Penn Dental Medicine Journal Fall 2020

PDMJ PENN DENTAL MEDICINE JOURNAL | FALL 2020

NAVIGATING A NEW NORMAL ADVANCING ACADEMICS, RESEARCH, AND PATIENT CARE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

FROM THE DEAN

Moving Forward Together I HOPE THIS FINDS YOU WELL as together we all continue to manage the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. To our alumni, I remind you that Penn Dental Medicine is here to help connect you to each other and the invaluable resources those connections provide.

And to our students, faculty, and staff, I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge your tremendous commitment to the School, each other, and our surrounding neighborhoods as we continue to teach, learn, advance research, and care for our patients in these unprecedented times.

In this issue of the Penn Dental Medicine Journal, we recap our journey since the spring in navigating the new normal brought about by COVID-19 (see story, p. 10). I am so proud of our entire Penn Dental Medicine community for the flexibility and resilience demonstrated as we’ve pivoted academic courses online, and with safety protocols in place, been able to keep our care centers open for clinical education and patient care.

In the area of clinical education, the start of this academic year marked the launch of new initiatives to build on the strength of our clinical teaching and enhance patient care and access (see story, p. 24). From the addition of more full-time faculty overseeing clinical instruction to an expansion of students’ clinical experiences, including within the community, the changes support our goal of ensuring a strong patient-centered, evidence-based clinical education experience. I’m particularly pleased to share that soon those clinical experiences will include serving individuals within our new Care Center for Persons with Disabilities, construction of which has been able to move forward despite the pandemic and is about to open (see story, p. 2).

In the realm of research, while COVID-19 is limiting some aspects of study, the School’s research enterprise continues to move forward. A number of labs are engaged in COVID-related studies (see p. 16); this summer we welcomed Dr. Yu Zhang to our faculty, a highly respected researcher in the field of dental biomaterials (see story, p. 6); and Dr. Temitope Omolehinwa from our Department of Oral Medicine is launching an exciting clinical study looking at the impact of HIV therapy on oral health (see story, p. 34).

And, while we can’t yet gather for in-person events, we continue to come together through virtual programming, including a robust offering of continuing education programs (see story, p. 3).

Indeed, these are unique times, and I commend and thank the entire Penn Dental Medicine community for adapting to meet the challenges of the day and moving forward together in support of the School and each other. Stay well and stay connected.

Mark S. Wolff, DDS, PhD Morton Amsterdam Dean

INSIDE 10 2 17 18 31 32 38

Navigating a New Normal Meeting Academic Goals and Patient Care Needs during COVID-19

On Campus School News in Brief Faculty Perspective Views on Dental Topics & Trends Academic Update Department/Faculty News & Scholarship Student Perspective Views on the Educational Experience Research Spotlight Translating Science to Practice Alumni Highlights Profiles, Gatherings & Engagement

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An Evolution in Clinical Education Strengthening the School’s Clinical Experience is Elevating Education and Care

34

Taking on HIV and Oral Health Dr. Temitope Omolehinwa Embarks on a New Study of People Living with HIV

43 45

Class Notes News from Fellow Alumni

PENN DENTAL MEDICINE JOURNAL: Vol. 17, No. 1 University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine www.dental.upenn.edu

In Memoriam Remembering Members of the Penn Dental Medicine Community

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2020/2021 Calendar Upcoming Events & Programs

Dean: Mark S. Wolff, DDS, PhD Vice Dean of Institutional Advancement: Elizabeth Ketterlinus Associate Dean for Leadership Giving: Maren Gaughan Director, Publications: Beth Adams Contributing Writers: Beth Adams, Juliana Delany, Debbie Goldberg, Katherine Unger Baillie Photography: Mark Garvin, Peter Olson Office of Institutional Advancement: 215-898-8951

ON THE COVER: In a phased return to patient care during the COVID-19 pandemic, rising third- and fourth-year students returned to providing clinical care in July with strict protocols in place to ensure safety of each other and patients, including multifaceted PPE requirements. Here, Melissa James (D’21) dons her PPE.

Penn Dental Medicine Journal is published twice a year by the Office of Communications for the alumni and friends of the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine. ©2020 by the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania. All rights reserved. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of Penn Dental Medicine. We would like to get your feedback — address all correspondence to: Beth Adams, Director of Publications, Robert Schattner Center, University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, 240 South 40th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104–6030, adamsnb@upenn.edu.

PENN DENTAL MEDICINE JOURNAL | FALL 2020 1

ONCAMPUS

SCHOOL NEWS IN BRIEF

"With this Center, we have an environment for optimal patient care and will be providing our students with in-depth experience in the treatment of persons with disabilities."

— DR. MARK S. WOLFF

Care Center for Persons with Disabilities Gets Set to Open, Welcome Patients Penn Dental Medicine will soon be welcoming patients to its new Care Center for Persons with Disabilities with the finishing touches of construction nearing completion as this issue of the Penn Dental Medicine Journal was getting set for distribution. Patient care within the Center is anticipated to begin starting in December.

“We are thrilled this new care center is about to open and that construction was able to proceed on schedule through the challenges of the COVID pandemic,” says Penn Dental Medicine’s Morton Amsterdam Dean, Dr. Mark S. Wolff. “With this Center, we have an environment for optimal patient care and will be providing our students with in-depth

ABOVE: Penn Dental Medicine’s Morton Amsterdam Dean, Dr. Mark S. Wolff, in the new Care Center for Persons with Disabilities, set to open in December.

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experience in the treatment of persons with disabilities — a vital aspect of their education and development as clinicians.”

Located within the School’s Robert Schattner Center, the 3,500-square-foot Center is dedicated to providing preventive and interceptive oral health care for patients of all ages living with all forms of disability. It is estimated to serve approximately 10,000 individuals per year. The 12-chair Center is outfitted to comfortably treat patients on wheelchairs as well as a gurney. In addition,

other special features include a “quiet room” with low lighting and sound baffling to accommodate patients with sensory sensitivities.

All Penn Dental Medicine students will gain direct experience treating patients in the Center and will be trained to handle the unique needs of people with sensory impairments, behavioral problems, psychosocial issues, and other conditions requiring sensitive and comprehensive handling.

“Along with training our students, a key goal of the Center will be to educate practicing clinicians, teachers, nurses, and caregivers on how preventive practices and teamwork can improve the quality of life for both the disabled and their families,” adds Dean Wolff. “We plan to develop and report on best practices for serving this population.”

The Center will also be a hub for research with the Colgate Innovation Laboratory embedded within the facility. Through the Innovation Laboratory, Colgate experts will work side by side with Penn Dental Medicine faculty, students, and researchers throughout the University of Pennsylvania to assess needs and develop and refine new dental products that facilitate optimal dental care for patients with disabilities.

By the Numbers: Recent Grads & Incoming Students CLASS OF 2020

68.8% 34.4% 26.8%

7.6%

27.4% 1.9% 1.3% 0.6%

OF THE 157-MEMBER CLASS OF 2020 WENT ON TO POSTDOCTORAL STUDY

entered specialty programs entered AEGD or General Practice Residency entered postdoctoral study in the military

pursued general practice entered military practice entered Public Health entered foreign military practice

CLASS OF 2022 PASS STUDENTS

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FOREIGN-TRAINED DENTISTS (22 WOMEN AND 12 MEN) JOINED THE 2ND-YEAR CLASS IN JANUARY 2020 AS PART OF THE PASS PROGRAM

13 countries are represented in this 34th class of the PASS program (Armenia, Cuba, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Nepal, Pakistan, Peru, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Russian Federation, and Yemen)

CLASS OF 2024

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STUDENTS MAKE UP THE FRESHMAN CLASS, 95 WOMEN AND 41 MEN, SELECTED FROM 1,992 APPLICANTS. THE OVERALL GPA OF THE CLASS IS 3.75 WITH A TOTAL SCIENCE GPA OF 3.70.

states and 4 foreign countries (Barbados, Canada, People’s Republic of China, and Vietnam) are represented.

27% of the class have a relative who is a dentist or other dental professional.

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Languages spoken: Albanian, Arabic, Aramaic, Cantonese, Fijian, French, German, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Igbo, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Malayam, Mandarin, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, Twi, Ukrainian, Urdo, and Vietnamese.

Virtual, Online CDE Programming Offers Myriad Options Remote operations of Penn Dental Medicine’s Office of Continuing Education due to the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t meant a reduction in course offerings, in fact, just the opposite, with a robust line up of virtual and online programming. From March through September, 111 virtual programs were presented, including 10 symposia and even a hands-on course, drawing a total of more than 33,500 attendees. There continues to be an ongoing schedule of programs, including:

DR. RODRIGO NEIVA PRESENTS THE CHAIR'S LECTURE SERIES

LOUIS I. GROSSMAN LECTURE SERIES

This weekly lecture series, held Thursdays from 6–8 pm ET, is developed with the Chair of the Dept. of Periodontics. Invited speakers cover a diversity of periodontics-related topics.

This monthly lecture series, held the second Friday of the month from 8–10 am ET, is hosted by the Department of Endodontics and features a variety of endodontic and interdisciplinary topics.

THE EXCELLENCE IN RESTORATIVE DENTISTRY LECTURE SERIES

PENN ORTHODONTIC DEPARTMENT LECTURE SERIES

Held Tuesdays from 5–6:30 pm ET, this weekly series addresses wide-ranging topics within restorative dentistry.

Beginning December 7 (6:30–8:00 pm ET), the Department of Orthodontics will host a monthly series presenting a variety of orthodontic topics.

Online Classroom Via the online classroom area of the School’s continuing education web page, (www.dental.upenn.edu/cde_online), learners can access a library of online courses to be taken at any time. Participants can opt to simply watch a lecture or earn CDE credit.

To learn more about the current offerings and keep up to date on new courses as they are developed, visit www.dental.upenn.edu/cde.

PENN DENTAL MEDICINE JOURNAL | FALL 2020 3

ONCAMPUS

New AEGD Program to Focus on Serving the Vulnerable PENN DENTAL MEDICINE has plans to launch an innovative postdoctoral training program in general dentistry designed to educate dental residents in primary dental care for vulnerable and underserved patients. The School has been awarded $2.1 million over five years from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in support of this new Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD) program.

“This new program builds on our ongoing efforts at Penn Dental Medicine to address persistent health disparities and difficulties in accessing oral health care for vulnerable and underserved patients in Philadelphia,” says Dr. David Hershkowitz, Division Chief of Restorative Dentistry at Penn Dental Medicine and Principal Investigator on the HRSA grant.

“It is our plan that program graduates will receive advanced knowledge, skills, and experiences to best serve these populations.”

Dental residents in the AEGD program are anticipated to be placed in two of the School’s community-based sites — Penn Dental Medicine at Sayre, a federally qualified health center (FQHC) where the School has a fourchair dental care center; and Penn Dental

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Medicine at Puentes de Salud, serving the Latino immigrant community, where Penn Dental Medicine provides primary dental care within a three-chair facility.

Dental residents will also complete clinical dental care within Penn Dental Medicine’s soon-to-open Care Center for Persons with Disabilities (see story, p. 2), and in the School’s clinical dental program for Survivors of Torture in partnership with Philadelphia’s Nationalities Service Center.

"Through Penn Dental Medicine's substantial ongoing investment in treating vulnerable populations, we see not only the need for excellent comprehensive dental care, but also the need for advanced training in the delivery of that care,” says Dr. Olivia Sheridan, Professor

of Clinical Restorative Dentistry, who leads the clinical care program for Survivors of Torture and will teach AEGD residents. “This program will provide that care and become a model

“It is our plan that program graduates will receive advanced knowledge, skills, and experiences to best serve these populations.”

— DR. DAVID HERSHKOWITZ

“Through ongoing investment in treating vulnerable populations, we see not only the need for excellent comprehensive dental care, but also the need for advanced training in the delivery of that care.”

— DR. OLIVIA SHERIDAN

for the advanced education of compassionate dental graduates to enhance their skills and understanding in the care of this population."

For the first two planning years (July 2020–June 2022), Penn Dental Medicine will develop the program and apply for approval from the Commission on Dental Accreditation.

It is anticipated that the first class will begin in July 2022, with four students accepted into the one-year program each year. Dr. Marc Henschel, joining Penn Dental Medicine in January 2021 will be the AEGD Program Director.

“The program will provide knowledge, skills, and clinical experiences in cultural competency and health literacy,” adds Dr. Joan Gluch, Division Chief of Community Oral Health and a member of the program faculty. “We will also be tracking outcomes and develop systems for evaluating program impact regarding both access to care for the vulnerable and underserved and the quality of care received by patients.”

OPPOSITE: Residents in the Advanced Education in General Dentistry program will provide care in a number of the School’s community-based sites, including Penn Dental Medicine at Sayre (pictured), a federally qualified health center in West Philadelphia, where the School has a fourchair dental care center.

Master of Oral Health Sciences Program Launches BUILDING ON ITS ADVANCED DEGREE OPTIONS, Penn Dental Medicine has launched a new master’s program, introducing a Master of Oral Health Sciences (MOHS). The new program has two unique tracks ­— one for college graduates and a second for graduates of non-U.S. dental schools — both with the goal of preparing participants for the successful admissions to dental school.

the coursework is adapted from the first and second years of the dental school curriculum with the program culminating in a capstone project.

Along with enhancing academic knowledge in basic and clinical sciences and providing exposure to clinical dental care, the program helps to build communications skills and provides mentoring for the application process and admissions interviews. The track for

“The program is designed to provide interim training to those who want to improve their credentials to more effectively compete for dental school admissions.”

— DR. ESRA SAHINGUR

“The MOHS program is specifically designed to provide interim training to those individuals who want to pursue dental school and improve their credentials to more effectively compete for dental school admissions,” says Dr. Esra Sahingur, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Student Research and the MOHS Program Director.

“The curriculum exposes candidates to dental school courses and provides exposure to patient care and research.”

Candidates in both tracks rotate within the School’s general restorative and specialty clinics and

college graduates also offers guidance in preparing for the Dental Admission Test, while the track for foreign-trained dentists prepares candidates for the National Board Dental Exam and provides mentoring for the various aspects involved in pursuing a successful clinical career.

The MOHS program will welcome the first admissions cohort in July 2021. The MOHS for DMD/DDS candidates will accept up to four students and MOHS for non-U.S. trained dentists will accept up to ten students each year.

ABOVE: Dr. Esra Sahingur, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Student Research, will be the MOHS Program Director.

PENN DENTAL MEDICINE JOURNAL | FALL 2020 5

ONCAMPUS Dr. Yu Zhang, Leading Authority in Dental Biomaterials, Joins Faculty ADDING TO THE DEPTH OF THE SCHOOL’S RESEARCH ENTERPRISE, Dr. Yu Zhang has joined the faculty as Professor in the Department of Preventive & Restorative Sciences. A leading authority in dental biomaterials, Dr. Zhang’s appointment was effective July 1, coming to Penn Dental Medicine from New York University College of Dentistry (NYUCD).

Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research — one project focusing on the development of a nanostructured dental zirconia that is both strong and translucent and the other working to improve the fracture resistance of porcelain-veneered dental prostheses through the tailoring of residual stresses.

“Dr. Zhang’s experience fills a longstanding void in the Department,” adds Dr. Blatz, “and as a global leader in the field of dental biomaterials, he brings significant stature and worldwide recognition to the School and the University in an area of dentistry that is taking center stage.”

“It is with great enthusiasm that we welcome Dr. Yu Zhang, Professor, Dept. of Preventive Dr. Zhang to our Penn Dental Medicine com& Restorative Sciences munity,” says Morton Amsterdam Dean Mark S. Wolff. “His stellar academic and research record in the field of restorative dentistry will contribute greatly to the School.”

“It is without exaggeration to state that Dr. Zhang is one of the most respected if not the most respected dental ceramic researcher in the world,” notes Dr. Markus Blatz, Professor and Chair of the Department of Preventive & Restorative Sciences, who sees this recruitment as an important part of continuing to build on the Department’s leadership in the field of restorative dentistry. “Much of his work and inventions focus “It is without exaggeration on clinical applications and improvements of zirconia dental ceramics, which have become by far the most popular ceramic materials group to state that Dr. Zhang is in dental practice. What separates Dr. Zhang is the clinical relevance one of the most respected and applicability of his work, bridging the gap between dental material sciences and clinical practice in both his research and teaching.” if not the most respected Dr. Zhang’s academic career spans 15 years with NYUCD, where he most dental ceramic researcher recently served as Professor with tenure (2018-2020) in the Department of in the world,” Biomaterials and Biomimetics. He joined that Department in 2005 as an Assistant Professor (2005–2011), rising to Associate Professor (2011–2013), — DR. MARKUS BLATZ Associate Professor with tenure (2013–2018), and then, Professor with tenure.

Throughout his time at NYUCD, Dr. Zhang was an active research mentor, advising postdoctoral fellows, PhD, and Masters students on biomaterialsrelated research.

A highly funded researcher, Dr. Zhang has had over 10 years of continuous support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as well as significant grant funding from the dental industry and the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Zhang presently has two active R01 grant awards from the NIH’s National

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New Members Join Advisory Boards Penn Dental Medicine has expanded its advisory boards, welcoming new members to both its Board of Advisors and Dean’s Council. Joining the Board is Steven W. Kess and adding to the Dean’s Council are Drs. Stefani Cheung (C’08, D’11), Meetu Kohli (D'02, GD'05), and Daniell J. Mishaan (D’03).

