
The Ritz-Carlton, Boston
Common
Shibly Malouf, DG64,
J98P, A04P, D10P
Nicholas Papapetros, D91
Tufts Health Sciences
Bookstore
Tufts School of Dental
Medicine, Division of
Continuing Education
Tufts School of Dental
Medicine, Office of
Alumni Relations and
Development
Tufts University School of
Dental Medicine Alumni
Association
The Westin, Boston
Waterfront
Whip Mix
Vapiano
One place. Right now.
Your source for news about students, faculty, alumni, scholarship,
science, campus life, speakers, concerts, symposia and more.
http://now.tufts.edu
alumni news
Transitions
don’t miss a thing
The Tufts University Dental Alumni
Association has elected Rustam
DeVitre, DG76, DI77, D12P, as a new
director on the Executive Board. DeVitre
graduated from Government Dental
College in Mumbai, India, in 1973, and
completed a master’s in dental surgery
in orthodontics there the following year.
He earned a postgraduate certificate in
prosthodontics from Tufts in 1976 and a
D.M.D. in 1977. DeVitre was an assistant professor of restorative
dentistry from 1976 to 1984, and worked in the faculty practice
at Tufts from 1977 to 1984. He then opened his restorative practice in Boston, where he continues to work. He is a member of the
Academy of Dental Science, American College of Prosthodontics,
the American Dental Association and the Massachusetts Dental
Society. He is a past president of the Northeast Craniomandibular
Society. DeVitre is a reunion co-chair and a member of the Dental
M Club. He and his wife Virginia Shahinian, D77, DG79, D12P,
reside in Cohasset, Mass.
Tufts School of Dental Medicine hosts events across
the country and around the world. Don’t miss the
chance to join us if an event is happening near your
seasonal residence.
The Tufts Dental Alumni Association
has elected Joanne Falzone, D80, as
a new director on the Executive Board.
A longtime reunion co-chair, Falzone
is a clinical professor and director
of dental anatomy at Tufts School of
Dental Medicine. She received the
Dean’s Award for Preclini-cal Teaching
Excellence in 2006, 2007 and 2009.
Falzone is also a graduate of the Forsyth School of Dental Hygiene
and Northeastern University. In addition to her many volunteer
activities, Falzone is on the board of directors at the Mollie
Hirshberg Learning Center/South Shore Mental Health in Quincy,
Mass., and is the presiding chair of the registration committee
for the Yankee Dental Congress. She has two sons and resides in
Weymouth with her husband, Peter Cherubini.
Class
Caitlin (Caty) Smith has joined the
Office of Dental Development and
Alumni Relations as a staff assistant.
She had been temping as a staff
assistant for alumni relations since
last September and joined the team
on December 6. She earned an
undergraduate degree in 2010 from
the Carroll School of Management
at Boston College, where she played
club lacrosse. She is an avid skier and
Boston Bruins fan.
Do you have more than one residence? Many alumni split
their time between two residences and attend Tufts Dental
events in both places. Sharing your seasonal address with
Tufts will keep you plugged in to events and activities
wherever you are.
Contact us with your seasonal address update:
EMAIL: [email protected]
PHONE: 617.636.6773
Or, please fill out this form and mail it to:
Tufts Dental Alumni Relations
136 Harrison Avenue
Boston, MA 02111
Name
preferred address:
Street
City, State, Zip
Phone
Email
Check here if new information.
SEASONAL ADDRESS:
Street
City, State, Zip
Phone
if you would like to receive mail at your seasonal
address, please indicate start/stop dates.
Providing this information allows you to continue to maintain
your preferred mailing address.
StartStop
Check here if you do not want mail sent to your
seasonal address during dates noted above, and
tufts will continue to use your preferred address.
PHOTos: alonso nichols
calendar
BLAZE OF GLORY. A favorite photographic subject for Wilbur
Riff, D52, is the setting sun, this one taken near his home in
Fort Myers Beach, Fla. If you’d like to submit a photograph
for possible inclusion in the magazine, please email it to the
editor, Helene Ragovin, at [email protected].
MAY 14
MAY 29
OC TOB ER 1 0 –13
NOVEM B ER 12–15
Alumni reception in
conjunction with the annual
session of the American
Association of Orthodontists
Chicago, Illinois
Alumni reception in
Association of
Pediatric Dentistry
New York, New York
Alumni reception in conjunction
with the annual session of the
American Dental Association
Las Vegas, Nevada
Alumni reception in
Association of Periodontology
Miami Beach, Florida
MAY 2 2
Tufts University’s 155th
Commencement
Academic Quad
Medford/Somerville campus
9 a.m.
