UWA DENTAL STUDENTS' SOCIETY MAGAZINE

and awareness for Head and Neck Australia. Apart from these charitable events, it has been an exciting few months jammed pack with sports events such as volleyball, soccer, laser tag and social events like GV Black - all of which will be covered in this issue! There much to be proud of as we also celebrate the achievements of some students who have received awards for their outstanding academic performance as well as in depth research projects at 'Research Day'.
Fingers cross that the events lined up for the remainder of the year will be able to take place and COVID does not come barging in. Looking forward to the amazing events coming up to end of the year with a bang!
For now, take a break, grab a cup of tea and we hope you enjoy reading this issue!
final cocktail event for the year: GV Black- filled with fancy array of canapés, great music, photographer Le Xuan on the go to capture every beautiful moment and of course, good vibes!! Giving all dental students from first to final year, an opportunity to bond and de-stress from the hustle and bustle of our daily lives. It served as a much needed mingling session. We hosted this year’s cocktail night at The Aviary for 120 people and sold out weeks before our event! Our highlight of the night according to many of our friends was the bar tab at the start of the night handing out unlimited cocktails on a first come first serve basis. Hoping everyone had a great time and cannot wait to see you at our next event, Quiz night 2021 on the 1st of October.
R U Ok day was held on the 9th of September this year, and this day advocates for people to have conversations with others, and raise awareness of mental health issues such as depression and suicide by asking “R U OK?”
There can be a lot of stigma attached to discussing mental health issues and signs can be quite invisible. Often times we don’t know if someone is experiencing something tough!
But raising awareness about starting the conversation and reaching out to yourself, friends and family is the first step! You don’t need to be an expert to reach out and no need to wait for R U Ok day to do so We can start building this habit anytime and make a difference to someone ’ s life
This year a bake sale was held to raise money towards the R U Ok? Organisation and goodies including stress balls, tea and coffee sachets were handed out to promote wellbeing! Thank you all for getting involved with R U Ok Day today whether it be baking goods, volunteering to help out on the stall, and anything behind the scenes! it’s really great to see lots of people wear yellow and ask each other R U Ok?The final amount raised has not been calculated yet so stay tuned for the update!
- Lilly LiuWRITTEN BY: DR. KATE SHEARSTON &
The UWA Dental School Annual Research Day on Friday 18th June gathered students, staff, alumni and industry to highlight the exciting research being undertaken at the School, with a focus on improving dental practice and human health and integrating research into training to enhance the skill development of dental practitioners
We were honoured to have Professor Lakshman Samaranayake from Hong Kong University as our keynote speaker, with a fascinating presentation titled ‘Back to Basics: Research, Wisdom, and Morality’. Prof Samaranayake is an internationally, renowned clinical academic with expertise in oral microbiomics, clinical research, senior executive level administration, and dental pedagogy and has an impressive track record of highly cited work.
1. Alice Gregory and Priyanka Raidoo, supervised by A/Prof Robert Anthonappa and Dr Jilen Patel, Enamel Microstructure of Primary and Permanent Teeth in Amelogenesis Imperfecta
2 Susan Cai, Bryan Huong and Matthew Macdonald, supervised by A/Prof Robert Anthonappa and Dr Jilen Patel, Comparison of Tooth Staining between Competitive Swimmers and Non Swimmers.
3. Richard Tien, Tulrica Chen and Vraj Patel, supervised by The Predictability of Expansion with Invisalign – a Retrospective Cohort Study
4. Serena Li, Mohar Mandal and Philip Tsen, supervised by Dr Igor Lavrin, Dr Steven Naoum, Dr Richard Lee and Dr Mithran Goonewardene, Comparison of Skin Dosimetry between Intraoral and Extraoral Bitewing Imaging.
5. Colleen Westerman and Daisy Ma, supervised by A/Prof Robert Anthonappa and Dr Jilen Patel, An in vitro study of remineralization potential of children’s toothpastes
A total of 20 DMD student groups and 7 PhD students presented their research in short eight minute talks. These sessions emphasised the breadth of research occurring in the School, with representatives from all 7 research programs, under the guidance of their supervisors: Biomaterials and Nanodentistry (Dr Amr Fawzy), Craniofacial Biology (Dr Mithran Goonewardene), Oral Imaging (A/Prof Johan Aps), Endodontics (W Prof Paul Abbott), Periodontics and Implantology (A/Prof Leticia Miranda), Oral Pathology and Medicine (Dr Omar Kujan) and Paediatric Oral Health (A/Prof Robert Anthonappa).
1 Dr Zohaib Akram, supervised by Dr Amr Fawzy, Dentin bonding agents modified with functionalized nano-graphene to enhance stability and antibiofilm potential at resin-dentin interface.
2. Dr Majdy Idrees, supervised by Dr Omar Kujan, Dr Kate Shearston, Dr Simon Fox and Prof Camile Farah, Dentin bonding agents modified with functionalized nano-graphene to enhance stability and antibiofilm potential at resin-dentin interface.
3. Dr Ravi Teja Chitturi, supervised by Dr Omar Kujan, Dr Kate Shearston, Dr Simon Fox and Prof Camile Farah. Development and validation of a 3D in vitro model of oral carcinogenesis using spheroid cultures of normal and dysplastic oral keratinocytes
4. Dr Cheryl Fu, supervised by Dr Amr Fawzy, Multiscale Characterisation of High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) Interaction with Dentin
Dr F Simpson Prize in Dentistry
Claire Kim & Ebony Grigo
BDSc Class of 1979 Prize in Operative Dentistry
Ethan Lloyd
Harold Baggett Memorial Prize in Histology
Min-An Steven Chien
Dr Zac Chami Memorial Prize
Joseph Marino
Eric Williams Prize in Prosthodontics
Cohen McCashney
Congratulations to all the faculty award winners. What a great achievement, especially during the pandemic.