Steven W. Kess brings extensive experience in public-private partnerships as well as business and public policy issues to the Board. As Vice President of Global Professional Relations for Henry Schein, Inc., a Fortune 500® company and the world’s largest provider of health care products and services to office-based dental and medical practitioners, he was instrumental in developing Henry Schein Cares, its global corporate social responsibility program. He is also the founding President of the Henry Schein Cares Foundation. Kess has been with Henry Schein since 1991, serving in executive management positions in both the medical and dental divisions of this multinational company.

Kess has been a long-time advocate for health and oral health equity for those with disabilities and for seniors. He was a co-founder of Project Accessible Oral Health along with Penn Dental Medicine’s Dean, Dr. Mark S. Wolff, and John Kemp.

Active in volunteer and advisory roles throughout his career, Kess is presently President of the Santa Fe Group (SFG), a nonprofit think tank dedicated to improving oral health for the public, and has served on the boards of the American Dental Association Foundation, Oral Health America, the U.S. National Oral Health Alliance, Friends of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, and the Alpha Omega International Dental Fraternity. From 2006 to 2012, Kess also served as Founding Chairman of the National Advisory Board for the American Dental Association’s “Give Kids a Smile” program, which has provided free dental screenings, treatment, and education to more than six million underserved children.

Joining the Dean’s Council are three Penn Dental Medicine alumni — Dr. Stefani Cheung (C’08, D’11), Dr. Meetu Kohli (D'02, GD'05), and Dr. Daniell J. Mishaan (D’03).

Dr. Stefani Cheung, who also holds a Master of Dental Surgery in Implant Dentistry from the University of Hong Kong, practices general dentistry in Hong Kong, having joined the practice of her father, Penn Dental Medicine Board Chair Dr. William Cheung (D’81, GD’82), in 2014. She is also Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Division of Restorative Dentistry at Penn Dental Medicine and Senior Clinical Practitioner at the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Dentistry. Dr. Cheung has been a member of the Alumni Society Executive Committee since her graduation in 2011.

Dr. Meetu Kohli is Clinical Associate Professor at Penn Dental Medicine and directs the continuing education and International Visiting Scholar Program within the School’s Department of Endodontics. She holds a BDS degree from Government Dental College, Bangalore, India, and earned her DMD and postgraduate certificate in endodontics at Penn Dental Medicine. A Diplomate of the American Board of Endodontics, she is on the Scientific Advisory Board as a reviewer for the Journal of Endodontics, International Endodontic Journal and Quintessence International. She currently serves on the Research and Scientific Affairs Committee of the American Association of Endodontists (AAE) and has also served on the Constitution and Bylaws Committee. An examiner for the Indian Board of Endodontics, Dr. Kohli also maintains a part-time private practice limited to endodontics in Pennsylvania.

After earning his DMD from Penn Dental Medicine in 2003, Dr. Daniell J. Mishaan pursued dental practice in New York City.

He worked in dental offices on Central Park West and Madison Ave. before opening Midtown Dental Group in 2008.

Located within the Fashion District, his practice offers a full range of services, including general, restorative, preventative, periodontal, and cosmetic dentistry.

Both the Council and Board act as advisory groups to School leadership on matters that can range from policy and practice to alumni relations and fundraising efforts, while also providing counsel in their areas of expertise.

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ONCAMPUS “I love to present and teach, so I can definitely see myself being involved in academic dentistry in the future.”

— GRACE HUANG (D’21)

STUDENT PROFILE: GRACE HUANG (D’21)

Excelling at Research, Sharing her Talents Since arriving at Penn Dental Medicine, fourth-year student Grace Huang (D’21) has been devoted to student research, an interest she developed in high school. This year, Huang gained special recognition for her work as the first-place winner (junior category) of the 2020 American Association for Dental Research (AADR) Hatton Competition. The prestigious annual competition awards prizes in three categories with winners selected from the top abstracts submitted nationwide.

While Huang views research as an integral part of her dental education, as a dental student, she has lent her varied talents to many aspects of student life, serving as the Academic Chair for the Class of 2021; the president of Penn Dental Medicine’s premier a cappella group, SoundBites; and the president of the Penn Shotokan Karate Club. Huang, who has participated in both Research and Periodontics Honors, was awarded the William S. Kramer Award of Excellence by the Omicron Kappa Upsilon Honor Society last year. And her interests outside of school take her to center stage, as both an operatic soprano and pop rock vocalist.

“Penn Dental Medicine has provided so many different opportunities to learn and grow personally and professionally,” says Huang. “In regard to research, it has allowed me to interact with invaluable mentors, while broadening my perspective and understanding as a clinician.”

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AN EXPLORATION OF BACTERIA, TOXINS, AND IMMUNE RESPONSE Huang, who entered Penn Dental Medicine through the seven-year Bio-Dental Program, got involved in research at the School even before coming here as a student. She met her research mentor, Dr. Bruce Shenker, Professor in the Department of Basic & Translational Science, while presenting a poster at an International Association for Dental Research (IADR) meeting as a Penn undergraduate freshman. She started working in his lab later that year.

“Dr. Shenker has been extremely supportive,” says Huang. “He suggested that I apply to the Research Honors Program before starting my D1 year, and I spent much of the spring semester of my junior year and the following summer performing experiments.”

Huang worked with Dr. Shenker on the winning project of the Hatton Competition, titled “Cytolethal Distending Toxin (Cdt) Induces Macrophages to Release Pro-Inflammatory Mediators.”

“My project is about the putative periodontal pathogen Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (Aa), its cytolethal distending toxin (Cdt), and this toxin’s proinflammatory effects on macrophages,” says Huang. “Previous studies have demonstrated Cdt’s ability to induce macrophages to secrete pro-inflammatory cytokines, and the goal of this study was to determine its effects on other pro-inflammatory mediators. Basically, this helps us understand how this toxin affects a component of the host’s immune response.”

IN THE ERA OF COVID, A VIRTUAL SUBMISSION As a 2019 recipient of a Penn Dental Medicine AADR Travel Award for this project, Huang would have attended this year’s IADR/AADR/ CADR annual meeting in March to present her work. With the meeting cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, the AADR Hatton Competition finalists were asked to submit slide and video presentations and were judged on their submission. Judging criteria included originality and design of the investigation, quality of the data produced, suitability of the methods of analysis used, scientific value of the work, quality of the oral presentation, and demonstration of mastery of the subject.

Huang believes her research experiences have encouraged her to think more critically and seek a deeper understanding of everything she does as a clinician as well.

“Certainly, learning about the pathophysiology of Aa virulence factors is directly applicable to understanding patients’ clinical presentations,” says Huang, “but also, many of my patients want to understand the logic behind the procedures and the materials.

Being able to communicate the rationale or the science behind everything I do during an appointment has allowed me to build more meaningful and trusting relationships with my patients. That’s also what’s so great about Penn’s advocacy for evidence-based care.”

A TEAM EFFORT As for the achievement of taking a top prize in the Hatton Competition, Huang stresses it was a team effort. “This would not have been possible without the guidance of Dr. Shenker and Lisa Pankoski-Walker from his lab; the opportunity provided by Penn Dental Medicine Research Day; and the feedback from Dr. Kathleen Boesze-Battaglia, Professor and Director of the Research Honors Program, about my presentation,” says Huang.

Huang is preparing to apply to specialty programs and hopes to stay involved in research during her postdoctoral study and throughout her career: “I love to present and teach, so I can definitely see myself being involved in academic dentistry in the future.”

Dr. Marie-Elena Cronin (D’20, GD’22) Recognized with Student Leadership Award

Dr. Marie-Elena Cronin (D’20, GD’22), a 2020 graduate of Penn Dental Medicine’s DMD program, was recognized by the Delta Dental Community Care Foundation as a recipient of its 2020 Student Leadership Award.

The Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Delta Dental of California, presents the awards annually to exceptional graduates in recognition of their leadership and dedication to providing dental care and oral health education to the various communities in which Delta Dental serves.

Recipients are nominated by the dental schools in Delta Dental’s 15-state and D.C. service area, chosen for their leadership skills as demonstrated by the student’s activities and accomplishments during dental school; public service commitment as demonstrated by civic and community involvement related to dental service; and outstanding service or accomplishments in the field of dentistry or related science.

Selected Student Leadership Award recipients receive $10,000 from the Foundation as they embark on the next stage of their dental careers. The hope is that these students will carry their passion for service forward as they begin clinical practice and give back to their communities.

Dr. Cronin was actively engaged in a variety of leadership roles and service activities throughout her time at Penn Dental Medicine. One of her key positions was serving as Executive Director of the Philadelphia Oral Cancer 5K & Walk, an annual student outreach and fundraising event. Through her leadership and passion for the project, she helped to motivate student volunteers to build participation in the event to new levels. In 2019, they had over 500 runners and walkers and raised $20,000 in support of oral cancer research (The 2020 event had to be cancelled due to COVID-19).

“This past year, we created a fund where all the money we raise goes directly to oral cancer research right here at Penn Dental, which was a breakthrough for our organization,” says Dr. Cronin.

In the area of community service, Dr. Cronin was a community honors student, completing her community health honors project with the Homeless Health Initiative (HHI), a multidisciplinary program through Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) that provides free education and health services to children living in homeless shelters.

“When I started volunteering with HHI, I thought the most important part of this program was detecting cavities,” recalls Dr. Cronin. “Now, I realize the value of patient education. By simply spending a few minutes with each child to educate them on the importance of taking care of their teeth through oral hygiene and diet, we can make a great impact on the lives of these especially vulnerable children.”

Dr. Cronin is presently pursuing postdoctoral training in orthodontics at Penn Dental Medicine.

ABOVE: Dr. Marie-Elena Cronin (D’20, GD’22) is presently pursuing postdoctoral training in the School’s orthodontics program.

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NAVIGATING A NEW NORMAL

MEETING ACADEMIC GOALS AND PATIENT CARE NEEDS DURING COVID-19 ON FRIDAY, MARCH 13, the University of Pennsylvania halted on-campus operations for all students, faculty, and staff due to the rapidly emerging threat of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, and the resulting COVID-19 disease.

That day in March began the start of a new normal that has permeated every aspect of University life.

Over the next few months, with a nimble response to virtual instruction and new policies and procedures in place to protect the health and safety of students, faculty, staff, and patients, Penn Dental Medicine worked to ensure that students, particularly those graduating, were able to complete all necessary experiences and competencies and return to campus, and that clinical care was able to resume for a full range of patients.

OPPOSITE: Among the safety protocols put in place is PennOpen Pass, an online daily symptom tracker required for students, faculty, and staff; temperature checks and hand sanitizer by the entrance; extensive signage on social distancing; and comprehensive PPE for clinical care. Dr. Najeed Saleh (center), has managed clinical protocols, while courses have moved to virtual instruction.

RIGHT: A thermal screening unit is located within the School’s atrium to screen patients and visitors as they enter the building. A similar unit is used at the entrance designated for students at the rear of the Evans Building.

While uncertainty about the trajectory of the pandemic is perhaps the one certainty in these unprecedented times, the School continues to fulfill its academic, clinical, and research missions, while utilizing best practices to ensure the safety of the entire Penn Dental Medicine community and the patients served.

“Indeed, the impact of COVID-19 on our students, faculty, staff, and patients cannot be overstated. Over the past eight months, we have all had to venture into unknown territory, but everyone at Penn Dental continues to respond to the challenges with great care and commitment to the School, our patients and each other,” says Penn Dental Medicine’s Morton Amsterdam Dean, Dr. Mark S. Wolff.

“I am so proud of the adaptability and resilience of the entire Penn Dental Medicine community in their great work to maintain academic and research progress as well as safely provide patient care.”

PROVIDING PATIENT CARE DURING COVID-19 As in much of the country, and the world, the weeks around mid-March were a rollercoaster for Penn Dental Medicine’s clinical care. As the University announced a shift to online instruction, the dental clinics halted normal operations on March 13, and reopened the following Monday solely for urgent care, treating cases that didn’t require aerosolproducing procedures, such as drilling. Less than a week later, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf issued guidelines that shut down emergency operations at the School and nearly every dental practice in the state.

With lobbying by Dean Wolff and the Deans of the state’s other dental schools as well as organized dentistry in Pennsylvania, those guidelines were revised and emergency care resumed on March 30.

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NEWNORMAL “It was quite difficult for us as providers; you feel powerless when patients can’t be helped,” says Dr. Najeed Saleh, Associate Dean of Clinical Affairs and Professor of Clinical Restorative Dentistry. Even with the limitations, the School was able to treat many patients during this time for such emergencies as tooth extractions, infections, denture adjustments, and crown cementations.

“There were certain cases where we resolved the problem for the patient completely, and they were very appreciative,” says Dr. Saleh. (Read Dr. Saleh’s perspective on responding to the pandemic on p. 17).

In the early days of the pandemic, Dr. Saleh managed the recruitment of faculty to care for patients with emergency needs while following new safety protocols. Patient

“With the leadership of Dean Wolff, we were able to not only prepare for the current situation, but to continuously have a futuristic look to prepare for additional changes and keep everyone safe.”

– DR. NAJEED SALEH

care also went remote through teledentistry with faculty conducting about 40 teledentistry “visits” daily at that time, prescribing medications and answering questions. Dean Wolff points to the success of teledentistry as a significant takeaway of the pandemic response.

“I think we will find new ways of doing this and interacting with patients going forward,” he says. He’s especially hopeful that the current relaxing of HIPAA restrictions will be re-examined once the pandemic ends, which would allow expanded access to dental services remotely.

Meanwhile, a three-stage plan was developed to fully reopen for patient care. The first phase, starting June 3, enabled a small cohort

12 WWW.DENTAL.UPENN.EDU

of fourth-year (Class of 2020) students who needed to complete some hands-on clinical requirements to graduate to do so. Students and faculty had to be fitted for N95 masks, and clinical care (still limited to urgent cases) was operating at reduced capacity to facilitate distancing.

In the second phase, starting July 6, rising third- and fourth-year students returned to the clinics to treat patients with specific needs that would satisfy the students’ clinical requirements. At the same time, faculty clinicians continued to provide urgent and emergency care for patients across a full range of procedures, including those requiring aerosol, with new safety precautions in place. The third phase, starting

August 17, welcomed first- and second-year students to the campus to start their educational program.

In each phase, COVID-19 testing was required for all students, and Dr. Saleh notes that some students had to quarantine for 14 days depending on which states they were returning from. By mid-August, Penn Dental Medicine was providing a full range of patient care, and presently, clinical care is operating close to full capacity.

It is not, however, business as usual.

Aerosol procedures are now being done with multiple mitigations, including frequent air exchange, use of rubber dams when possible, increased strength of high volume evacuation, and the use of electric hand pieces at reduced speeds with water stream only — no spray.

In addition, new safety protocols throughout the School include HVAC system modifications, sanitizer stations, traffic controls to ensure social distancing, plexiglass screens, and signs throughout Penn Dental Medicine to help ensure the health and safety of patients, faculty, students, and staff.

Full personal protective equipment (PPE) for faculty and students and masks for patients

are required. Temperature-taking and thermal screening stations greet visitors, staff, students, and faculty just inside the building and masks are required to enter the School.

In addition, the new PennOpen Pass, used throughout the University, is an online daily symptom tracker that requires faculty, students, and staff to answer questions regarding their health and social contacts to enable them to get the “green light” to enter Penn Dental Medicine and all Penn facilities.

If they answer “yes” to any questions, they are not permitted to enter any Penn buildings and are provided with information on testing and other assistance.

Patients are similarly questioned both prior to dental appointments and the day of, as well as two days after, to confirm they were healthy and didn’t potentially spread the virus. Dr. Saleh points out that many of these protocols can be used in private practice, but Penn Dental Medicine alumni also need to follow their own state health department guidelines.

“We are strictly enforcing all of this — compliance is a must,” says Dr. Saleh, noting the challenge now is to review and adjust safety protocols as needed to ensure they continue to be based on the best evidence at that time.

“With the leadership of Dean Wolff,” Dr. Saleh says, “we were able to not only prepare for the current situation, but to continuously have a futuristic look to prepare for additional changes and keep everyone safe.”

KEEPING ACADEMICS ON TRACK Academically, the Class of 2020 was finishing up the last few months as Penn Dental Medicine students when the world seemingly came to a halt in mid-March due to COVID-19. With the clinical settings closed for all but urgent care, they still had to complete clinical competency exams to graduate in May. “A real pressing concern was ensuring that students fulfilled both our programmatic and national requirements for graduation,” says Dr. Faizan Alawi, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Pathology.

In a typical year, dental students prove their clinical competencies by treating real patients. But spring 2020 was anything but normal, and the School had to come up with

another way, just as exacting, for fourth-year students to demonstrate their expertise.

To accomplish this, Dr. Alawi says department chairs and faculty were asked to create case-based, virtual assessments that covered all parameters previously included in patient-based assessments — except for the actual work on patients.

The one-on-one video examinations had to meet Commission on Dental Accreditation standards, and some students had multiple assessments. In all, several hundred online assessments were completed within about one month — in time for the May 18 virtual commencement ceremony.

“In some ways, it was more challenging than patient-based assessments,” Dr. Alawi says. “Students were asked to describe a

“In some ways, it [a virtual assessment] was more challenging than patient-based assessments. Students were asked to describe a technique in detail without actually doing it.”

– DR. FAIZAN ALAWI

OPPOSITE: Presently, clinical care is operating close to full capacity. Students and faculty providing care use full PPE, part of which includes a face shield over two masks and loupes.

RIGHT: Dr. Faizan Alawi, lecturing in the Biological Systems course. Currently, all dental lectures are being delivered online with the exception of first-year students, with a quarter of the class at a time coming to campus for in-person lectures.

PENN DENTAL MEDICINE JOURNAL | FALL 2020 13

NEWNORMAL technique in detail without actually doing it and were graded on a strict criteria-based rubric.”