SEPTEM B ER 12–17
Alumni reception in conjunction
with the annual session of the
American Association of Oral
and Maxillofacial Surgeons
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
NOVEM B ER 3
Alumni reception in
session of the American College
of Prosthodontists
Scottsdale, Arizona
For the most updated
information, contact the
Office of Dental Alumni
Relations at 617.636.6773
or email dental-alumni@tufts.
edu. Or visit go.tufts.edu/
dentalalums.
out&about
alumni news
staying connected
ada in the
sunshine state
Alumni and their family and friends
had a chance to connect—and
also to race hermit crabs and make
flip books—at a reception during
the annual session of the American
Dental Association in Orlando, Fla.,
on October 9, 2010. More than 60
folks turned out for the event at
the Orlando Hilton.
Below, from left: Karen Wallach,
D85; Tony Giamberardino, D85;
and Diane Giamberardino.
From left: Steve Tonelli, D80, A04P, A10P, D14P; Bruce
Verrill, D80; Guillermo Porro, D80; Bob Amato, D80,
DG83; and Butch Marianetti, D80.
windy city retreat
Maria Papageorge, D82, DG86, DG89, A12P, professor and
chair of oral and maxillofacial surgery, addressed alumni and
friends at a reception held in conjunction with the annual
session of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial
Surgeons in Chicago on September 30, 2010. More than 40
visitors mingled at the Hilton Chicago, where Papageorge updated them on news from the department and on the dental
school’s newly opened vertical expansion.
From left: Pashkar Mehra, DG99; William Deighan,
DG86; Richard Catrambone, D85, DG89; Laurie
Manthos, D87, DG91; and David Kelly, D73.
professor hosts
prosthodontists
Hiroshi Hirayama, DG90, DI93, DG94, professor of
prosthodontics and operative dentistry, hosted more than
40 alumni and students at a reception in Orlando, Fla., on
November 4, 2010. They were in town for the annual
meeting of the American College of Prosthodontists.
From left: Vincent Mariano, D82, DG84; Holly
Shepherd, DG13; Mike Butera, D10, DG13; Khaled
El Rafie, DG13; Jong Won Yoon, DG13; Dong-soo
Hong, D09, DG13; and Lino Calvani, DG91.
staying connected
Carl Perlmutter, D64, DG70, and
Allyn Segelman, D73, DG77.
alumni news
Back row, from left: Robert Hunter, D63, Connie Hunter, Wally the Green
Monster, Jean Fiore and Louis Fiore, D62; front row, from left: Charles
Jacappo, Mary Jacappo, Mary Timmons and James Timmons, D53.
sox a hit with alums
Dean Lonnie H. Norris,
Donna Norris and Sox Hall
of Famer Jim Rice.
One hundred dental alumni, family and friends
spent the afternoon watching the Red Sox take
on the Florida Marlins during a spring training
game on March 5 in Fort Myers, Fla. Attendees
enjoyed a private picnic cookout and a visit with
Sox Hall of Famer Jim Rice before watching the
sold-out game, which Boston lost, 11–2.
new york meeting
The Greater New York Chapter of the Tufts
Dental Alumni Association and the Office of
Dental Development and Alumni Relations
hosted a reception and dinner on November
30, 2010, at the Marriott Marquis for 60
alumni and guests who attended the New
York meeting. Keynote speaker Kathleen
O’Loughlin, D81, executive director and chief
operating officer of the American Dental
Association, talked about the need for
dentists to give back to their communities.
alumni news
D62
Sheldon Sullaway
was among the
75 runners and walkers
representing Tufts Dental at
the 2010 Komen Race for the
Cure in Boston last fall. It was
the largest turnout in the eight
years the dental school has
been participating in the event,
which raises money for breast
cancer research. Tufts Dental
was recognized with an award for
the largest participating college
or university team. Sullaway
defended his age-group title with
a third-place finish, for which he
received a pair of running shoes.
D66
Barry S. Briss,
DG70, D95P,
DG97P, received the Dr.