John McGeachie Prize
Min-An Steven Chien
Australian Dental Association (WA Branch) Prize
Selina Kwok
Australian Society of Endodontology (WA Branch) Prize in Endodontics (Year 2)
Lili Omari
Ian O. Thorburn Prize
Jessica Devlin
G.D. Henderson Prize in Oral Surgery
Simran Bhalla
Australian Society of Endodontology (WA Branch) Prize in Endodontics and Dental Traumatology (Year 3)
Richard Tien
Ramesh Balasubramaniam Prize in Oral Medicine
Anahita Haiat
Wynn Needham Memorial Prize
Ruohan Zhang
Sally Joyston-Bechal Study Group
Daniel Girgis; Thomas Hastie
Australian Dental Association (WA) Prize for Academic Excellence in Dentistry
Emma Turner
Kenneth J G Sutherland Prize
Emma Turner
Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons Prize
Ruohan Zhang
Australian Dental Association (WA) Award for Leadership Excellence in Dentistry
Emma Turner
D.J. Cock Prize in Periodontics
Natasha Proud
Tom E. Scott Memorial Prize in Prosthodontics
Serena Li
Leonard Nathan Prize in Oral Pathology
Anahita Haiat
Western Australian College of Dental Science Prize in Restorative Dentistry
Richard Tien
Australian Society of Orthodontists (Western Australia Branch) Prize in Orthodontics (Year 3)
Richard Tien
The Alistair Devlin ANZSPD Prize in Paediatric Dentistry
Sally Tan
Dr Clive Rogers Prize in Special Needs Dentistry
Aston Taminsjah
John Prichard Memorial Prize
Jack Hawkesford; Christopher Lamb; Brendan Lim
As dental students, we are educated on the devastating consequences of head and neck cancer and the life-long impact it has on not only the individual but their community. However, head and neck cancer is one of the least supported cancers in Australia. Over the past three years, we have been raising funds and awareness for Head and Neck Cancer Australia (formerly Beyond Five) through their Soup for the Soul campaign
We are ecstatic to have raised a total of $1075 – more than double our goal for this year! We hope to continue supporting this organisation in providing support resources, raising awareness and positively impacting those living with head and neck cancer.
Thank you to everyone who supported us this year and special thanks to Dr Phoon Nguyen and the ADA!
- Xin Jie TanOn the 18th of August, a group of Dental students from UWA went to South Lake Primary School as part of the WA Healthy Mouth, Brighter Smiles Program. The aim was to teach the students about the importance of oral hygiene, brushing and establishing good oral hygiene habits that would hopefully remain with them into
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THANK YOU TO BEDE VAN SCHAIJIK & AIM DENTAL FOR ORGANISING THE SEMINAR
Australia, offering a wide range of services including general, cosmetic, and emergency dentistry. They provide high quality care at their practices, three of which are located in the Perth metropolitan area - Woodvale, Innaloo and Maddington, as well as a rural practice in Merredin.
Aim is a 2021 UDSS sponsor and has kindly offered to present a series of seminars to UWA dental students. The first of these was titled "The Costs of Dentistry" and included information on the monetary aspect of private practice along with tips on patient management and cost discussions. The talk was held at Quest Innaloo and was both interesting and insightful for students, providing information that we have limited exposure to throughout dental school Along with seminars, Aim is also offering shadowing sessions for 3rd and 4th year students to increase our exposure to private practice before graduating
We thank Aim Dental for their support of UDSS and our students and look forward to their future events
- Bede van Schaijik UDSS Vice PresidentSports Representatives: Amy & Mona
The UDSS sports team held Welfare Day on the 22nd of August at Lazer Blaze Willeton! We had ONLY DMD1s, DMD2s, DMD3s battle in the arena in groups of 2, 3 and 4- i e THE WHOLE ARENA TO OURSELVES The goal was to shoot as many people in other teams as possible and find and destroy 3 other home bases Captain America was our overall winner with a whopping score of 10474 with runner ups: V m y
Once again the Dental Volleyball team is competing in the annual UWA social sport leagues The team is off to a strong start, winning 4 out of 5 wins In the first game we had a close loss, with the opposing team narrowly taking the third match deciding set Though losses are inevitable, we took it as an opportunity to grow and improve as a team Our team members comprised of members from different year groups and volleyball skill levels As the season progressed, we began to learn about each other’s strengths and tendencies, and develop team chemistry Experiencing our team growing stronger, and more importantly closer, each week is highly rewarding Our team’s atmosphere is relaxed, supportive, and extraordinarily positive We found volleyball as a much-needed break from the intense, gruelling, and relentless grind of dental school For us, it is a highlight to look forward to each week, and a chance for us to take a step back, destress, and refocus If you haven’t already, I highly recommend you give social volleyball a shot
What better way to end a long day of treatment planning and endodontic practicals? Soccer of course! Social soccer with the 2021 UDSS Football Team has become a highlight of my first year at Dental School. The journey began in Semester One, where a couple of us passion fueled DMD students joined forces and entered the competition Although it was initially challenging to get used to each others playing style, every game was an amalgamation of exercise, stress release and social connectedness The games allowed us to take a break from our intense studies and kept us physically fit all while forming friendships that I’m certain will last for a long time It has been a pleasure to play with the UDSS dental soccer team and I will definitely be signing up next year!