At the same time, a number of fourthyear and postgraduate students still needed to fulfill clinical experiences for certain patient procedures to assure the completeness of their education, and were the first students to return when the phased reopening of the teaching clinics began on June 3.

Meanwhile, as the pandemic continued, plans were developed for this fall semester to ensure that the pedagogical and clinical needs of all undergraduate and postgraduate

Currently, all dental lectures are being delivered online; attendance is mandatory and students must watch them in real time.

The only exception is for first-year students, with one-quarter of the class at a time coming to campus to attend the lectures in person.

Another change is that preclinical simulation laboratory days are now longer and run from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., with staggered hours that allow small groups of students to rotate in for about three hours each.

Considering the disruption to didactic and clinical instruction since last spring, Dr. Alawi is pleased that Penn Dental Medicine

"We’ve never had to shift the academic program to this extent; it was a real undertaking that required the efforts and cooperation of the entire faculty and student body."

– DR. FAIZAN ALAWI

specialty students would continue to be met, while safeguarding the health of students, faculty, and patients. This includes following all new safety policies and protocols for entering Penn Dental Medicine facilities and working in the clinical settings, which now also includes second-year students per recent clinical curriculum revisions (see related story, p. 24).

“We’re moving forward; we’re seeing all patients,” says Dr. Alawi, who in May gave a presentation to the American Dental Education Association on Penn Dental Medicine’s COVID-19 experience, highlighting both early steps to keep the academic program advancing and later plans to bring students back to campus for instruction and clinical work.

14 WWW.DENTAL.UPENN.EDU

has been able to promptly make appropriate adjustments and ensure the academic needs of undergraduate and postgraduate students continue to be met. At the same time, continuing education needs for practicing clinicians have also continued to be met, with the School launching a robust schedule of virtual courses last spring that is ongoing (see story, p. 3).

“We’ve never had to shift the academic program to this extent; it was a real undertaking that required the efforts and cooperation of the entire faculty and student body,” says Dr. Alawi of the impact of COVID-19.

“We worked together to pull this off and, in the end, we did it really well.”

— By Debbie Goldberg

TOP: Traffic controls and floor decals are used at the entrance and throughout the school to ensure social distancing.

ABOVE, LEFT: Dr. Todd Singer, conducting a teledentistry appointment. In the early stages of the pandemic, faculty conducted about 40 “visits” per day, prescribing medications and answering questions.

ABOVE, RIGHT: Faculty and student PPE protocols include a surgical mask over an N95 mask.

RIGHT: Masking is required for all staff and visitors entering the building and plexiglass barriers were added both at the security desk by the entrance and at the check-in desks within the clinics.

Tackling COVID-related Studies as Research Resumes THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA SUDDENLY SHIFTED to remote operations on March 13 and research across the Penn campus essentially ceased. Except for two COVID-19 projects, research at Penn Dental Medicine stopped and quickly went to a maintenance phase that involved securing equipment and reducing the size of the animal colonies.

Since then, research went through two ramp-up phases. In early June, Phase 1 resumption of research was initiated following University guidelines, which allowed research to proceed, but on a limited basis; each lab was required to develop an individual research plan with a limited number of people allowed in a lab at one time.

Research activities moved to Phase II on July 13, allowing additional population density in the labs, including participation by students in the School’s MSOB and DScD programs.

In September, an update was made to Phase II that has allowed for limited pairs of researchers to work cooperatively provided there was written permission and additional precautions were taken, including extra personal protective equipment (PPE). In this new phase, DMD students are now also allowed to participate in research projects.

“The current Phase II plan has enabled research to ramp up to a good level with most labs active,” says Dr. Dana Graves, Vice Dean for Research & Scholarship. “Yet the number of individuals able to work at any one time or work in teams continues to restrict research progress depending on the nature of the studies.” He notes that rigorous training in the use of PPE and other safety procedures is required for all who start or resume laboratory work.

And protocols are in place to support

social distancing, including a new one-way walking plan in the Levy Center for Oral Health Research.

“I think Penn has handled this well for the circumstances,” adds Dr. Graves. “There has been clarity across the campus on how to resume research activities with careful regulations and controls for the safety of all researchers. Compliance has generally been good.”

There is no time frame yet for a return to full research operations given

“There has been clarity across the campus on how to resume research activities with careful regulations and controls for the safety of all researchers.”

– DR. DANA GRAVES

the continued prevalence of COVID19. “The extra precautions, PPE, and utilization of remote work whenever possible has made the laboratories a safe place to work,” notes Dr. Graves.

Meanwhile, as Penn Dental Medicine’s research enterprise continues to move forward, a number of Penn Dental Medicine researchers are working on studies to potentially help in the understanding, treatment, and prevention of COVID-19 (see p. 16).

PENN DENTAL MEDICINE JOURNAL | FALL 2020 15

NEWNORMAL

COVID-Related Research Ongoing Penn Dental Medicine researchers are working on studies to potentially help in the understanding, treatment, and prevention of COVID-19.

USING PLANT-BASED PROTEINS FOR THERAPY, VACCINE

AN ANTIVIRAL DRUG TO PREVENT ACUTE RESPIRATORY DISTRESS

Dr. Henry Daniell, W.D. Miller Professor in the Department of Basic & Translational Sciences, is working on two novel strategies for combating COVID-19, both of which leverage decades of experience with the successful development of plant-based protein therapies to develop targeted oral therapeutics and vaccination strategies.

In the therapeutic realm, Dr. Daniell, in collaboration with Dr. Kenneth Margulies of Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, is pursuing first-in-human studies of an oral preparation that supplements two beneficial proteins — ACE2 and its protein product, angiotensin (1-7) — that are severely depleted in COVID-19 patients. It will assess whether a drug developed to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension could reduce lung and heart injuries in coronavirus patients.

The second project is focused on developing a plant-based oral vaccination to induce durable mucosal immunity that would boost waning immunity following an injected vaccine.

Virtually all COVID-19 vaccination strategies are employing injectables that will produce systemic immunity, Dr. Daniell says, but not mucosal immunity. Mucosal immunity, however, is required to protect at viral entry ports and to be more durable and effective in patients with compromised immune systems.

Both projects were awarded funding through Pennsylvania’s COVID-19 Vaccines, Treatments and Therapies program to support the rapid advancement of vaccines, treatments, and therapies.

The laboratory of Dr. Robert Ricciardi, Acting Chair and Professor of Basic & Translational Research, is working on research to develop an antiviral drug that would prevent extreme respiratory distress following infection with the COVID-19 virus. When the virus enters the nasal and oral cavities via air droplets, it may progress to the lungs and infect the air sacs that exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen. For this study, researchers are constructing special molecules to coat and mask the COVID-19 virus spike protein, which allows it to bind to the lungs’ epithelial cells, and could thus prevent the virus from infecting lung cells.

Such an antiviral drug is intended to be inhaled to prevent lung destruction and provide sufficient time for patients to develop immunity.

16 WWW.DENTAL.UPENN.EDU

ASSESSING TRANSMISSION IN AEROSOL-PRODUCING ENVIRONMENTS Dental practice includes the generation of aerosols, which are thought to increase the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. This study, launched earlier this fall in partnership with the Perelman School of Medicine, will determine whether the resumption of clinical dental practice increases the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection after baseline testing for the virus and compared to a large cohort of medical healthcare workers. Dr. Dana Graves, Professor of Periodontics and Vice Dean for Research & Scholarship, and Dr. David Hershkowitz, Division Chief of Restorative Dentistry, are the principal investigators.

The information from this study may help determine whether the protocols for PPE and infection control are effective against SARSCoV-2 transmission in an aerosol-generating environment. It is enrolling 300 Penn Dental Medicine practitioners who will have antibody testing performed at baseline and every two months for six months afterwards.

NOVEL THERAPEUTIC PATHWAYS TO PREVENT INFECTION Dr. Bruce Shenker, Professor of Pathology in the Department of Basic & Translational Science, is principal investigator for a study recently awarded by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research in response to its Notice of Special Interest Program for Urgent Competitive Revisions and Administrative Supplements for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). This funding supports groundwork for developing a novel, alternative, and potentially transformative therapeutic approach to mitigate SARS-CoV-2, or COVID-19, infection.

The multidisciplinary team on the grant includes Dr. Gary Cohen, Professor of Microbiology, Department of Basic & Translational Science, and Dr. Kathleen Boesze-Battaglia, Professor of Biochemistry, Department of Basic & Translational Sciences.

The scope of the original study, which focused on bacteria and lymphocyte suppression in periodontitis, has been expanded to build on the researchers’ recent observations from their current study on the cytolethal distending toxin, which may help identify novel therapeutic pathways for preventing SARSCoV-2 infection.

According to the grant proposal, to contain the SARS-CoV-2 infection, it is important to identify early molecular mechanisms that contribute to its high infectivity, as these likely also represent attractive targets for therapeutic intervention. As part of the study, researchers will investigate human oral and pulmonary epithelial cells, including those in the tongue, gingiva, and floor of the mouth.

FACULTYPERSPECTIVE VIEWS ON DENTAL TOPICS & TRENDS

• Nature of procedures — aerosol vs. non-aerosol, as well as prioritization of patients based on their needs and the stability and condition of their oral health.

• Level of community spread, which ultimately determines the risk of encountering and treating a potential COVID-19 carrier.

• Identifying high-risk patients, such as by age, pre-existing conditions, and those traveling on public transportation.

• Inclusion of teledentistry as an additional tool for providing care to a cohort of patients who could not be seen in person.

POLICY DEVELOPMENT

Contributed By: Dr. Najeed Saleh, Associate Dean of Clinical Affairs

Managing Clinical Care in COVID-19 When I was asked to write this faculty perspective, I had to relive and reflect back on the intensity of these times, which started nearly eight months ago, yet seems to be years in the past. The “mission continuity” exercises we engaged in annually did not seem to have the scripts on how to manage the scale of operations imposed on us by the SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic. There was no guide to follow and with the understanding of the virus constantly changing along with the CDC, governmental, and local mandates and guidelines, we have had to be continuously vigilant, updating our processes as needed.

STRATEGIES FOR REOPENING From March 16 through early June, we provided urgent and emergent care only to our patients, some in-person care and others through teledentistry (see related story, p. 10).

At that time, we could not engage in aerosol producing procedures due to the lack of N95

respirators. While having limited clinical operations, we continued to secure PPE and source N95 respirators. In addition, we continued to assess and adapt our operations, evaluating what was working and what wasn’t and ensuring the latest guidelines were being followed. All of this in anticipation of reopening Penn Dental Medicine with as normal operations as feasible.

The strategies we followed in our preparations for reopening were based on the following: • PPE supply — did we have a sustainable supply of proper PPE to keep everyone safe?

“We have had to be continuously vigilant, updating our processes as needed.”

— DR. NAJEED SALEH

Multiple iterations of policies were written that included: • Facilities engineering modifications, such as traffic control to allow for physical distancing, HVAC filtering upgrades, enhancement of the number of air-exchanges each hour, introduction of plexiglass barriers, designation of dining areas, increase in the power of high-volume evacuation (HVE) during patient care, occupancy limitation in the patient waiting areas, and environmental infection-control measures (i.e., signage, hand sanitization stations, and antimicrobial wipes utilizing materials approved on the EPA “list N”).

• Masking requirements for all individuals entering Penn Dental Medicine.

• Screening stations for monitoring body temperature as well as symptoms/exposure attestation stations for students, faculty, and staff, in addition to screening stations for patients.

• Developing a COVID-19 infection-control supplement, following CDC and other regulatory authorities’ guidelines, customized to Penn Dental Medicine clinics, procedures, and departments.

• Training on infection-control procedures, and scheduling and coordination of respirator fitting for all providers and clinical staff. continued on page 22

PENN DENTAL MEDICINE JOURNAL | FALL 2020 17

ACADEMICUPDATE

DEPARTMENT/FACULTY NEWS & SCHOLARSHIP

BASIC & TRANSLATIONAL SCIENCES NEWS/ACHIEVEMENTS

Cairns TM, Atanasiu D, Saw WT, Lou H, Whitbeck JC, Ditto NT, Bruun B, Browne H, Bennett L, Wu C, Krummenacher C, Brooks BD, Eisenberg RJ, Cohen GH. Localization of the interaction site of herpes simplex virus glycoprotein D (gD) on the membrane fusion regulator, gH/gL. J Virol. 2020 Aug 5:JVI.0098320. PMID: 32759318.

Chompunud Na Ayudhya C, Roy S, Thapaliya M, Ali H. Roles of a Mast Cell-Specific Receptor MRGPRX2 in Host Defense and Inflammation. J Dent Res. 2020 Jul;99(8):882-890. PMID: 32392433.

Dr. Faizan Alawi, Professor, was selected to be part of the 2020-2021 cohort of Penn Fellows. The Penn Fellows Program provides leadership development to select Penn faculty in mid-career, offering opportunities to build alliances across the University, meet distinguished academic leaders, think strategically about University governance, and consult with Penn’s senior administrators.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

A selection of recently published work by department faculty (indicated in bold).

Boesze-Battaglia K, Dhingra A, Walker LM, Zekavat A, Shenker BJ. Internalization and Intoxication of Human Macrophages by the Active Subunit of the Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans Cytolethal Distending Toxin Is Dependent Upon Cellugyrin (Synaptogyrin-2). Front Immunol.

2020;11:1262. Published 2020 Jun 16.

PMID: 32655562; Brooks BD, Closmore A, Yang J, Holland M, Cairns T, Cohen GH, Bailey-Kellogg C. Characterizing Epitope Binding Regions of Entire Antibody Panels by Combining Experimental and Computational Analysis of Antibody: Antigen Binding Competition. Molecules. 2020 Aug 11;25(16):E3659. PMID: 32796656.

18 WWW.DENTAL.UPENN.EDU

Egan KP, Hook LM, Naughton A, Pardi N, Awasthi S, Cohen GH, Weissman D, Friedman HM. An HSV-2 nucleoside-modified mRNA genital herpes vaccine containing glycoproteins gC, gD, and gE protects mice against HSV-1 genital lesions and latent infection. PLoS Pathog. 2020 Jul 27;16(7):e1008795.

PMID: 32716975.

Farahi A, Buchbinder WF, Adappa ND, Granquist E, Alawi F (co-author Dept. of Oral Surgery/Pharmacology). Chronic maxillary sinus discomfort. J Am Dent Assoc. 2020 May;151(5):368-373.

PMID: 31708082.

Feres M, Retamal-Valdes B, Fermiano D, Faveri M, Figueiredo LC, Mayer M, Lee JJ, Bittinger K, Teles F. "Microbiome changes in young periodontitis patients treated with adjunctive metronidazole and amoxicillin". J Periodontol. 2020 Aug 25. doi: 10.1002/JPER.20-0128.

Epub ahead of print. PMID: 32844406.

Galli A, Moreno Pires S, Iha K, Alves AA, Lin D, Mancini MS, Teles F. Sustainable food transition in Portugal: Assessing the Footprint of dietary choices and gaps in national and local food policies. Sci Total Environ. 2020 Aug 8;749:141307. Epub ahead of print.

PMID: 32846345.

CELLULAR CLEANUP

By mimicking the cellular cleanup process known as efferocytosis, research from the lab of Dr. George Hajishengallis has identified a new strategy for addressing a rare genetic disease that causes inflammation around the body. See the following article: Kajikawa T, Wang B, Li X, Wang H, Chavakis T, Moutsopoulos NM, Hajishengallis G. Frontline Science: Activation of metabolic nuclear receptors restores periodontal tissue homeostasis in mice with leukocyte adhesion deficiency-1. J Leukoc Biol. 2020 May 18. PMID: 32421906.

Govindjee G, Briskin DP, Benning C, Daniell H, Kolossov V, Scheer H, Rebeiz M. From δ-aminolevulinic acid to chlorophylls and every step in between: in memory of Constantin (Tino) A. Rebeiz, 1936-2019. Photosynth Res. 2020 Aug;145(2):71-82. PMID: 32458186.

Hajishengallis G. Oral bacteria and leaky endothelial junctions in remote extraoral sites. FEBS J. 2020 Aug 25.

PMID: 32844552.

Hajishengallis G, Chavakis T, Lambris JD. Current understanding of periodontal disease pathogenesis and targets for host-modulation therapy. Periodontol 2000. 2020 Oct;84(1):14-34. PMID: 32844416.

Hughes S, Gumas J, Lee R, Rumano M, Berger N, Gautam AK, Sfyroera G, Chan AL, Gnanaguru G, Connor KM, Kim BJ, Dunaief JL, Ricklin D, Hajishengallis G, Yancopoulou D, Reis ES, Mastellos DC, Lambris JD. Prolonged intraocular residence and retinal tissue distribution of a fourth-generation compstatin-based C3 inhibitor in non-human primates.

Clin Immunol. 2020 May;214:108391.

PMID: 32229292.

Ko E, McNamara K, Ditty D, Alawi F. Intraneural perineurioma of the mandible: case series of a rare entity. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol. 2020 Jul 21:S2212-4403(20)31108-1. PMID: 32868253.

Kourtzelis I, Hajishengallis G, Chavakis T. Phagocytosis of Apoptotic Cells in Resolution of Inflammation. Front Immunol. 2020 Mar 31;11:553. PMID: 32296442.

Kumar SRP, Wang X, Avuthu N, Bertolini TB, Terhorst C, Guda C, Daniell H, Herzog RW. Role of Small Intestine and Gut Microbiome in Plant-Based Oral Tolerance for Hemophilia. Front Immunol. 2020 May 20;11:844. PMID: 32508814.