Frederick Moynihan Award for
Outstanding Contributions and
Service to Orthodontics from the
Massachusetts Association of
Orthodontics at the 2011 Yankee
Dental Congress, which took
place in Boston in January. Briss
is professor and chair of
orthodontics at Tufts.
D67
Lewis Wharf Dental
Associates, the
practice of Robert Chapman,
class notes
55 FOR ’55
Members of the Class of ’55
marked their 55th reunion in
2010. Back row, from left: John
Wolkowicz, D55, D91P, D97P,
DG95P, DG00P; Walter Crites
Jr., A50, D55; Victor Fournier,
D55; Francis Hannaway, D55;
Peter Vouras, D55, D89P;
and Harry Kavoogian Jr., D55,
A84P; front row, from left: Kas
Kowalski, D55; Arthur Sandler,
D55, A80P, J82P; Paul Harvey,
D55, D81P; and Stanley
Listernick, A50, G51, D55.
A63, DG74; William Maness,
DG73, DG75; and Pamela
Maragliano, D04, earned Adult
Preventive Practice of the Year
honors at the American Dental
Association meeting in Orlando,
Fla., in October 2010. A major
part of the competition was a
one-hour presentation at the
meeting. The team’s presentation
detailed preventive practices,
including modification of the
CAMBRA protocols and how
CAMBRA was implemented
successfully in the privatepractice setting; periodontal
One place. Right now.
Your source for news about students, scholarship,
scientific discoveries, concerts, campus life, sports,
speakers, symposia and more.
http://now.tufts.edu
protocols; risk assessment
and risk management and the
encouraging results that the team
has compiled from a research
project it conducted. The team
studied the success of its caries
prevention program and how it
relates to quality of life. They
plan to publish their research.
D69
Bill Green retired
in October
2008, when he sold his New
Hampshire practice to Josh
Osofsky, D06, and Drew Wilson.
In July 2010 he was appointed
to the dental staff at the
Northwest Medical Center in St.
Albans, Vt., and he “unretired”
to work part-time in a rural
health clinic in Richford, Vt.
Green and his wife, Bonny,
traveled to Spain in February for
their sixth dental mission trip to
RETO, a Christian drug rehabilitation program with 4,000
residential participants. During
the first four trips, he extracted
about 400 non-restorable teeth
on each two-week visit. Now the
program has a three-chair clinic
and an X-ray machine, so he is
able to do restorative dentistry
as well as extractions. Green
lives in St. Albans, Vt., and
Edgewater, Fla.
Richard Kulbersh, E65,
will be honored in May at
the annual session of the
American Board of Orthodontics
in Chicago. Kulbersh is chair of
the Department of Orthodontics
at the University of Detroit
Mercy School of Dentistry.
D72
William Lobel
was inducted as
a fellow of the International
College of Dentists during the
annual meeting of the American
Dental Association in Orlando,
Fla., in October 2010.
D73
John Ficarelli,
D10P, DG12P
see DG09.
DG73
William
Maness,
DG75, see D67.
D74
Jeffrey R. Brook
received the 2010
Distinguished Faculty Award from
New York University for his work
in the Department of Periodontics
and Implant Dentistry. The award
is given by the graduating class
to a faculty member in recognition of his or her ability as a
clinician, educator and mentor.
He was chosen because he not
photo: J.D. SLOAN
class notes
only shared his experience with
students in the NYU clinic, but
also invited them to his practice
in North Massapequa, N.Y.
Harvey Levy, who practices
in Frederick, Md., received his
second Lifelong Learning and
Service Recognition from the
Academy of General Dentistry
in August 2010. He was also
inducted into the U.S. Martial
Arts Hall of Fame. He welcomed
a granddaughter, Atara Shulamit
Friedman, whose name means
“gentle leader.”
Morton Rosenberg,
A09P, professor of oral and
maxillofacial surgery at Tufts,
was the lead faculty member
for the “High Fidelity Human
Simulation for Anesthetic and
Medical Emergencies” courses
at the annual meeting of the
American Association of Oral
and Maxillofacial Surgeons,
held in Chicago last fall. He
also presented a program on
“Pharmacology for the Oral
Surgical Assistant” at the
meeting. Rosenberg directed
the first “Sedative and
Medical Emergency Course
for Assistants” last October,
during the annual meeting of the
American Academy of Pediatric
Dentistry in San Diego.