Li X, Colamatteo A, Kalafati L, Kajikawa T, Wang H, Lim JH, Bdeir K, Chung KJ, Yu X, Fusco C, Porcellini A, De Simone S, Matarese G, Chavakis T, De Rosa V, Hajishengallis G. The DEL-1-β3 integrin axis promotes regulatory T cell responses during inflammation resolution. J Clin Invest. 2020 Aug 20:137530. PMID: 32817592.

Li X, Yang S, Han L, Mao K, Yang S. Ciliary IFT80 is essential for intervertebral disc development and maintenance.

FASEB J. 2020 May;34(5):6741-6756.

PMID: 32227389.

Liu M, Alharbi M, Graves D, Yang S (co-author Dept. of Periodontics).

IFT80 Is Required for Fracture Healing Through Controlling the Regulation of TGF-β Signaling in Chondrocyte Differentiation and Function. J Bone Miner Res. 2020 Mar;35(3):571-582. PMID: 31643106.

Maekawa T, Tamura H, Domon H, Hiyoshi T, Isono T, Yonezawa D, Hayashi N, Takahashi N, Tabeta K, Maeda T, Oda M, Ziogas A, Alexaki VI, Chavakis T, Terao Y, Hajishengallis G. Erythromycin inhibits neutrophilic inflammation and mucosal disease by upregulating DEL-1.

JCI Insight. 2020 Aug 6;5(15):136706.

PMID: 32603314.

Mitroulis I, Kalafati L, Bornhäuser M, Hajishengallis G, Chavakis T. Regulation of the Bone Marrow Niche by Inflammation. Front Immunol. 2020 Jul 21;11:1540.

PMID: 32849521.

Nagai K, Ideguchi H, Kajikawa T, Li X, Chavakis T, Cheng J, Messersmith P., Heber-Katz E. Hajishengallis G. An injectable hydrogel-formulated inhibitor of prolyl-4-hydroxylase promotes T regulatory cell recruitment and enhances alveolar bone regeneration during resolution of experimental periodontitis.

The FASEB Journal. 2020 Aug 19; 00: 1– 15.

Ning G, Yan X, Chen H, Dong R, Zhang W, Ruan Y, Wang W, Bao M, Daniell H, Jin S. Genetic manipulation of Soc1like genes promotes photosynthesis in flowers and leaves and enhances plant tolerance to high temperature.

Plant Biotechnol J. 2020 Jun 16. PMID: 32544290.

Oscarsson J, DiRienzo J, Johansson A. Editorial comments to the special issue: “Aggregaterbacter actinomycetemcomitans — Gram-negative bacterial pathogen”. Pathogens (Basel). 2020;9(6):441.

Ryan SK, Gonzalez MV, Garifallou JP, Bennett FC, Williams KS, Sotuyo NP, Mironets E, Cook K, Hakonarson H, Anderson SA, Jordan-Sciutto KL. Neuroinflammation and EIF2 Signaling Persist despite Antiretroviral Treatment in an hiPSC Tri-culture Model of HIV Infection. Stem Cell Reports. 2020 Apr 14;14(4):703-716. PMID: 32220329.

Singh M, Teles F, Uzel NG, Papas A. Characterizing Microbiota from Sjögren's Syndrome Patients.

JDR Clin Trans Res. 2020 Jul 20:2380084420940623. PMID: 32689841.

Smith LR, Kok HJ, Zhang B, Chung D, Spradlin RA, Rakoczy KD, Lei H, Boesze-Battaglia K, Barton ER. Matrix Metalloproteinase 13 from Satellite Cells is Required for Efficient Muscle Growth and Regeneration. Cell Physiol Biochem. 2020 Apr 11;54(3):333-353.

PMID: 32275813.

Teles FRF, Alawi F, Castilho RM, Wang Y (co-author Dept. of Periodontics). Association or Causation?

Exploring the Oral Microbiome and Cancer Links. J Dent Res. 2020 Aug 18:22034520945242. PMID: 32811287.

TEACHING AWARDS The Class of 2020 recognized faculty with the annual teaching awards, who were acknowledged as part of the virtual commencement ceremony in May. This year’s recipients included: Dr. Frank Setzer (GD’06, MS’07, D’10), Assistant Professor of Endodontics, receiving the Earle Bank Hoyt Award, presented for excellence in teaching to a Penn Dental Medicine graduate who is a full-time junior faculty member; Dr. Frank Smithgall (C’79, D’83), Clinical Associate Professor of Restorative Dentistry, receiving the Robert E. DeRevere Award, presented for excellence in preclinical teaching by a part-time faculty member; Dr. Michael Speirs, Lecturer, Department of Basic & Translational Sciences, receiving the Basic Science Award, presented for excellence in teaching within the basic sciences; Dr. David Nepa, Clinical Associate in the Department of Preventive & Restorative Sciences, receiving the Joseph L. T. Appleton Award, presented to a part-time faculty member for excellence in clinical teaching; and Art Kofman, C.D.T. Director of Laboratory Affairs and the Office of Laboratory Affairs Supervisor, receiving the Senior Outstanding Teaching Award, presented to a faculty/staff member who has gone beyond the scope of his/her responsibilities to significantly impact the class’s education.

Yuan G, Yang S, Ng A, Fu C, Oursler MJ, Xing L, Yang S. RGS12 Is a Novel Critical NF-κB Activator in Inflammatory Arthritis. iScience. 2020 Jun 26;23(6):101172.

PMID: 32512384.

Yuh DY, Maekawa T, Li X, Kajikawa T, Bdeir K, Chavakis T, Hajishengallis G. The secreted protein DEL-1 activates a β3 integrin-FAK-ERK1/2-RUNX2 pathway and promotes osteogenic differentiation and bone regeneration. J Biol Chem. 2020 May 22;295(21):72617273. PMID: 32280065.

ENDODONTICS NEWS/ACHIEVEMENTS

Wang Q, Zhu N, Hu J, Wang Y, Xu J, Gu Q, Lieberman PM, Yuan Y. The mTOR inhibitor manassantin B reveals a crucial role of mTORC2 signaling in Epstein-Barr virus reactivation. J Biol Chem. 2020 May 22;295(21):7431-7441.

PMID: 32312752.

A selection of recently published work by department faculty (indicated in bold).

Lee S, Park YT, Setzer FC. Combined Regenerative and Vital Pulp Therapies in an Immature Mandibular Molar: A Case Report. J Endod. 2020 Aug;46(8):10851090. PMID: 32553418.

Lee SM, Yu YH, Wang Y, Kim E, Kim S (co-author Dept. of Periodontics). The Application of "Bone Window" Technique in Endodontic Microsurgery. J Endod. 2020 Jun;46(6):872-880. PMID: 32312482.

Nesari R, Kratchman S, Saad M, Kohli MR. Selective Curettage: A Conservative Microsurgical Approach to Treating Large and Complicated Lesions. J Endod.

2020 Jul 29:S0099-2399(20)30537-9.

PMID: 32738339.

Setzer FC, Shi KJ, Zhang Z, Yan H, Yoon H, Mupparapu M, Li J (co-author Dept. of Oral Medicine). Artificial Intelligence for the Computer-aided Detection of Periapical Lesions in Cone-beam Computed Tomographic Images. J Endod. 2020 Jul;46(7):987-993. PMID: 32402466.

Wang X, Chen W, Yuan Y. KSHV enhances mesenchymal stem cell homing and promotes KS-like pathogenesis.

Virology. 2020 Aug 1;549:5-12. PMID: 32777727 Yang L, Teles F, Gong W, Dua SA, Martin L, Schoenfisch MH. Antibacterial action of nitric oxide-releasing hyperbranched polymers against ex vivo dental biofilms. Dent Mater. 2020 May;36(5):635-644. PMID: 32299667.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Effective July 1, Dr. Bekir Karabucak (GD’97, D’02), Chair, was promoted to Professor.

PENN DENTAL MEDICINE JOURNAL | FALL 2020 19

ACADEMICUPDATE ORAL MEDICINE SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

A selection of recently published work by department faculty (indicated in bold).

Ford BP, Alhendi F, Alawi F, Sanavi F, Stoopler ET (Co-author Depts. of Basic & Translational Sciences and Oral Surgery). A firm mass of the maxillary gingiva. J Am Dent Assoc. 2020 Sep 2:S0002-8177(20)30378-0. PMID: 32891398.

Ford BP, Stoopler ET (Co-author Dept. of Oral Surgery). Lobular Capillary Hemangioma of the Lip. J Emerg Med. 2020 Sep 8:S0736-4679(20)30714-9.

PMID: 32917445.

France K, Hangorsky U, Wu CW, Sollecito TP, Stoopler ET (co-author Dept. of Periodontics). Introduction to dental medicine: Analysis of a massive open online course in dentistry. J Dent Educ.

2020 Sep 2. PMID: 32876333.

France K, Villa A. Acute Oral Lesions.

Dermatol Clin. 2020 Oct;38(4):441450. PMID: 32892853.

Dr. Thomas Sollecito, Professor and Chair, and Dr. Eric Stoopler, Professor, edited the October issue of Dermatologic Clinics, emphasizing the partnership of oral medicine and dermatology. A number of the School’s faculty contributed articles.

Akinshipo AO, Effiom OA, Odukoya O, Akintoye SO. Consistency of color-deconvolution for analysis of image intensity of alpha smooth muscle actin-positive myofibroblasts in solid multicystic ameloblastomas. Biotech Histochem. 2020 Aug;95(6):411-417.

PMID: 32013582.

Akintoye SO, Mupparapu M. Clinical Evaluation and Anatomic Variation of the Oral Cavity. Dermatol Clin. 2020 Oct;38(4):399-411. PMID: 32892849.

Bindakhil M, Sollecito TP, Stoopler ET. Severe gingival swelling and erythema.

Cutis. 2020 Jun;105(6):E19-E21. PMID: 32716999.

Dayo AF, Amaechi BT, Noujeim M, Deahl ST, Gakunga P, Katkar R. Comparison of photothermal radiometry and modulated luminescence, intraoral radiography, and cone beam computed tomography for detection of natural caries under restorations. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol. 2020 May;129(5):539-548. PMID: 31956069

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Jeffcoat M, Sollecito T. Evidence, Junk Science, and Hope in a Time of Pandemic: On the Front Lines in Dentistry. Compend Contin Educ Dent. 2020 Sep;41(8):420-424; quiz 425. PMID: 32870698.

Khurana S, Parasher P, Mukherjee P, Mupparapu M, Lotlikar PP, Creanga AG. Cone beam computed tomographic-Based retrospective study on newark population for the assessment of distance between incisive canal and maxillary central incisors: Clinical implications. Indian J Dent Res. 2020 MarApr;31(2):175-179. PMID: 32436893.

Ko E. Social media wears a white coat now. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol. 2020 Aug;130(2):129. PMID: 32675029.

Matsumoto R, Arigami T, Matsushita D, Okubo K, Tanaka T, Yanagita S, Sasaki K, Noda M, Kita Y, Mori S, Kurahara H, Ohtsuka T. Conversion surgery for stage IV gastric cancer with a complete pathological response to nivolumab: a case report. World J Surg Oncol. 2020 Jul 21;18(1):179. PMID: 32693806.

Mupparapu M, Bass T, Axline D, Felice M, Magill D. Radiation dose reduction using novel size 1 and size 0 rectangular collimators in pediatric dental imaging.

Quintessence Int. 2020;51(6):502-509.

PMID: 32368765.

Pushalkar S, Paul B, Li Q, Yang J, Vasconcelos R, Makwana S, GonzĂĄlez JM, Shah S, Xie C, Janal MN, Queiroz E, Bederoff M, Leinwand J, Solarewicz J, Xu F, Aboseria E, Guo Y, Aguallo D, Gomez C, Kamer A, Shelley D, Aphinyanaphongs Y, Barber C, Gordon T, Corby P, Li X, Saxena D. Electronic Cigarette Aerosol Modulates the Oral Microbiome and Increases Risk of Infection. iScience. 2020 Mar 27;23(3):100884. PMID: 32105635.

Reinhart JP, Stoopler ET, Crawford GH. Oral hypersensitivity reactions. Dermatol Clin. 2020;38(4):467-76.

Sierra MA, Li Q, Pushalkar S, Paul B, Sandoval TA, Kamer AR, Corby P, Guo Y, Ruff RR, Alekseyenko AV, Li X, Saxena D. The Influences of Bioinformatics Tools and Reference Databases in Analyzing the Human Oral Microbial Community. Genes (Basel). 2020 Aug 3;11(8):E878. PMID: 32756341.

Stoopler ET, De Rossi SS, Greenberg MS, Sollecito TP. Using scholarly productivity as an outcome assessment of a dental residency program. Special care in dentistry. 2020 Sep 2.

Stoopler ET, Kuperstein AS, Berardi TR, Sollecito TP. Utilizing an Objective Simulated Clinical Examination (OSCE) for orofacial disorders. J Dent Educ. 2020 Aug 12. PMID: 32786011.

Stoopler ET, Sollecito TP. Oral Medicine in Dermatology: An Interprofessional Partnership. Dermatol Clin. 2020 Oct;38(4):xi-xii. PMID: 32892862.

Stoopler ET. Not your typical oral bugs: delusional infestation of the mouth. Int J Dermatol. 2020 Jun 9. PMID: 32516433.

Stoopler ET, Alhendi F, Musto CJ, Bilodeau EA. Multiple oral soft tissue nodules in a Caucasian septuagenarian. Int J Dermatol. 2020 Jun 5. PMID: 32501527.

Stoopler ET, Murdoch-Kinch CA. American Dental Association specialty recognition of oral medicine: Implications for the dental profession. J Am Dent Assoc. 2020 Jul;151(7):472-473.

PMID: 32593343.

Tam M, Arany PR, Robijns J, Vasconcelos R, Corby P, Hu K. Photobiomodulation Therapy to Mitigate Radiation Fibrosis Syndrome. Photobiomodul Photomed Laser Surg. 2020 Jun;38(6):355363. PMID: 32460618.

Tanaka TI, Stoopler ET, Sollecito TP. Virtual alternative for the oral mock board examination in Oral Medicine.

J Dent Educ. 2020 Jun 18. PMID: 32557633.

Wada M, Goto Y, Tanaka T, Okada R, Moriya S, Idichi T, Noda M, Sasaki K, Kita Y, Kurahara H, Maemura K, Natsugoe S, Seki N. RNA sequencing-based microRNA expression signature in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: oncogenic targets by antitumor miR-143-5p and miR-143-3p regulation. J Hum Genet. 2020 Jul 4. PMID: 32623445.

ORAL SURGERY/ PHARMACOLOGY SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

A selection of recently published work by department faculty (indicated in bold).

Albani S, Moore PA, Hersh EV, Saraghi M. Sedation and neurotoxicity in the developing brain. Gen Dent. 2020 JulAug;68(4):8-11. PMID: 32597770.

Chang TH, Shanti RM, Liang Y, Zeng J, Shi S, Alawi F, Carrasco L, Zhang Q, Le AD (Co-author department Basic and Translational Sciences). LGR5+ epithelial tumor stem-like cells generate a 3D-organoid model for ameloblastoma.

Cell Death Dis. 2020 May 7;11(5):338.

PMID: 32382005.

Chen C, Zhang Q, Yu W, Chang B, Le AD. Oral Mucositis: An Update on Innate Immunity and New Interventional Targets. J Dent Res. 2020 Sep;99(10):1122-1130. PMID: 32479139.

Granquist EJ, Bouloux G, Dattilo D, Gonzalez O, Louis PJ, McCain J, Sinn D, Szymela V, Warner M, Quinn PD. Outcomes and Survivorship of Biomet Microfixation Total Joint Replacement System: Results From an FDA Postmarket Study. J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2020 Sep;78(9):1499-1508. PMID: 32439381.

Henry A, Inverso G, Granquist EJ. Revision temporomandibular joint arthroplasty for the treatment of acquired metal allergy and review of the literature. Int J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2020 Mar;49(3):356-360. PMID: 31447220.

Hersh EV, Moore PA, Grosser T, Polomano RC, Farrar JT, Saraghi M, Juska SA, Mitchell CH, Theken KN (co-author Dept. of Basic & Translational Sciences).

Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs and Opioids in Postsurgical Dental Pain.

J Dent Res. 2020 Jul;99(7):777-786.

PMID: 32286125.

Miller LE, Stubbs VC, Silberthau KB, Rajasekaran K, Newman JG, Chalian AA, Shanti RM, Cannady SB. Pectoralis major muscle flap use in a modern head and neck free flap practice. Am J Otolaryngol. 2020 Jul-Aug;41(4):102475.

PMID: 32291182.

Parhar HS, Tasche K, Brody RM, Weinstein GS, O'Malley BW Jr, Shanti RM, Newman JG. Topical preparations to reduce SARS-CoV-2 aerosolization in head and neck mucosal surgery. Head Neck. 2020 Jun;42(6):1268-1272. PMID: 32333619.

Pouraghaei S, Moztarzadeh F, Chen C, Ansari S, Moshaverinia A. Microenvironment Can Induce Development of Auditory Progenitor Cells from Human Gingival Mesenchymal Stem Cells. ACS Biomater Sci Eng 2020 Apr;6(4):22632273.

Rahman QB, Iocca O, Kufta K, Shanti RM. Global Burden of Head and Neck Cancer. Oral Maxillofac Surg Clin North Am. 2020 Aug;32(3):367-375. PMID: 32482563.

Shanti RM, Choi J, Thomas WW, Sheth NP, Cannady SB. Reconstruction of through-and-through composite segmental mandibulectomy defect in a patient with a dominant peroneal artery using an anterior lateral thigh osteomyocutaneous free flap: A case report and description of flap. Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. 2020 Aug;78(8):1436.e1,1436.e7 Shanti RM, Farahi A, Curry JM, Alawi F (co-author Dept. of Basic and Translational Sciences). SMARCB1 (Integrase Interactor 1)-Deficient Sinonasal Carcinoma of the Maxillary Sinus: A Newly Described Sinonasal Neoplasm. J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2020 May 30:S02782391(20)30558-9. PMID: 32619462.

Sperry MM, Granquist EJ, Winkelstein BA. Early changes in brain network topology and activation of affective pathways predict persistent pain in the rat. Pain. 2020 Aug 5. PMID: 32773593.

BIOFILM IN 3D Examining bacteria growing in 3D, a team from the lab of Dr. Michel Koo found that the microbes’ spatial organization is crucial to how they cause tooth decay.

See the following article: Kim D, Barraza JP, Arthur RA, Hara A, Lewis K, Liu Y, Scisci EL, Hajishengallis E, Whiteley M, Koo H (Co-author Div. of Pediatric Dentistry). Spatial mapping of polymicrobial communities reveals a precise biogeography associated with human dental caries. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Jun 2;117(22):12375-12386. PMID: 32424080.

Sperry MM, Yu YH, Kartha S, Ghimire P, Welch RL, Winkelstein BA, Granquist EJ. Intra-articular etanercept attenuates pain and hypoxia from TMJ loading in the rat. J Orthop Res. 2020 Jun;38(6):1316-1326. PMID: 31903618.

Steinberger Z, Xu H, Kazmers NH, Chen CD, Caron RJ, Qin L, Zhang Y, Levin LS. Robustness Testing of Mesenchymal Stem Cell Monotherapy Following Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation. J Reconstr Microsurg. 2020 Jul;36(6):397-402. PMID: 32040964.

Wang TT, Hersh EV, Wang S. The Potential of EHR Defaults to Reduce Postoperative Dental Opioid Prescriptions. J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2020 Aug;78(8):1234-1235. PMID: 32173332.

Yalamanchi P, Thomas WW, Workman AD, Rajasekaran K, Chalian AA, Shanti RM, Newman JG, Cannady SB. Value of Intensive Care Unit-Based Postoperative Management for Microvascular Free Flap Reconstruction in Head and Neck Surgery. Facial Plast Surg Aesthet Med. 2020 Jun 18. PMID: 32552082 Zhong L, Yao L, Tower RJ, Wei Y, Miao Z, Park J, Shrestha R, Wang L, Yu W, Holdreith N, Huang X, Zhang Y, Tong W, Gong Y, Ahn J, Susztak K, Dyment N, Li M, Long F, Chen C, Seale P, Qin L. Single cell transcriptomics identifies a unique adipose lineage cell population that regulates bone marrow environment.

Elife. 2020 Apr 14;9:e54695. PMID: 32286228.

ORTHODONTICS SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

A selection of recently published work by department faculty (indicated in bold).

Kim D, Barraza JP, Arthur RA, Hara A, Lewis K, Liu Y, Scisci EL, Hajishengallis E, Whiteley M, Koo H (co-author Div. of Pediatric Dentistry). Spatial mapping of polymicrobial communities reveals a precise biogeography associated with human dental caries. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Jun 2;117(22):12375-12386.

PMID: 32424080.

Kim D, Koo H. Spatial Design of Polymicrobial Oral Biofilm in Its Native Disease State. J Dent Res. 2020 Jun;99(6):597603.. PMID: 32142402.

Li C, Zheng Z. Identification of Novel Targets of Knee Osteoarthritis Shared

by Cartilage and Synovial Tissue. Int J Mol Sci. 2020 Aug 22;21(17):E6033.

PMID: 32842604.

Yang P, Li C, Lee M, Marzvanyan A, Zhao Z, Ting K, Soo C, Zheng Z. Photopolymerizable Hydrogel-Encapsulated Fibromodulin-Reprogrammed Cells for Muscle Regeneration. Tissue Eng Part A. 2020 Jun 2. PMID: 32323608.

PENN DENTAL MEDICINE JOURNAL | FALL 2020 21

ACADEMICUPDATE PERIODONTICS NEWS/ACHIEVEMENTS

Dr. Esra Sahingur, Associate Professor, was selected as a 2020-2021 fellow in Drexel University College of Medicine’s Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine® program. ELAM® focuses on increasing the number of qualified women for executive leadership positions in academic medicine, dentistry, public health, and pharmacy.

The Dr. Rodrigo Neiva presents the Chair's Lecture Series is presented virtually each week. See schedule at www.dental.upenn.edu/cde.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

A selection of recently published work by department faculty (indicated in bold).

Ando-Suguimoto ES, Benakanakere MR, Mayer MPA, Kinane DF. Distinct Signaling Pathways Between Human Macrophages and Primary Gingival Epithelial Cells by Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans. Pathogens. 2020 Mar 27;9(4):248. PMID: 32230992; PMCID: Fiorellini JP, Sourvanos D, Crohin CC, Crohin M, Chang JJ, Mattos M, Ko KI. Diabetic Serum Inhibits Osteoblast Adhesion to Titanium Surface Through Advanced Glycation End Products: An In Vitro Study. Int J Oral Maxillofac Implants. 2020 May/Jun;35(3):551-559.

PMID: 32406653.

Graves D, Cao Y, Coelho P, Witek L, Uhrich K. Salicylic acid polymers in periodontal tissue healing. Emerging Therapies in Periodontics; 2020. p. 43-53.

Hakam AE, Vila G, Duarte PM, Mbadu MP, Ai Angary DS, Aukhil I, Neiva R, da Silva HDP, Chang J. Effects of different antidepressant classes on dental implant failure: A retrospective clinical study. J Periodontol. 2020 Jul 29. PMID: 32725908.

Lv W, Graves DT, He L, Shi Y, Deng X, Zhao Y, Dong X, Ren Y, Liu X, Xiao E, Zhang Y. Depletion of the diabetic gut microbiota resistance enhances stem cells therapy in type 1 diabetes mellitus. Theranostics. 2020 May 17;10 (14):6500-6516. PMID: 32483466.

Mooney EC, Sahingur SE. The Ubiquitin System and A20: Implications in Health and Disease. J Dent Res. 2020 Aug 27:22034520949486. PMID: 32853526.

Park M, Islam S, Kim HE, Korostoff J, Blatz MB, Hwang G, Kim A (co-author Dept. of Preventive & Restorative Sciences). Human Oral Motion-Powered Smart Dental Implant (SDI) for In Situ Ambulatory Photo-biomodulation Therapy. Adv Healthc Mater. 2020 Aug;9(16):e2000658. PMID: 32613767.

Perelli M, Abundo R, Corrente G, Saccone C, Sarmiento H, Chang YC, Fiorellini JP. The Long-Term Evaluation of Two-Unit Fixed Partial Dentures on Short, Threaded Implants: Delayed Versus Immediate Loading. Int J Periodontics Restorative Dent. 2020 Jul/Aug;40(4):e157-e162. PMID: 32559040.

Sahingur, SE. Emerging Therapies in Periodontics. 2020th ed. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2020. p. 1-271.

Sahingur SE. (2020) Evolving Paradigms in the Pathogenesis and Management of Periodontitis. In: Sahingur S. (eds) Emerging Therapies in Periodontics. Springer, Cham. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-030-42990-4_1 Teixeira HS, Zhao J, Kazmierski E, Kinane DF, Benakanakere MR (co-author Dept. of Orthodontics).

TLR3-Dependent Activation of TLR2 Endogenous Ligands via the MyD88 Signaling Pathway Augments the Innate Immune Response. Cells. 2020 Aug 17;9(8):E1910. PMID: 32824595.

PREVENTIVE & RESTORATIVE SCIENCES NEWS/ACHIEVEMENTS

In a study to determine the 100 most cited articles in prosthodontic journals between 1951 and 2019, Resin-Ceramic Bonding: A Review of the Literature (The Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry, March 2003) by Dr. Markus Blatz, Professor and Chair, ranked sixth for the most citations.

FACULTYPERSPECTIVE, continued from page 17 The infection control policy also defines the self-monitoring, quarantining, and contact tracing protocols for our Penn Dental Medicine community.

PATIENT CARE PROTOCOLS In regard to patient care, preparations and protocols included: • Preparing the dental units for operations — shocking the water lines, which had been idle for several months, with antimicrobial materials to ensure they were free from biofilm.

• Applying a phased approach, starting with 20-25% capacity and gradually increasing.

Prioritizing patients based on their needs and required procedures. Scheduling longer appointments and eliminating walk-ins and double booking.

• Triaging and screening of patients the day before the scheduled visit.

22 WWW.DENTAL.UPENN.EDU

• Limiting the number of individuals accompanying a patient to one, who would go through the same screening process as the patient.

• Designating PPE donning and doffing areas.

• Defining the required PPE for patient care (scrubs, disposable gowns, N95 respirator or equivalent, surgical masks over N95, goggles/loupes, face shield, gloves, bonnet head covers, and bootie shoe covers).

• Using HVE and rubber dams when possible to mitigate aerosol.

• Defining operatory preparation protocols — Spray and wipe all surfaces with antimicrobial agent (EPA “List N”), use of barriers, cover all surfaces that are difficult to wipe, remove all items not required for patient care, update medical history and ask screening questions again, require patients to keep masks on until the start of care, ask patients to rinse with 1.5% H2O2 and use hand sanitizer before and after dental care.

THREE-PILLAR APPROACH In addition to the infection control measures taken for patient care, our principles for mitigating the spread of COVID-19 in our facilities continue to be based on three pillars — physical distancing, facial masking, and hand washing/ sanitization.

Challenges remain as COVID-19 cases continue to be on the rise in multiple states and around the world. We continue to face shortages in PPE, especially the N95 respirators, and we are constantly working to ensure we can keep Penn Dental Medicine open and our dental community safe.

I can’t thank the entire Penn Dental Medicine community enough for the role they are playing in our successful operations, whether it is in patient care, education, or research. I would like to also extend my special thanks to Dean Mark Wolff for his leadership during these most difficult times.

Dr. Mark S. Wolff, Professor and Dean, was as a recipient of the 2020 IADR/ AADR William J. Gies Award for clinical research. The Gies Awards are presented annually in three categories for the best papers published in the IADR/AADR’s Journal of Dental Research. He shared the award with his co-authors of “Nonrestorative Treatments for Caries: Systematic Review and Network Meta-analysis,” J Dent Res 98(1): 14-26, 2019.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

A selection of recently published work by department faculty (indicated in bold).

Cocco AR, Cuevas-Suárez CE, Liu Y, Lund RG, Piva E, Hwang G. Anti-biofilm activity of a novel pit and fissure self-adhesive sealant modified with metallic monomers. Biofouling. 2020 Mar;36(3):245-255. PMID: 32326753.

Huang CT, Blatz MB, Arce C, Lawson NC. Inhibition of root dentin demineralization by ion releasing cements. 2020 Aug 21; Ibacache, M.C.T., Arcos, P., Sanchez, S., Weinstein, G. (2020) Use of diode lasers in dentistry. Clinical Dentistry Reviewed 4, 6. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s41894-019-0069-1 Kim HE, Islam S, Park M, Kim A, Hwang G. A Comprehensive Analysis of Near-Contact Photobiomodulation Therapy in the Host-Bacteria Interaction Model Using 3D-Printed Modular LED Platform. Adv Biosyst. 2020 Mar;4(3):e1900227. PMID: 32293153.

Park M, Islam S, Kim HE, Korostoff J, Blatz MB, Hwang G, Kim A. (Co-author Dept. of Periodontics). Human Oral Motion-Powered Smart Dental Implant (SDI) for In Situ Ambulatory Photobiomodulation Therapy. Adv Healthc Mater. 2020 Aug;9(16):e2000658.

PMID: 32613767 Paula AJ, Hwang G, Koo H (co-author Dept. of Orthodontic). Dynamics of bacterial population growth in biofilms resemble spatial and structural aspects of urbanization. Nat Commun. 2020 Mar 13;11(1):1354. PMID: 32170131.

Thammajaruk P, Blatz MB, Buranadham S, Guazzato M, Wang Y. Shear bond strength of composite cement to alumina-coated versus tribochemical silica-treated zirconia. J Mech Behav Biomed Mater. 2020 May;105:103710.

PMID: 32279852.

ON COVID-19

From the impact of the pandemic on the delivery of patient care to changes within educational programs during the pandemic, faculty published on a variety of COVID-19-related topics since the spring. See the following articles:

Abramovitz I, Palmon A, Levy D, Karabucak B, Kot-Limon N, Shay B, Kolokythas A, Almoznino G. Dental care during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak: operatory considerations and clinical aspects. Quintessence Int. 2020;51(5):418-429. PMID: 32328595.

Chao TN, Frost AS, Brody RM, Byrnes YM, Cannady SB, Luu NN, Rajasekaran K, Shanti RM, Silberthau KR, Triantafillou V, Newman JG. Creation of an Interactive Virtual Surgical Rotation for Undergraduate Medical Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic. J Surg Educ.

2020 Jul 1:S1931-7204(20)30232-4.

PMID: 32654999.

Chigurupati R, Panchal N, Henry AM, Batal H, Sethi A, D'innocenzo R, Mehra P, Krishnan DG, Roser SM. Considerations for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons in COVID-19 Era: Can We Sustain the Solutions to Keep Our Patients and Healthcare Personnel Safe? J Oral Maxillofac Surg.

2020 Aug;78(8):1241-1256. PMID: 32479811.

Daniell H. From conception to Covid-19: An arduous journey of tribulations of racism and triumphs.

Plant Biotechnol J. 2020 Aug 16. doi: 10.1111/pbi.13468. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 32799416.

Layfield E, Triantafillou V, Prasad A, Deng J, Shanti RM, Newman JG, Rajasekaran K. Telemedicine for head and neck ambulatory visits during COVID-19: Evaluating usability and patient satisfaction. Head Neck.

2020 Jul;42(7):1681-1689. PMID: 32476228.

Meyers B, Baxter I, Blatt M, Sweetlove L, Daniell H, Lunn J, Taylor C, Winchester N. Journal Flexibility in the Troubling Times of COVID-19.

Plant Physiol. 2020 Apr;182(4):1795.

PMID: 32253325.

Mupparapu M. Editorial: Aerosol reduction urgency in post-COVID-19 dental practice. Quintessence Int. 2020;51(7):525-526. PMID: 32500860.

Mupparapu M. Editorial: Dental practitioners' role in the assessment and containment of coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Evolving recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control. Quintessence Int. 2020;51(5):349-350. PMID: 32328593.

Ordonez-Fernandez, E., Sayoc, C., Weinstein, G. Covid-19: How to Practice Emergency Dental Care Safely. Decisions in Dentistry. 2020 Apr.5.

Rekawek P, Henry A, Moe J, Schlieve T, Panchal N. The COVID-19 pandemic: Implications for the oral and maxillofacial surgery residency application process. J Dent Educ.

2020 Jul 22:10.1002/jdd.12310.

PMID: 32700370.

Rekawek P, Rice P, Panchal N. The impact of COVID-19: Considerations for future dental conferences. J Dent Educ. 2020 Jul 27. PMID: 32715466.

Shanti RM, Stoopler ET, Weinstein GS, Newman JG, Cannady SB, Rajasekaran K, Tanaka TI, O'Malley BW Jr, Le AD, Sollecito TP (coauthor Dept. of Oral Surgery/ Pharmacology). Considerations in the evaluation and management of oral potentially malignant disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Head Neck. 2020 Jul;42(7):1497-1502.

PMID: 32415891.

Stoopler ET, Kuperstein AS, Berardi TR, Sollecito TP. A virtual oral cancer clinical competency examination administered during the COVID-19 pandemic. J Dent Educ. 2020 Jun 26:10.1002/jdd.12291. PMID: 32589807.

Stoopler ET, Tanaka TI, Sollecito TP. Hospital-based dental externship during COVID-19 pandemic: Think virtual! Spec Care Dentist. 2020 Jul;40(4):393-394. PMID: 32442319.

Wang TT, Moon HS, Le A, Panchal N. Proceedings of the OMS COVID-19 Response Conference.

J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2020 Aug;78(8):1268-1274. PMID: 32422192.

Weinstein GS, Cohen R, Lin A, O'Malley BW Jr, Lukens J, SwisherMcClure S, Shanti RM, Newman JG, Parhar HS, Tasche K, Brody RM, Chalian A, Cannady S, Palmer JN, Adappa ND, Kohanski MA, Bauml J, Aggarwal C, Montone K, Livolsi V, Baloch ZW, Jalaly JB, Cooper K, Rajasekaran K, Loevner L, Rassekh C. Penn Medicine Head and Neck Cancer Service Line COVID-19 management guidelines. Head Neck.

2020 Jul;42(7):1507-1515. PMID: 32584447.

PENN DENTAL MEDICINE JOURNAL | FALL 2020 23

“These are all pieces of a bigger puzzle, with the goal of staying on the leading edge from both an educational as well as clinical standpoint.”

— DR. MARKUS BLATZ

AN EVOLUTION IN CLINICAL EDUCATION

STRENGTHENING THE SCHOOL’S CLINICAL EXPERIENCE IS ELEVATING EDUCATION AND CARE

OPPOSITE: Students and faculty providing care within the Robert I. Schattner Clinic. There are now six full-time faculty leading six Primary Care Units (PCU) as PCU Directors for predoctoral clinical instruction. With the PCU Directors now full-time roles, there is greater opportunity to instruct students both during and between patient visits.