D86
Tina Wang
joined the
Longwood Dental Group in
Brookline, Mass., last October,
after it merged with her former
practice at One Brookline Place.
The combined practice has
13 dentists.
D87
Jamie DiamentGolub returned
in February from her annual
mission trip to Jamaica. Through
the organization Health Care
International, she provides free
dental care to residents of rural
communities in the southern
and central areas of the island.
Founded by Noel Brown, a New
York University-educated dentist
who was born in Jamaica, the
organization brings dental
students to these underserved
areas each year. The team also
includes physicians and nurses
who provide blood pressure
and glucose screenings as well
as free antibiotics and other
medications. Diament-Golub,
a part-time faculty member in
pediatric dentistry at Columbia
University College of Dental
Medicine, her 15 dental students
and the rest of the team treated
1,600 patients. The team
provided dental extractions,
cleanings and fillings and offered
preventive care, oral-health
education and free toothbrushes
and toothpaste.
DG93
Nooruddin
Pradhan,
DG94, DI06, attained diplomate
status with the American Board
of Pediatric Dentistry in October
2010.
D95
Dante A.
Gonzales joined
the editorial advisory board for
Sharecare (www.sharecare.
com), a consumer-oriented
website that promotes healthy
we want to hear from you!
Keep your fellow alumni/ae up to date about your
personal and professional news by filling out this form.
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Send to:
KICKING IT UP A NOTCH
Fielding a flag football team is a beloved fall tradition at Tufts
Dental, and this year’s team made the school proud. The team—
known, appropriately enough, as the Dentists—participated in
the 15th annual North East Flag Football Regional Tournament
on December 4 in Charlestown, Mass., making it as far as the
second day of playoffs. The team received funding from the
Office of Student Affairs. From left: Muddassar Tukdi, D11; Brad
Khankanian, D12; Samir Hussain, D11; Afshin Rahimi, D11; Tyler
Fleming, D12; Ben Song, D11 (seated in middle); Ninus Ebrahimi,
D10, DG12 (seated in middle); and Daniel Jun, D12 (in front).
photo: alonso nichols
usan Ahearn, Tufts Dental Alumni Relations
S
136 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA 02111
email: [email protected] or
fax: 617.636.4052
Name
Class
Street
City
State
Zip
Email
alumni news
living and provides answers to
visitors’ questions from some of
the nation’s leading physicians,
nurses and other professionals.
Gonzales is the only dentist on
the advisory board.
D96
John J. Giordano
graduated
from the Army Medical
Department’s Basic Officer
Leader Course at Fort Sam
Houston, Texas, on October
18, 2010. Giordano now has a
formal affiliation with the Army
Medical Department Regiment.
He was commissioned as a
captain in November 2009
and serves as a Dental Corps
officer and reservist with the
Massachusetts Army National
Guard Medical Command. He
continues to maintain both his
general and forensic dentistry
practices in Worcester, Mass.
D98
D04
D01
D05
Cristina Floro
became engaged
to John O’Hara in Ireland on
November 10, 2010. O’Hara
proposed overlooking the Cliffs
of Moher. They set their wedding
date for St. Patrick’s Day at Holy
Name Cathedral in Chicago.
Katie M. Rand
and her husband,
Mark Stempler, welcomed a
daughter, Abigail Hayden, on
May 14, 2009. Abigail joins twin
sisters Mollie and Jessica, age 5.
Rand purchased a dental office,
Rand Dental, in February 2010,
and practices general dentistry.
She and her family reside in
Boynton Beach, Fla.
DG02
Wai Cheung,
DI06, has
been promoted to associate professor of periodontology at Tufts.
Krista Kane
and Jamie Kane,
DG06, welcomed their second
daughter, Teagan Nuala, on
January 8.
Pamela Maragliano,
see D67.
Janel Forde
and her husband,
Maurice Blenman, welcomed
a baby in fall 2010.
D06
Neela Gandhi has
been recognized
as a William McKenna Volunteer
Hero by the Massachusetts
Dental Society. The award is
given in memory of Dr. William
H. McKenna, who was a huge
contributor to the development
of the Yankee Dental Congress
and a volunteer in the MDS
community. She was honored by
her peers for her contributions
to dentistry at the state and
local levels. She volunteers at
Yankee Dental Congress and
with the Charles River Dental
Study Club.
Josh Osofsky, see D69.