IN THE SPRING OF 2019, the Clinical Education Review Committee, a group of faculty and administrators, was formed to evaluate Penn Dental Medicine’s clinical education program, identify goals, and lay out proposals to meet those goals. Charged with creating an “innovative, patient-centered, evidence-based clinical education experience,” the team (see p. 26) examined myriad aspects of clinical education, building on the strengths of the School’s existing program to make it not just better, but the best it could be.

“Educational methods and clinical dentistry are always changing, and our goal is to be sure we are changing with them — evolving with those advances and providing the most up-to-date educational experience,” says Dr. Markus Blatz, Professor and Chair of the Department of Preventive and Restorative Sciences, whose Department has been engaged in implementing these changes, many of which launched with the start of this academic year. “We are focused more than ever on being proactive and innovative to ensure excellent patient care and enhanced higher-level learning experiences for our students.”

Over the past few years, that has involved everything from the development of the School’s digital learning technologies that have transformed the teaching model in the classroom to the rapid growth of digital dentistry and CAD/CAM technologies being taught and applied through the new Digital Design and Milling Center and the Center for Virtual Treatment Planning that opened earlier this year.

“These are all pieces of a bigger puzzle,” says Dr. Blatz, “with the goal of staying on the leading edge from both an educational as well as clinical standpoint.”

PENN DENTAL MEDICINE JOURNAL | FALL 2020 25

EDUCATIONEVOLUTION EDUCATION AND PATIENT CARE: INEXTRICABLY LINKED The Committee’s efforts defined initiatives to enhance clinical education and patient care.

They range from nuts-and-bolts adjustments to the clinical schedule and expanded rotations for all students, including at Penn Dental Medicine’s community health sites, to an emphasis on School-wide standardization and philosophical alignment. All of the initiatives are designed to bolster clinical education, while improving patient access to quality care.

Helping to guide the implementation process has been Dr. David Hershkowitz, who joined Penn Dental Medicine in the fall of 2019 as Division Chief of Restorative Dentistry, a newly created role.

Dr. Hershkowitz came to the School from New York University (NYU) College of Dentistry, where he managed the predoctoral clinical facility and served as Clinical Associate Professor and Associate Chairman of the Department of Cariology and Comprehensive Care.

“Dr. Hershkowitz has been a critical addition to our Department,” says Dr. Blatz.

“While we had administrative leaders of our other two divisions — Community Oral Health and Pediatrics — we never had the same for Restorative Dentistry. This leadership role is integral to building the strength and depth of the Department.”

Over the past year, Dr. Hershkowitz has eagerly taken up the task of working with faculty to help move the new initiatives forward. Reflecting on that process, he stresses that dental education and patient care are inextricably linked.

“I believe that excellent patient care leads to excellent education, not the other way around,” he explains. “Taking care of human beings leads to excellence in education.”

The Clinical Education Review Committee Dr. Faizan Alawi, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs (Committee Chair) Dr. Katherine France, Assistant Professor of Oral Medicine Dr. Joan Gluch, Division Chief of Community Oral Health Dr. Jon Korostoff, Professor of Periodontics Dr. Mark Koup, Director of Comprehensive Care Clinics Dr. Najeed Saleh, Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs Dr. Frank Setzer, Clinic Director and Predoctoral Program Director, Department of Endodontics Dr. Olivia Sheridan, Associate Dean for Admissions

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FULL-TIME FACULTY LEAD REDESIGNED CLINICAL EXPERIENCE How has the clinical experience changed in practical terms? From the way patients are scheduled and prepared for their appointments to their assignment to a student doctor, to follow-up care with their student providers, patient care — and student involvement in it — has been redesigned to improve efficiency, interpersonal contact, information flow, and continuity of care.

In addition, clinical care hours have been extended into the evening four days of the week to offer more flexibility and better access to care for patients and families.

The School now see patients on-campus until 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

“Our patients are hardworking people,” says Dr. Hershkowitz. “They shouldn’t have to take time off from work to go to the dentist, they should have options.”

Perhaps one of the most significant changes is to the structure of the clinical care/instructional groups — the primary care units (PCUs) — themselves. Under the old structure, predominantly part-time faculty

“I believe that excellent patient care leads to excellent education, not the other way around, Taking care of human beings leads to excellence in education.”

Expanding Full-Time Faculty 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

— DR. HERSHKOWITZ

led 12 PCUs of around 30 students each. Now, six full-time PCU Directors (see box, right) oversee cohorts of just under 60 students.

All have extensive experience as practicing clinicians and educators; four of the six — Drs. Karina Hariton-Gross (D’10), Margrit Maggio (D’87), Patrice Ierardi (MT’80, D’84), and Vincent Mayher – are longtime members of the Penn Dental Medicine faculty. PCU Directors Drs. Glenn Rochlen and Marie Congiusta joined the School’s faculty from NYU College of Dentistry this summer.

The PCU Directors also have additional administrative responsibilities to ensure best practices in the delivery of patient care, student education, and consistency in faculty calibration and standardization.

“These faculty members are like CEOs, with great administrative capabilities,” says Dr. Blatz. “They have both the clinical and the didactic expertise needed to guide and mentor students, and they work closely with the part-time faculty in their groups to ensure instructional consistency.”

Because the PCU Directors are now full-time roles, these faculty members have more opportunity to instruct and oversee students, both during and between patient visits. Reciprocally, students have full-time access to their instructors to address questions, concerns, and treatment options.

PCU Directors 1 | Dr. Marie Congiusta 2 | Dr. Karina Hariton-Gross (D’10) 3 | Dr. Patrice Ierardi (MT’80, D’84) 4 | Dr. Margrit Maggio (D’87) 5 | Dr. Vincent Mayher 6 | Dr. Glenn Rochlen Dental Director of Community Dental Care Centers 7 | Dr. Leonard Jensen (D’77) Director of Operative Dentistry 8 | Dr. Josephine Lomangino-Cheung

Dr. David Hershkowitz, Division Chief of Restorative Dentistry (left) with Dr. Markus Blatz, Chair of the Dept. of Preventive & Restorative Sciences. Dr. Hershkowitz took on this new leadership role in the fall of 2019.

PENN DENTAL MEDICINE JOURNAL | FALL 2020 27

EDUCATIONEVOLUTION A SIGNIFICANTLY EXPANDED CLINICAL EDUCATION One key outcome of the clinical changes is that students are spending more time caring for patients, building the knowledge and skills they need to be practicing dentists.

They are engaged in clinical care more than any other group of Penn Dental Medicine students before them.

“We have given students a 26 percent increase in clinical time,” says Dr. Hershkowitz, adding, “Every time students meet with patients, they are becoming better doctors.”

With additional time providing clinical care, including through new emergency care operations and admissions protocols, students benefit from a greater diversity of experiences and develop confidence in treating an array of patients with a variety of complexities. They will now also spend more time in activities where they are engaged as primary practitioners, taking the lead under the guidance of their fulltime faculty mentors.

In addition, students are starting their hands-on clinical experiences earlier.

Second-year students are now assigned to the clinic one morning a week to perform recall visits, oral hygiene instruction, and, eventually, simple operative dentistry on otherwise healthy patients. As a result, students will build valuable experience with patient care and clinical protocols prior to becoming fully immersed in clinical care their third year.

Patients benefit from the increased clinical time as well. With clinic hours expanded, patient wait times for scheduling an appointment are reduced, more can be done at each visit so the need for multiple visits is reduced, and follow-up procedures are scheduled more quickly.

The result is a more patient-centered experience — one concerned less with the number of procedures completed and more with each patient’s comprehensive care and outcome.

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“We have given students a 26 percent increase in clinical time. Every time students meet with patients, they are becoming better doctors.”

— DR. HERSHKOWITZ

“Excellence in clinical care and clinical education cannot be based solely on numbers,” says Dr. Blatz. “Our students and faculty are continuously focused on patients and providing them with comprehensive, high-quality care.”

EXPANDED COMMUNITY HEALTH ROTATIONS As part of students’ added clinical experiences, rotations through the School’s community health sites have also increased, with students gaining more exposure to the distinctive needs of economically disadvantaged patients. With Penn Dental Medicine’s recent affiliation with Spectrum Health Services in West Philadelphia and expansion of its established community sites, the School is now caring for more patients in the neighborhoods where they live than ever before. (For a recap of Penn Dental Medicine’s community sites, see p. 29.)

“Our goal is to make dental visits an easy choice for our patients,” says Dr. Joan Gluch, Division Chief of Community Oral Health and a member of the Clinical Education Review Committee. “There are so many barriers to dental care. Meeting patients in their neighborhoods and providing access to culturally sensitive care helps reduce these barriers to increase dental visits and provide a broader range of clinical education for dental students.”

Oversight of clinical instruction at the community sites falls under the direction of Dr. Leonard Jensen (D’77) in the newly created role of Dental Director of Community Dental Care Centers. Dr. Jensen is a longtime Penn Dental Medicine faculty member and a former Primary Care Unit Group Leader. He works with a team of ten part-time dentists and four full-time dental hygienists — all of whom are Penn Dental Medicine faculty members — who oversee student instruction and care at the sites.

All procedures and protocols at community sites are carefully calibrated with those of the School’s 40th Street location, and student rotations in the community have been expanded dramatically. Groups of about 30 students rotate through the community sites each day in blocks of six to eight weeks to allow continuity and enhanced experiential learning. Expanded student time at the sites has also improved access to care for patients in their local neighborhoods.

“With faculty dentists guiding students at every community site, we can offer our patients the same level of quality and service, with less travel time and more comfort and convenience,” Dr. Jensen says.

“It’s a win-win for everyone,” adds Dr. Gluch. “Patients have access to comprehensive primary dental care in their neighborhoods, with a clear referral route back to the School for advanced care when needed. And dental students are receiving more clinical experiences providing dental care with our West Philadelphia neighbors in a community setting.”

“Meeting patients in their neighborhoods helps reduce barriers to increase dental visits and provide a broader range of clinical education for dental students.”

— DR. JOAN GLUCH

In the Neighborhood New and expanded community health sites enhance student and patient experiences.

In keeping with its mission to care for the city’s most vulnerable populations and expand students’ community-based learning experiences, Penn Dental Medicine has added a new community health affiliate site and expanded the number of chairs at its existing sites, bringing even more comprehensive oral health care directly to low-income and underrepresented neighborhoods.

With recent expansions, Penn Dental Medicine now has a total of 20 dental chairs in community sites and the clinical rotation time for third-and fourth-year students has increased to 200 hours per year, approximately one day per week. The sites include: Spectrum Health Services: The School’s newest community affiliation began this summer through a partnership with Spectrum Health Services, a federally qualified health center (FQHC) at its 5201 Haverford Ave. location in West Philadelphia. The seven-chair dental clinic provides comprehensive oral health care to patients of all ages in combination with their existing health care services.

“The clinic is run in a private-practice format, with ten students each day seeing a full schedule of patients,” says Dr. Leonard Jensen, who currently serves as the clinic’s faculty dentist. “Community residents are deeply appreciative of our presence here.”

Mercy LIFE: Since 2010, Penn Dental Medicine has provided dental care at the LIFE (Living Independently For Elders) Center at 4508 Chestnut Street in West Philadelphia, with the facility there in the process of being expanded from one to four chairs. The mission of Mercy LIFE is to advance an interdisciplinary system of all-inclusive healthcare for frail seniors in West Philadelphia. Penn Dental Medicine faculty and students provide dental care as part of the interdisciplinary care team.

Penn Dental Medicine at Sayre Health Center: Serving uninsured and underinsured residents of West Philadelphia, Penn Dental Medicine recently expanded from a one- to four-chair dental care center within Sayre Health Center, a FQHC located at the southern corner of Sayre High School at 5800 Walnut Street. Dental students and faculty provide comprehensive oral health care in collaboration with the interdisciplinary health care team for convenient access for patients to both medical and dental services.

Penn Dental Medicine at Puentes de Salud: For Latin American immigrants in and around South Philadelphia, Puentes de Salud (1700 South St.), is a familiar name: the organization, in partnership with Penn Medicine, has been providing culturally sensitive health care for this underrepresented population since 2007. In early 2020, Penn Dental Medicine opened a dedicated three-chair dental facility within the Center to provide a much-needed dental home and comprehensive dental care for these patients.

PennSmiles Mobile Dental Care Center: The mobile care center of Penn Dental Medicine is fully equipped for on-site care for the city’s schoolchildren, featuring two dental chairs and all the necessary equipment for preventive and general restorative care. In partnership with the School District of Philadelphia, students and faculty visit approximately 24 schools, recreation centers, and camps throughout West and Southwest Philadelphia, meeting children and their families where they are to deliver the care they need.

OPPOSITE: With the revisions of the clinical education program, students are getting at 26% increase in clinical time. Clinical hours have been extended to 8 p.m. four days a week.

PENN DENTAL MEDICINE JOURNAL | FALL 2020 29

EDUCATIONEVOLUTION SCHOOL-WIDE CONTINUITY AND CONSISTENCY

VALUABLE EXPERIENCE WITH SPECIAL-NEEDS PATIENTS Beginning this year, third- and fourth-year students will have yet another valuable clinical opportunity — the chance to rotate through the soon-to-be-completed Care Center for Persons with Disabilities (see story, p. 2), which will provide comprehensive dental care to patients with a full spectrum of disabilities.

According to Dr. Hershkowitz, patients in wheelchairs or on gurneys, and those with physical and/or cognitive conditions that make complying with dental care difficult, often wait months to see dentists who have the expertise and equipment to treat them.

The 3,500-square-foot, 12-chair Center will increase access for these patients and ensure that every Penn Dental Medicine graduate is trained to treat them successfully.

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“Patients with disabilities are often a forgotten population,” says Dr. Hershkowitz.

“The Disabilities Center provides them with a dental home where our students learn to treat them with the dignity and skill they deserve.”

It’s one more aspect of a new clinical education experience designed to optimize both student learning and patient access to care.

“It is rewarding to see evidence that the techniques and technologies we’ve put in place are advancing both clinical education and patient care.”

— DR. MARKUS BLATZ

Finally, another key goal of the redesigned clinical experience is to ensure standardization and calibration for every aspect of clinical education and patient care throughout all levels of learning. To help close educational gaps and align teaching and care philosophies from the preclinical program to the clinical program, another key full-time faculty position — Director of Operative Dentistry — has been redefined and expanded. Taking on this role is Dr. Josephine LomanginoCheung, who joined Penn Dental Medicine this summer from NYU College of Dentistry.

Dr. Lomangino-Cheung is responsible for overseeing instruction of both preclinical and clinical operative dentistry to ensure that best practices are standardized throughout a student’s four years at Penn Dental Medicine.

“When our students learn to do a crown in preclinic, we want it to be done that way when they get to clinic. We are starting with a strong foundation in the first year and building on that over the next three years without any disconnect,” explains Dr. Hershkowitz. “The result is a more consistent experience for both students and patients.”

The significant growth in the use of chairside CAD/CAM technology at Penn Dental Medicine is also aiding in — and reflective of — the new standardization efforts, adds Dr. Blatz. “We are now designing and fabricating 70 to 80 percent of indirect, single-unit restorations using our in-house CAD/CAM resources,” he says.

“This increase is a great example of how we can see the new faculty structure working in terms of calibration and standardization as faculty are consistently teaching the use of chairside CAD/CAM. It is rewarding to see evidence — in real-time metrics — that the techniques and technologies we’ve put in place are indeed advancing both clinical education and patient care.”

— By Juliana Delany

STUDENTPERSPECTIVE VIEWS ON THE EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE

We’re excited to see Penn Dental Medicine continue to blaze trails — as the first dental school to return to operations during the pandemic, our policies have been adopted at other schools and our Penn Pride and resilience continues to shine. While there have been a few speed bumps along the way, our students are adjusting to the new normal and we’re proud to continue serving the Philadelphia community.

We are privileged to be able to go to school in person because our field of work is deemed essential, and privileged because we still get a sense of normality. With that privilege comes a great responsibility for our collective health.

From our fellow classmates and their families, to our patients and their families, and beyond to the Philadelphia community, we are taking great steps and making sacrifices to ensure their safety. Our summer breaks were spent in isolation, our weekends are spent in online happy hour chats, and every interaction outside of our homes is a calculation of the risk and a decision for the common good.

Adapting to a New Normal

Contributed by the Executive Student Council The sound of a computer fan used to be soothing — a way to note that it was time to study, a monotonous reminder that every day we are getting one step closer to achieving our goals. In March, the sound of a computer fan or an iPad booting up brought with it the dread of the unknown as the global situation changed daily. As we establish our new normal and enter the clinics again, the sound of the computers and online meetings bring with them a new sense of purpose and determination.

This isn’t the dental school experience we had expected, but it is an incredible learning experience on crisis management and hammers home how important our didactic education is here at Penn. We’ve had a great experience working in small seminars with our faculty, many of whom we see in our lecture halls or cited in our lecture slides, but here now in our living rooms, talking to us as colleagues and providing their wisdom and clinical experience in an unfiltered and human manner.

We’re excited to see Penn Dental Medicine continue to blaze trails — as the first dental school to return to operations during the pandemic.

We continue to adapt to navigate this new hybrid world. It is with sadness that Executive Student Council halted planning for its welcome activities for the new Class of 2024 and Odontoblast. The spirit of those events lives on, however, as virtual programming is developed with the help of the Office for Institutional Advancement and the Office of Student Affairs. We continue to find ways to develop camaraderie between classes and alumni in a safe manner. We continue developing our community virtually and welcoming the Class of 2024, whose enthusiasm and online presence has been inspiring.