D07
Amanda
Backstrom
celebrated the opening of Artesa
Dental in Martinez, Calif., with
a ribbon-cutting ceremony on
February 10. She has owned the
practice since May 2010.
DI07
Mabi Singh,
an associate
professor of general dentistry
at Tufts, has been accepted
into the Massachusetts Dental
Society’s Leadership Institute,
designed to provide dentists
with training to become effective civic leaders on a local,
state or national level. Selected
T R AV E L T O E X T R A O R D I N A R Y P L A C E S W I T H E XC E P T I O N A L P E O P L E
From Amalfi to Antarctica,
from India to Israel, our
journeys feature intellectual inquiry with lectures and
exploration. There’s a perfect trip for every taste!
Contact Usha Sellers, Ed.D.,
Visit ou
r
websit
e to se
e
the exc
iting
line-up
of 2
destina 011
tio ns!
Program Director, at
[email protected]
or 800-843-2586 for our
brochure or visit our
website for itineraries.
TRAVEL-LEARN
TRAVEL-LEARN
TUFTS
visit: www.tuftstravellearn.org
obituaries
participants are required to attend four participatory sessions
with well-known facilitators
and speakers
as well as a
team-building
event. Following
completion of
the training,
participants
take part in a yearlong ad hoc
committee that focuses on an
issue affecting dentistry.
D09
D10
John Massoud,
see D09.
Jamie Rhew Roberts and
Matthew Roberts welcomed a
son, Hayden Quinn, on August
24, 2010.
DG11
Supreeth
Veeranna,
who is completing a pediatric
practice residency, has been
accepted into the Massachusetts
Dental Society’s Leadership
Institute, designed to provide
dentists with tools to become
effective civic leaders on a local,
state or national level. Selected
participants are required to
attend four participatory sessions
with well-known facilitators
and speakers
as well as a
team-building
event. Following
completion of
the training,
participants
take part in a yearlong ad hoc
committee that focuses on an
issue affecting dentistry.
IN MEMORIAM
Leila Roumani
joined West
Roxbury Dental Arts in West
Roxbury, Mass., in October
2010.
Elizabeth Shenk and Tyler
Carmack were married in May
2010 and are expecting a baby
girl this June. In January, they
took over Shaftsbury Dental
Center in Vermont from Herb
Moskowitz, D98P, who retired.
They had most recently worked
in Fairfield County, Conn. They
remain involved in humanitarian work. Shenk volunteers with
Operation Smile, and that organization is one of the reasons
she became a dentist. Carmack
is fluent in Russian, and during graduate school, would
translate while providing free
dental work to Jewish Holocaust
survivors in Russia. They hope
to set up free dentistry days at
Shaftsbury Dental Center for
patients in need, beginning in
spring 2012.
Leah M. Massoud and John
Massoud, D10, welcomed a
son, Costa John, on October 13,
2010.
Sarkis M. Shaghalian, D40
December 28, 2010
Port St. Lucie, Florida
Rosemary Bersch, D47
January 12, 2011
Sykesville, Maryland
Thomas L. Blanchard Jr., D53
March 2, 2011
West Springfield, Massachusetts
Stanley Summer, D40
February 23, 2011
Providence, Rhode Island
Walter W. Burnett, D47
January 29, 2011
South Hero, Vermont
Richard J. DesLauriers, D54
November 22, 2010
Longmeadow, Massachusetts
Harry Avnet, D41
November 30, 2010
Canton, Massachusetts
Arthur R. Fantaci, D48, DG53
January 8, 2011
Wolfeboro, New Hampshire
Robert H. Querze, D55, DG59
October 26, 2010
Plymouth, Massachusetts
Jacob H. Belofsky, D43A, DG48
January 5, 2011
Boca Raton, Florida, and West
Hyannisport, Massachusetts
William J. McPadden, D48,
D79P
December 5, 2010
Easton, Connecticut
Richard W. Perron, D56
November 17, 2010
Westborough, Massachusetts
Henry B. Wolfe, D43A
December 21, 2010
Scarsdale, New York
Aristotle N. Vontzalides,
A46, D48
February 19, 2011
Peabody, Massachusetts
DG09
George F. Henderson, A45, D46
October 23, 2010
Fernandina Beach, Florida
Abeer
Basunbul,
Jessica Chiang and John
Ficarelli, D73, D10P, DG12P,
attained diplomate status with
the American Board of Pediatric
Dentistry in November 2010.
Charles E. Rounds, D45,
J73P, G79P
January 15, 2011
Scituate, Massachusetts
Charles A. Sprague, D45
April 22, 2011
South Dennis, Massachusetts
Marvin Dwore, D46
December 18, 2010
Niskayuna, New York
Vincent A. Schaefer, D46
February 24, 2011
Brewster, Massachusetts
William F. Brennan, D59, A84P,
M88P, D96P, A98P, M02P
January 4, 2011
Warwick, Rhode Island
Francis D. Nelen, D59
January 10, 2011
South Hadley, Massachusetts
George P. Canucci, D50
September 26, 2010
Plymouth, Massachusetts
Jason Shultz, D61
August 26, 2010
Los Altos, California
James C. Goodchild, D50
October 8, 2010
Saco, Maine, and Newton,
Massachusetts
David C. Garre, D66
November 22, 2010
Chatham, Massachusetts
Willard A. Coy, D51
September 16, 2010
Rotonda West, Florida
Calvin V. Giusti, D52
December 28, 2010
North Providence, Rhode Island
Norman A. Epstein, A48, D52
February 19, 2011
Marblehead, Massachusetts
Robert J. Smith, D66
November 6, 2010
New Port Richey, Florida
Paul Okon, D69, A96P, D98P
January 20, 2011
Newton, Massachusetts
Registration and
Course Information
Division of CONTINUING
EDUCATION
TUFTS UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF DENTAL MEDICINE
One Kneeland Street
Boston, MA 02111
Telephone: 617.636.6629
Fax: 617.636.0800
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://dental.tufts.edu
Don’t miss out. For more
information on these and
other courses, visit
go.tufts.edu/dentalced.
continuing education
M AY 2 5
SEP T EMBER 17
OC T OBER 2 1
What’s New in Today’s Clinical Dentistry?:
Evidence-based Information Every
Dental Practice Should Know
Dr. Paul Vankevich
New Advances in Implant Overdentures
Dr. Allen Schneider
Balanced Oral Environment
Dr. Nels Ewoldsen
SEP T EMBER 2 1
NOV EMBER 2
Dental Office Ergonomics: How to Lower
Your Risk of Musculoskeletal Injury and
Incorporate Techniques for Prevention
and ReliefSteve Satin
Oh Baby: Infant, Preschool
and Teen Dentistry
Ms. Lee Somerville
SEP T EMBER 2 3
Nitrous Oxide Certification Course
Drs. Morton Rosenberg, C.S. Maller
and William MacDonnell
J UNE 2
Dental Treatment for Little Jake:
Practical Knowledge and Clinical
Skills You Need to Treat Children in
Your General Practice
Drs. David Tesini and Joseph O’Donnell
Sixth Annual Oral Cancer Symposium
CEI: Real-world Occlusion
Participation Course
Drs. Gerard Kugel, Noshir Mehta
and Hans-Peter Weber
J UNE 17
SEP T EMBER 2 4
Dentistry à la Carte: Advancement
of CAD/CAM Dentistry
Dr. Parag Kachalia
Headache and Facial Pain:
Evidence-based Treatment
SEP T E MBE R 10
Margolis Lectureship
Dr. John Casco
J UNE 3
The Phantom of the Opera-tory:
Let Your Pharmacology Inner Voice
Guide You to Great Patient Management
Dr. Thomas Viola
SEP T E MBE R 16
Simplicity in Endodontics:
An Achievable Goal and a New Way
of Looking at Filling Techniques
Dr. Sergio Kuttler
NOV EMBER 4 – 5
NOV EMBER 9
Full-arch Rehabilitations:
How to Create Complete Dentures
From Basics to Current Standards
Dr. Lino Calvani
SEP T EMBER 3 0
SEP T EMBER 3 0 – OC T OBER 1
Nitrous Oxide Certification Course
Drs. Morton Rosenberg, C.S. Maller
and William MacDonnell
OC T OBER 14
Fifth Annual Dental Sleep
Medicine Symposium
Tufts University School of Dental
Medicine is an ADA CERP-recognized
provider. ADA CERP is a service of the
American Dental Association to assist
dental professionals in identifying quality
providers of continuing dental education.
ADA CERP does not approve or endorse
individual courses or instructors,
nor does it imply acceptance of credit
hours by boards of dentistry.