ABOVE: Kristen Leong (D’21), President, Executive Student Council

PENN DENTAL MEDICINE JOURNAL | FALL 2020 31

RESEARCHSPOTLIGHT TRANSLATING SCIENCE TO PRACTICE

Research Day 2020 Awards Despite being held virtually this year, Penn Dental Medicine’s Research Day 2020, May 14, brought together faculty and students to share their research activities and spotlight the depth of the School’s research enterprise. In addition to faculty presentations and invited speakers, this year’s event featured 86 poster presentations by both students and junior investigators from which the following awards were presented.

Penn Dental Medicine AADR Travel Awards

The AADR Travel Award program was launched by Penn Dental Medicine in 2014 to advance student/junior investigator research, providing funds toward their travel to the annual AADR meeting where awardees have the opportunity to present their work. Recipients are selected by a faculty panel of judges and will attend and present their research at the 2021 AADR/CADR General Session & Exhibition.

DMD STUDENT AWARDEES

GRADUATE DENTAL EDUCATION STUDENT AWARDEES

AWARDEE/PROJECT

FACULTY ADVISOR

AWARDEE/PROJECT

FACULTY ADVISOR

Brittany N. Link (D'21): The Role of Prx1+ Oral Fibroblasts in Expediting Gingival Wound Healing

Drs. Dana T. Graves and Kang I. Ko, Dept. of Periodontics

Lily P. See (GD'23): Behavioral Pain Assessment in a Dental Pulp Injury Model

Dr. Claire Mitchell, Dept. of Basic & Translational Sciences

Victoria T. Hu (D'22): Grain size, Flexural Strength, Light Transmittance and Reflectance of Monolithic Zirconia under Different Sintering Temperatures

Dr. Francis K. Mante, Div. of Restorative Dentistry

Erin C. Mooney (GD'21): Quercetin diminishes periodontal inflammation and restores microbial dysbiosis

Dr. Esra Sahingur, Dept. of Periodontics

Kevin K. Lou (D'22): Accelerated Cutaneous Wound Healing through Exosome/ IP-10 Delivery Vehicle in Murine Animal Model

Drs. Anh D. Le and Chider Chen, Dept. of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery/Pharmacology

Alaa Mounimah (GD'21): 18F-FDGPET/CT in Radiation Therapy-Induced Parotid Gland Inflammation

Drs. Jon Korostoff and Yu Cheng Chang, Dept. of Periodontics

JUNIOR INVESTIGATOR AWARDEES AWARDEE/PROJECT DEPARTMENT/LAB

Aurea Simon-Soro, DMD, MSc, PhD: Impact of a repurposed drug, thonzonium bromide, on host microbiome across the gastrointestinal tract

Dr. Hyun (Michel) Koo, Dept. of Orthodontics and Divs. of Community Oral Health, Pediatrics

Chenshuang Li, DDS, PhD: From Skin Biopsy to Musculoskeletal Tissue Regeneration – a Single Protein Reprogramming Approach

Dept. of Orthodontics

Jong-Hyung Lim, PhD: FPR2 deficiency attenuates experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) by modulating dendritic cell function and inhibiting Th17 cell development

Dr. George Hajishengallis, Dept. of Basic & Translational Sciences

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AADR Student Research Day Award

The American Association for Dental Research (AADR) Student Research Day Award, funded by the AADR, is designed to recognize the best presentation at an academic institution’s research day competition.

The award consists of a complimentary meeting registration and a monetary award to assist with travel to the March 2021 AADR/CADR General Session & Exhibition in Boston.

AWARDEE/PROJECT

FACULTY ADVISOR

Megan J. Chen (D'22): Characterizing The Binding of EGFF-retargeted Oncolytic Herpes Simplex Virus Resistant to Virus Neutralizing Monoclonal Antibodies

Dr. Gary H. Cohen, Dept. of Basic & Translational Sciences

Joseph and Josephine Rabinowitz Award for Excellence in Research The Joseph and Josephine Rabinowitz Award for Excellence in Research was designed to help Penn Dental Medicine faculty undertake pilot projects that will enable them to successfully apply for extramural sources of funding. Designed through the lens of a researcher, this ongoing grant evaluates research proposals for their scholarly merit, creativity and innovation; the significance of the research in advancing scientific knowledge; the prospects for future extramural funding; the availability of alternate funding sources; and in the case of junior faculty, evidence that the applicant will be working as an independent investigator and forwarding of the School’s research objectives.

Launched in 2002, this award was endowed through the generosity of the late Dr. Joseph “Jose” Rabinowitz, an active member of the School’s biochemistry faculty for 29 years, and his wife, the late Dr. Josephine “Josy,” a fellow Penn alum.

2020 RABINOWITZ AWARD RECIPIENTS Cagla Akay-Espinoza, MD Research Assistant Professor, Department of Basic & Translational Sciences Both periodontal disease and Alzheimer’s disease are highly prevalent in aging populations. Initiated by oral microbiome, periodontal disease not only causes alveolar bone destruction via local inflammation, but is also a source of systemic inflammation in untreated cases, which is a significant contributor to Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis. However, a causal relationship between these diseases, both of which are multifactorial, has not been established to date. We will develop a model of periodontal disease in an Alzheimer’s disease mouse model to test our hypothesis that systemic inflammation underlies a causal relationship between periodontal disease and Alzheimer’s disease. This approach will be critical to understand the mechanistic link between the two diseases, identify genetic drivers at play, and develop predictive and diagnostic biomarkers, screening methods, and novel therapeutic approaches. Importantly, the pathogenesis underlying Alzheimer’s disease is predicted to initiate decades before the emergence of first symptoms and identifying presymptomatic high-risk individuals, such as those with unresolved periodontal disease, would significantly contribute to successful outcomes with early intervention.

Rahul Singh, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow, Dept. of Basic & Translational Sciences This project aims to prevent dental plaque/biofilm formation and degradation by targeting virulent factors that are associated with cell surface integrity of the causative microbes, without affecting the overall microbial homeostasis in the oral cavity. Based on initial findings, this proposal will investigate novel molecular mechanisms responsible for anti-biofilm activity of the unexplored enzyme lipase and its development as a protein drug target. Lipase enzyme produced in antibiotic-free lettuce plants will be evaluated and formulated into the chewing gum for translational applications.

Eugene Ko, DDS Clinical Assistant Professor, Dept. of Oral Medicine Through a collaboration with Penn Dental Medicine’s Department of Oral Medicine and the Wharton Business School, this study aims to assess a novel way to capture the behaviors, psychology, and pain symptoms of Burning Mouth Syndrome patients. Using a smartphone “app” to capture real-time data over an 8-week period, we aim to characterize the pain symptoms more accurately than relying on patient memory, and also to elucidate previously unknown environmental and behavioral factors that might influence the disease course.

The Rabinowitz grant will allow us to collect this crucial pilot data to be used for a future interventional study on nonpharmacological management of this patient population.

SCADA Award

Dentsply Sirona and the AADR have joined forces to co-sponsor the Student Competition for Advancing Dental Research and its Application (SCADA), formerly known as the Student Clinicians of the American Dental Association. The SCADA program advances their collective commitment to empower the next generation of dental leaders.

AWARDEE/PROJECT

FACULTY ADVISOR

Brittany N. Link (D'21): The Role of Prx1+ Oral Fibroblasts in Expediting Gingival Wound Healing

Drs. Dana T. Graves and Kang I. Ko, Dept. of Periodontics

PENN DENTAL MEDICINE JOURNAL | FALL 2020 33

TAKING ON HIV AND ORAL HEALTH EMBARKING ON A NEW STUDY OF PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV, DR. TEMITOPE OMOLEHINWA HOPES TO BUILD DATA ON AN UNDERSTUDIED ISSUE OPPOSITE: Dr. Temitope Omolehinwa (GD’14, GD’17, D’20), Assistant Professor of Oral Medicine, is leading a new clinical study of people living with HIV to examine the impact of therapies on their oral health.

DR. TEMITOPE OMOLEHINWA (GD’14, GD’17, D’20) got into dentistry wanting to be a clinician, not conduct research. But over the past several years, the pull of research has been impossible to resist.

“I couldn’t help myself,” says Dr. Omolehinwa, Assistant Professor of Oral Medicine at Penn Dental Medicine. “I saw trends in the clinic and I wanted answers.”

She's on the cusp of launching an investigation — her first as a principal investigator — that aims to provide answers to the many questions that surround the oral health, systemic health, and treatment of people living with HIV. Funded with $3.75 million over five years by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIH/NIDCR), the longitudinal study will result in a robust database that Dr. Omolehinwa and others will mine for clues to offer better care to those who are HIV-positive.

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“Over the years I have had patients saying to me, ‘If you ever move on with a study, please count me in,’” says Dr. Omolehinwa, who is director of the Medically Complex Care (MCC) Clinic at the School, which serves more than 700 people with HIV. “They’re very interested in being a part of whatever efforts will advance HIV care.

I’m glad we’re now working to make that happen.”

DRAWN TO RESEARCH During her dental education at the University of Lagos in Nigeria, Dr. Omolehinwa received a strong background in clinical dentistry. She derived satisfaction from clinical practice. “I really enjoy the handson nature, and not being able to predict my day-to-day,” she says.

To enhance her skills, she came to Penn Dental Medicine in 2012 as an oral medicine resident. Around the time that she was interviewing for her residency, the School had recently launched its Doctor of Science

in Dentistry (DScD) Program, created to prepare students for careers as dentist-scientists in academic dentistry, pairing clinical care with either basic science or clinical research.

Open and eager to learn, Dr. Omolehinwa entered that program in 2013 concurrently with her residency training, studying under Dr. Sunday Akintoye, Associate Professor and Director of the oral medicine research program. Akintoye had coincidentally also attended Dr. Omolehinwa’s alma mater, the University of Lagos, and he returned there through a Fulbright fellowship in 2015.

Dr. Akintoye recalls that Dr. Omolehinwa “captured the attention of different faculty members by her depth of knowledge and enthusiasm for oral medicine.”

Despite her fondness for clinical work, her research project for her DScD degree was firmly based in basic science. It examined the effects of hypoxia, or a lack of oxygen, on mesenchymal stem cells and the role it played in osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ), a condition

“Her effective teaching style, strong clinical skills, and research background will make her a star in the oral medicine profession.”

— DR. SUNDAY AKINTOYE sometimes caused by radiation therapy when targeted to the oral cavity, and one that Dr. Akintoye’s lab has long investigated.

“I like to try everything,” she explains.

Her commitment to her laboratory work earned her the prestigious Lester Burket Research Award from the American Academy of Oral Medicine for best research project in basic science in 2014.

After earning her DScD and being hired to the Penn Dental Medicine faculty in 2017, Dr. Omolehinwa was ready to once again focus in on her clinical care and teaching.

In addition to heading the MCC Clinic, she now also serves as Director of the Medically

Complex Patient Fellowship Program.

“I have watched her evolve into an effective teacher, rising clinician-scientist, and a good mentor to the dental students and residents,” Dr. Akintoye says. “Her effective teaching style, strong clinical skills, and research background will make her a star in the oral medicine profession.”

Through her close and careful clinical care, Dr. Omolehinwa found herself making note of curiosities and trends she wanted to pursue. Among several papers she crafted to present and study those questions, she pulled together a retrospective study of HIV patients she saw in the MCC Clinic, a

PENN DENTAL MEDICINE JOURNAL | FALL 2020 35

TEMITOPEOMOLEHINWA LINKED CONDITIONS

project that brought her into collaboration with Dr. Mel Mupparapu, Professor of Oral Medicine, as well as Dr. Akintoye.

Antiretroviral therapies (ART), though lifesaving, come with side effects, and many researchers believe systemic diseases, such as dyslipidemia, diabetes, and hypertension, are among the “side effects” associated with the drugs. “I was thinking a lot about the connection between these conditions, the chronic inflammation of these patients, the medications they were on, and their oral health,” Dr. Omolehinwa says.

She presented the findings of her retrospective study at the School’s Research Day in 2019, which showed that about 62% of patients living with HIV undergoing treatment at Penn Dental Medicine had at least one non-communicable disease, with cardiovascular conditions being the most prevalent.

Her study caught the attention of Dr. Patricia Corby, who had been hired earlier that year as the School’s Associate Dean of Translational Research and shortly thereafter opened the School’s Center for Clinical and Translational Research. Dr. Corby saw potential in the project — and in Dr. Omolehinwa.

“I see Temitope as the ideal trainee,” Dr. Corby says. “Besides being very smart and having an outstanding work ethic, she

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“We’re asking ourselves whether the drugs they’re on have anything to do with this increased risk for developing dental caries.”

— DR. TEMITOPE OMOLEHINWA

had the strengths to write the grant following our very high standards, was always humble enough to ask the right questions, was responsive with feedback while also expressing her opinion when she disagreed with any of our guidance.”

With the help of Dr. Corby and her team, led by Kira Nightingale, the Director of Research Operations for the Center, Dr. Omolehinwa poured her time and energy into crafting a grant proposal to prospectively study the connections her earlier study had illuminated, responding to a call from the NIH for studies on HIV and comorbidities.

“I joke with Pat Corby that she must have moved here because of me,” Dr. Omolehinwa laughs. “I just soaked up everything I could from her background in clinical and translational research. She expanded my way of thinking.”

Despite being a junior researcher with limited experience in such projects, the grant was quickly funded. This fall, Dr. Omolehinwa, along with partners and collaborators have been completing preparations for the study, which will begin enrolling patients in late November. Collaborating on the project are Drs. Akintoye and Mupparapu as well as Dr. Vincent Lo Re, Associate Professor of Medicine at Penn Medicine; Kelly JordanSciutto, Vice-chair and Professor in Penn Dental Medicine’s Department of Basic and Translational Sciences; members of Dr. Corby’s team, as well as biostatisticians from Penn Medicine.

The study aims to enroll patients not only from the Penn Dental Medicine clinic, but also at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and the NIH-funded Penn Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). It will include a total of 350 participants, a number the researchers foresee no problem in reaching. “To avoid bias, we need to make sure we’re seeing patients besides those who are having frequent oral evaluations so we get a mix of different populations,” Dr. Omolehinwa says.

From her retrospective study and care in the MCC clinic, Dr. Omolehinwa has seen that patients with HIV are at risk for oral health challenges. Though most of her patients are consistent with their ART regimen, she has seen “rampant caries,” or dental cavities, in spite of good oral hygiene.

And, curiously, many of these caries occur at the root, where the tooth meets the gums, rather than on occlusal surfaces, which come into contact with food more frequently.

“Since some patients are on a lot of medications, and others are not on as many, we’re asking ourselves whether the drugs they’re on have anything to do with this increased risk for developing dental caries,” she says.

Though one might think that inflammation associated with HIV infection could trigger oral inflammatory problems, such as periodontitis, Dr. Omolehinwa and others have noted that their patients living with HIV on ART don’t have significant periodontitis. They do, however, tend to have dry mouth, which can lead to other concerns, such as thrush.

Meanwhile metabolic conditions — including vascular diseases, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and osteoporosis — plague patients whose HIV infection is well controlled on ART. Researchers believe these conditions owe to HIV’s chronic activation of the immune system, possibly exacerbated by ART. Dr. Omolehinwa suspects that patients’ saliva, which may be altered by which drugs they’re taking, could be responsible for the unusual caries patterns, and could feed back into systemic disease, as dental caries is also an infectious disease.

“I really see this as a study that will keep evolving.

We’re setting up a large database with this specific cohort, and we’re looking into proteomics, genomics, microbiome information, and much more.”

— DR. TEMITOPE OMOLEHINWA

SCIENCE-BACKED ANSWERS The study that Dr. Omolehinwa is launching aims to draw links between what medications patients are taking, what is happening in their oral cavity, and what conditions are affecting their whole body. Within this cohort of people living with HIV, she and her colleagues will be following two groups of patients: those with non-communicable diseases, like the metabolic conditions, and those without non-communicable diseases.

Participants in the study will be tracked over years, receiving baseline and follow-up measures of oral health, general health, bone density, oral and systemic inflammation biomarkers, and more. “Patients will be seen every six months, taking a close look at mucosal tissues and dental status, including caries rates, periodontal assessments, and oral cancer screenings,” Dr. Omolehinwa says. “We will also be collecting oral samples, such as saliva and oral swabs, as well as blood samples.”

In addition, the researchers will be collecting a broader range of data, including quality-of-life measurements, cognitive functioning, and mental health screenings.

With this data, Dr. Omolehinwa hopes to test her hypothesis that the severity of oral diseases, such as caries and periodontitis, is associated with ART-driven changes affecting not only systemic health but also oral health due to salivary function changes, such as dry mouth, in patients with chronic metabolic conditions.

“The question is, is all this low-grade persistent inflammation a result of HIV infection, or is it a direct effect of the drug, or both?” Dr. Omolehinwa says. “The truth is we don’t know.”

The study is longitudinal, observational, and not interventional, but is tailored toward cataloging data that will inform a variety of translational research projects in years to come.

“I really see this as a study that will keep evolving,” she says. “We’re setting up a large database with this specific cohort, and we’re looking into proteomics, genomics, microbiome information, and much more.

We’re already getting requests from other investigators interested in collaborating with us as we get started. In the immediate near term, we’re focusing on oral health, but there is a lot of potential for collaboration in the context of this study with the comprehensive type of data we’re collecting.”

As the study gets off the ground, Dr. Omolehinwa is already looking toward plans to extend the grant, continuing to reap information that will allow for the development of future interventional trials aimed at improving the oral and overall health of those living with HIV for years to come — and which may cement Dr. Omolehinwa’s dual identity as both clinician and researcher.

“We can answer questions in the clinic but a lot of times we need to go beyond what we’re seeing in the dental chair,” she says.

“I’m a firm believer in translational research and clinical research. I think a combination of both is important to get a full picture.”