2011 Wide Open Tournament
Registration Form
Name_________________________________________________
WIDE OPEN
Graduation year or affiliation with Tufts Dental___________
Guest(s) name(s)______________________________________
Address_______________________________________________
______________________________________________________
Daytime phone________________________________________
Email_________________________________________________
My handicap is___________.
Cost includes lunch, tournament, reception and awards dinner.
Golf Tournament
$350/player
My foursome will include:
2. ____________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________
4. ____________________________________________________
r Please check here if you would like to be placed in a foursome.
Dental Alumni
Student Loan Fund
Tennis Tournament
$200/player
Reception & Awards Dinner Only
$75 for guests and non-competitors
Can’t participate this year? Please consider
a $100 donation to help future students of
Tufts Dental and be listed as a tournament
sponsor in Tufts Dental Medicine magazine.
Please complete the registration form and
enclose your check, made payable to Tufts
University Dental Alumni Association, and
mail to:
Going the Distance
Nicholas Gordon, Marek Ogledzki and Inga Keithly, all D12, take to the city
streets for a training run prior to this year’s Boston Marathon. The three
competed on the Tufts President’s Marathon Challenge Team, which raises
money to support teaching and research at the university that promotes
healthy living. The dental students were among 200 Tufts runners who ran
the 26.2-mile course from Hopkinton to Boston on April 18. Gordon finished
in 4:15:19; Ogledzki in 3:35:48, and Keithly ran 4:54:59.
PAYMENT
_____ golfers @ $350 each = $_________
_____ tennis
@ $200 each = $_________
_____ dinner only@ $75 each = $_________
_____ I will be unable to attend the 2011 WIDE OPEN,
but I’d be proud to be listed as a sponsor for my
$100 donation to the Student Loan Fund.
r My check for $__________ is enclosed.
r Please charge $__________ to my
OFFICE OF ALUMNI RELATIONS
r MasterCard
Tufts University
136 Harrison Ave.
Boston, MA 02111
Card #_________________________________ Exp._______
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Phone 617.636.6773
Email [email protected]
http://dental.tufts.edu/alumni
TOTAL ENCLOSED
r VISA r Discover
$__________
Please mail this form and your check, payable to Tufts
University Dental Alumni Association, to Office of
Alumni Relations, Tufts University School of Dental
Medicine, 136 Harrison Ave., Boston, MA 02111.
Registration confirmation and directions will be
mailed to you prior to the tournament.
photo: alonso Nichols
5/13/11 8:34 AM
sprin g 201 1 VO L . 15 NO. 1
M A G A Z I N E O F T H E t u ft s u ni v e r s it y d enta l a l u mni a s s o c iation
Nonprofit Org.
U.S. Postage
136 Harrison Avenue
Boston, ma 02111
Boston, MA
Permit No. 1161
Pai d
www.tufts.edu/dental
OPEN
Dental medicine
Come join the Tufts University
Dental Alumni Association for the
Treat the Child,
Treat the Parent
29th Annual Wide Open
Golf & Tennis Tournament
Monday, September 19, 2011
390 Wellesley Ave.
Wellesley, Massachusetts
Leading man
Gerard Caron, D78, traded in a rural practice for a military career.
Along the way, he discovered he enjoyed being a leader—and that he
was good at it. He’s now the highest-ranking dentist in the Air Force
and commander of the medical wing that’s the first stop on home soil
for troops wounded overseas. For more on the story, turn to page 10.
Schedule of Events
Golf and Tennis Registration 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Golf Tournament 11 a.m. shotgun start
Lunch included
Tennis tournament 2 to 4 p.m.
Reception 4 p.m.
Awards Dinner 5 p.m.
TUFTS UNIVERSITY OFFICE OF PUBLICATIONs 8167 05/11
Tufts Dental alumni, faculty, family
and friends are invited to participate!
All proceeds benefit the
Dental Alumni Student Loan Fund
A toolkit for
handling your
pediatric patients
Registration Fees
Golf Tournament $350/player
Tennis Tournament $200/player
Photo: Kelvin Ma
Reception and Dinner Only
$75 for guests and noncompetitors
PLUS: the next dean
n
artist among us
n
decoding ‘Dentist speak’
5/13/11 8:34 AM

Treat the Child, Treat the Parent - Tufts University School of Dental

Transcription

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