Support for the study is from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research (Grant DE029648).

— By Katherine Unger Baillie

PENN DENTAL MEDICINE JOURNAL | FALL 2020 37

ALUMNIHIGHLIGHTS

PROFILES, GATHERINGS & ENGAGEMENT

“While I miss my patients, when you teach, the patients you touch via your students is exponential.

It’s particularly rewarding to work with students on the patient management component of their clinical education.”

— DR. MARGRIT MAGGIO

Alumni Profile: Dr. Margrit Maggio (D’87) Passing on a Passion for Patient Care

FOR ALUMNA DR. MARGRIT MAGGIO (D’ 87), this summer marked the start of a new teaching role at Penn Dental Medicine as she became a PCU Director within the recently restructured clinical education program (see related story, p. 24). Yet, as a veteran member of the faculty — teaching here since 1996 — being part of new initiatives at the School is familiar territory.

“It’s been an honor to serve in a variety of roles as both a part-time and full-time member of the faculty over the past 24 years,” says Dr. Maggio, whose appointments have ranged from Director of Preclinical Dentistry, Director of Operative Dentistry, and the Director of the Advanced Simulation Laboratory to Preclinical Laboratory Director and Preclinical Group Leader. “And now it feels like I’ve come full circle to be teaching on the clinic floor, supporting recent changes to build on the School’s clinical education program.”

38 WWW.DENTAL.UPENN.EDU

BUILDING STUDENT, PATIENT RELATIONSHIPS Dr. Maggio, Associate Professor of Clinical Restorative Dentistry, officially took on the position of PCU Director, effective July 1 – one of six PCU Directors now managing instruction of DMD students within the clinics on a full-time basis.

“While I’ve always loved teaching, I’ve loved clinical practice as well, and honestly, I was a bit apprehensive about giving up the practice element in taking on this new role,” says Dr. Maggio, who practiced general

dentistry within the Penn Dental Medicine faculty practice for 18 years. “But I’m absolutely loving teaching in the clinic. Patient relationships have always been very important to me, and I’ve found that I am just as fulfilled helping students with their patients as I was working with my own.”

Maggio believes that developing a personal rapport with patients is a vital part of clinical care, and says that in addition to finding personal enjoyment in building relationships with her students’ patients, she also views the process as instructional for students.

“While I miss my patients, when you teach, the patients you touch via your students is exponential,” she says. “It’s particularly rewarding to work with students on the patient management component of their clinical education.”

Making the PCU Directors full-time faculty with a full-time presence in the clinic was a significant change to these leadership roles that Dr. Maggio feels is having a positive impact with students and the patient experience.

“Students know we are there five days a week and accessible on an ongoing basis,” she says. “We meet with them for treatment planning, and it allows us to build strong connections and makes for better consistency of the program and patient care.”

STRONG CONNECTIONS It was strong connections forged with her faculty during her time as a student at Penn Dental Medicine that would eventually lead Dr. Maggio on the path to teaching.

“One of my teachers, Dr. Bal Goyal, Director of Removable Prosthodontics and the undergraduate preclinical laboratory, recruited me to come back to the School to teach,” recalls Dr. Maggio, who ran her own private practice in general dentistry for eight years before joining Penn Dental Medicine in 1996. “My twins were two at the time I sold my practice and started teaching at Penn part-time. It was a great transition for me and then things just continued to evolve into fulltime positions; it has been very rewarding for me to give back to Penn and our students.”

Reflecting on her connections to the School, her classmates, and fellow alumni, Dr. Maggio feels she really never broke ties after graduation. Before joining the faculty, she was active in the Alumni Society Executive Committee, including serving as President. In 2018, the Society recognized her service and engagement with the Alumni Award of Merit.

“Penn Dental Medicine is an amazing community,” says Dr. Maggio, “When I look at faculty here today, it is uncanny how many people I graduated with, or knew when I was in School, or that I taught. I think it is telling to see how many stay affiliated with the School. For me, it has been and continues to be a wonderful ride, and I’m looking forward to what’s ahead.”

By the Numbers: FY20 Giving & Engagement TOTAL GIVING

$6.3M

TOTAL GIFT COMMITMENTS TO PENN DENTAL MEDICINE FY20

9.4% of alumni made a gift benefiting Penn Dental Medicine

ENGAGEMENT

1,897

ATTENDED A PENN DENTAL MEDICINE EVENT (INCR. OF 72% OVER LAST YEAR)

16% of alumni participated in Continuing Education programming 1,191 alumni are now listed on Find a Penn Dentist,

www.dental.upenn.edu/map (incr. of 27% over last year)

CAPITAL & ENDOWED GIVING (RESTRICTED)

$5.8M

RAISED TOWARD CAPITAL AND ENDOWED INITIATIVES

ANNUAL GIVING

$456K

RAISED TOWARD UNRESTRICTED ANNUAL GIVING FUNDS AT PENN DENTAL MEDICINE

801 alumni annual giving donors (12% were young alumni,

classes 2010-2020) 56 Penn Dental Medicine Benjamin Franklin Society members

PENN DENTAL MEDICINE JOURNAL | FALL 2020 39

ALUMNIHIGHLIGHTS Alumni Sharing Skills, Knowledge as Faculty Penn Dental Medicine is pleased to acknowledge those alumni sharing their skills and knowledge training the next generation of Penn Dental Medicine graduates as members of the School’s faculty. Presently, there are 253 alumni teaching at Penn Dental Medicine. Thank you alumni!

COMMUNITY ORAL HEALTH Judy Bendit, DH’81 Robert J. Collins, D’71 Lee B. Durst, D’83 Cecile Arlene Feldman-Zohn, C’80, D’84, GD’85, WG’85 Charlene Jennings Fenster, DH’75 Kari Hexem, D’15 Leonard Jensen, D’77 Randolph Mitchell, D’81 Mana Mozaffarian, D’06 John Newland, D’84 Abigail Quinn Peterson, C’96, D’02, GR’22 Andres Pinto, D’99, GD’01, GR’07, GR’17 Shabnam Sedaghat, D’16 Joshua Simpson, D’16 Tatyana Straus, GR’15, D’16

ENDODONTICS Louay Abrass, GD’00 Mohammed Alharbi, GD’15, GD’17 Alan Atlas, D’86 Seung-Ho Baek, GD’95 Frederic Barnett, D’78, GD’81 Sarah Bukhari, GD’15, GD’16 Rina Campbell, GD’15 Prasad Challagulla, D’07, GD’11 Noah Chivian, D’59 Gilberto Debelian, GD’91 Rami Elsabee, D’17, GD’19 Ameir Eltom, GD’12 Spyridon Floratos, GD’09, GD’10 Nadia Gharbi, GD’13 Garrett Guess, GD’02 Hiroshi Ishii, GD’06 Yi-Tai Jou, D’99

40 WWW.DENTAL.UPENN.EDU

Jean Kang, GD’00 Bekir Karabucak, GD’97, D’02 Eui-Seong Kim, GD’99 Jessica Kim, GD’05 Jung Baik Kim, D’91, GD’93 Anne Koch, D’77, GD’93 Eunah Koh, D’00, GD’03 Meetu Kohli, D’02, GD’05 Samuel Kratchman, GD’91 Lyudmila Kuznetsova, D’05, GD’08 Mariam Labib Soliman, D’07, GD’09 Brian Lee, D’00, GD’04 Kenneth Lee, C’91, D’95, GD’98 Michelle Lee, D’04 Sumin Lee, GD’13, GD’15, D’20 Martin Levin, D’72, GD’74 Francesco Maggiore, GD’99 Michael Stephen Marmo, D’95, GD’98 Melanie Martel, D’17, GD’19 Paula Mendez, GD’10 Marlene Oviedo-Marmo, D’94, GD’00 Rinku Parmar, D’02, GD’09 Kara Rosenthal-Fraiman, D’92, GD’94 Louis Rossman, D’75, GD’77 Chafic Safi, GD’15 Frank Setzer, GD’06, GD’07, D’10 Su-Jung Shin, GD’04 Martin Trope, GD’82, D’83 Helmut Walsch, GD’00, GD’01 Allen Yang, GD’02, D’04 Kaname Yokota, GD’16 Ya-Hsin Yu, GD’18, D’20 Irina Zagorodny, D’15, GD’17

ORAL MEDICINE

ORTHODONTICS

Scott DeRossi, D’95, GD’97 Katherine France, D’16, GR’16, GD’18 Jason Goodchild, D’98 Martin Greenberg, GD’68 Juan-Carlos Mora, D’06 Mel Mupparapu, D’96 Temitope Omolehinwa, GD’14, GD’17, D’20 Andres Pinto, D’99, GD’01, GR’07, GR’17 Agnieszka Radwan-Woch, D’01 Dennis Sharkey III, D’89 Thomas Sollecito, D’89, GD’91 Geetha Srinivasan, D’06 Eric Stoopler, D’99, GD’02 Takako Tanaka, GD’06

Paul F. Batastini, GD’89, GD’91 Paul J. Batastini, GD’72 Normand Boucher, GD’82 Lam Cb Bui, D’18, GD’20 Matthew Busch, GD’99 Chun-Hsi Chung, D’86, GD’92 Guy Coby, GD’87, GD’90 Patrick Cuozzo, GD’97 Hayward Drane IV, C’06, D’12, GD’14 Joseph Ghafari, D’83 Peter Greco, D’79, GD’84 Douglas Scott Harte, D’88, GD’91 John Hayes, GD’86 Eric Howard, D’95 Anil Idiculla, C’98, GD’06 Hyeran (Helen) Jeon, GD’14, GD’16, D’20 Sam Kadan, D’95 Kevin Lucas, GD’89 Arnold Malerman, GD’72 Rosario Mayro, GD’76 Vincent Mongiovi, D’99, GD’01 Vanessa Morenzi, D’83, GD’84, GD’89 Hyun-Duck Nah-Cederquist, D’97 Robert Anthony Penna, D’93, GD’96 Michael Angelo Perillo, D’93, GD’95 Mandy Pen Shui, D’91, GD’91, GD’93 Nipul Tanna, D’90, GD’91, GD’10, GD’11 Hellen Teixeira, GD’16, GD’19, D’22 Gustavo Viggiano, GD’89, GD’91 Douglas White, D’85, GD’88

ORAL SURGERY & PHARMACOLOGY Lee Carrasco, GD’02 Rita Chuang, GD’11 Bruce Cutilli, D’86, GD’92 Douglas Ditty, D’99, RES’00, M’02, GD’05 Brian Ford, D’09, M’12, GD’15 Helen Giannakopoulos, GD’02 Eric Granquist, M’07, GD’10, RES’10 Bradley Hersh, D’09 Christopher Perrie, M’05, GD’08 Peter Quinn, D’74, GD’78 Donald Rebhun, D’80 Rhae Anna Riegel Alcorn, D’11, M’14, GD’17, RES’17 Manal Sabir, GD’18, D’21 Joseph Spera, D’91 Steven Wang, D’09, M’12, GD’15 David William Wedell, GD’88

PEDIATRIC DENTISTRY Joshua Bresler, GD’05 Evlambia Hajishengallis, D’16 Hamid Hayat, GD’79, D’82 Constance Killian, D’81 Catherine Lee, D’18, GD’20 Rochelle Lindemeyer, GD’79 George Lynch, D’05 Neil Moscow, GD’76 Sara Rashedi, C’01, D’04 Tony Saito, D’95 Deep Shah, D’13 Abhinav Sinha, D’05 Yoosung Suh, D’96 Maria Velasco, D’10, GED’10 Patti Werther, D’78, GED’78, GD’81

PERIODONTICS Mahsa Abdolhosseini, GD’14 Sultan Alghaithi, GD’18, GD’19 Harold Baumgarten, D’77, GD’82 Robert Benedon, D’81, GD’84 I. Stephen Brown, GD’69 Yu-Cheng Chang, GD’15, GD’16, D’18 M. Alexandre Cho, GD’01, GD’02 Caleb Cross, D’11, GD’15 Robert Denmark, D’91 Mina Ebrahimi-Daryani, GD’17 Howard Fraiman, D’91, GD’93, GD’94 Rebekka Gerson, GD’07 Dumitru Gogarnoiu, D’89, GD’92 Reza Hakim Shoushtari, D’16, GD’20 Wendy Halpern, D’99, GD’02, GD’03 Pouya Hatam Ebrahimi, D’95, GD’98 Brian Kasten, D’13, GD’17 Yongkun Kun Kim, D’94, GD’98 Jonathan Korostoff, D’85, GR’91, GD’92 Daniel Kubikian, D’01, GD’04, GD’05 Vu La, GD’15, D’17 Richard Levitt, C’68, D’72, GD’77 M. Jeffrey Morton, D’76 Alan Meltzer, D’72 Mana Khalil Nejadi, D’04, GD’09 Louis Rose, GD’70 Henry Salama, D’81, GD’86 Maurice Salama, D’89, GD’93 Hector Sarmiento, GD’14 David Silver, D’85, GD’86, GD’88 Mehrdad Soheilimoghadam, GD’14, D’17 Arnold Wiesgold, GD’65 Michael Yasner, C’79, D’83, GD’84, GD’86

PREVENTIVE & RESTORATIVE SCIENCES Alan Atlas, D’86 Garry Adair, D’75 Evanthia Anadioti, D’17 Lilyana Angelova, D’08 David Appleby, D’74 Lyusya Badishan, D’13 Joy Bockstein Abt, D’94 Arlene Bowes, D’77 Mihaela Catighera, D’03 Myung (Brian) Chang, D’98 Scott Chanin, D’83 Stefani Cheung, C’08, D’11 William Cheung, D’81, GD’82 Susan Eisenberg Cutler, DH’74 Nicole Deakins, D’14 Pamela Doray, GED’76, D’84 Jay Dubin, C’80, D’84 Keith Dunoff, D’84 Evan Eisler, C’11, D’15 Olimbi Ekmekcioglu, D’05 Cassandra Gafford, D’13

Ronald Goldenberg, D’75 Howard Goldstein, D’90 Kunaal Goyal, C’87, D’91, CGS’02 Edward Grossman, D’91 Karina Hariton-Gross, D’10 Paul Gregory Hunter, D’87, GD’88 Najwa Ibrahim, D’96 Patrice Ierardi, MT’80, D’84 Donna Marie Jankiewicz, D’88 Irena Jug-Weiss, D’87 Jeremy Kay, D’12 Jae Woo Kim, D’07 Marjana Knezevic, D’12 Hua-Hsin Ko, D’17 Brian Korff, D’76 Heywood Kotch, D’77 Mark Koup, D’04 Daniel Kubikian, D’01, GD’04, GD’05 Edward Landau, D’71 Shaun Lavallee, D’13 Marie Valentine Lim, D’93 Yuan Liu, GD’19 Arturo Llobell Cortell, GD’15 Ghina Maliha, D’91 Francis Mante, D’95 Mamle Mante, D’92 Ewa Matczak, D’90 Meena Matloob, D’19 Oqba Memar, D’13 John Muhr, D’67 David Nepa, D’91 Hong Ni, D’02 Fatma Ozer, D’13 Biju Paul, D’91 Jeffrey Pearlman-Storch, D’80, GD’81, GD’87 Isaac Perle, D’79 Dale Resue, Jr., D’72 Janet Romisher, DH’84 Morris Rosen, D’92 Andrew Rosenfeld, D’80 Hal Rosenthaler, D’76 Najeed Saleh, D’94 Joseph Sandberg, D’84 Steven Alan Schwartz, D’76 Tara Sexton, D’88 Olivia Sheridan, D’90, GD’92 Jeffrey Sibner, D’83, GD’84 Mary Sidawi, D’02 Francis Smithgall, C’79, D’83 Eric Spieler, D’84 Joann Stettler, D’98 David Tecosky, D’79 Wilferd Vachon, Jr., D’71 Sharon Verdinelli, D’90, LPS’08 Lori Vespia, D’91 John Weierbach II, D’81, GD’82 David Jacob Weinstock, D’87, GD’89 Peter Wiesel, D’86

While every attempt was made to ensure this list was complete, however, should we have missed any alumni who are currently faculty, please let us know at alumnifeedback@dental.upenn.edu so our records can be corrected.

ONLINE TRAINING FOR TRAINERS For alumni across the country who may be considering sharing their skills and knowledge as part of a dental school faculty, Fundamentals in Clinical Education (FCE), is an online training resource developed by Penn Dental Medicine in partnership with AAL, a health and higher education consulting firm. Designed for new clinical faculty, transitioning private practice practitioners, and residents with teaching responsibilities, the program provides faculty calibration and orientation and covers practical tools for teaching dental and dental hygiene students.

Dr. Uri Hangorsky, Associate Dean for Student Life and Professor of Periodontics at Penn Dental Medicine, is the lead instructor from the School. FCE is comprised of five learning modules covering fundamental knowledge areas as well as best practices. Topics include effective student and patient communication, cultural competencies and inclusion, student motivation techniques, best practices for effective feedback, clinical teaching skills, working with challenging students, and the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA).

Learn more at www.dental.upenn.edu/FCE

WHY I TEACH

Dr. Frank Smithgall (C’79, D’83), Clinical Associate Professor of Restorative Dentistry, Class of 1983 Alumnus, Penn Dental Medicine

“For over 30 years, in addition to maintaining a private practice, I have enjoyed being a member of the faculty community at Penn Dental Medicine. Being able to maintain my own clinical skills, while at the same time mentoring the next generation of dentists has been an enriching experience.

Personally, I have found teaching inspires me to grow my own skill set and knowledge as well.

As an alumnus of Penn Dental Medicine, I know first-hand the importance of the educational environment that the School offers and am honored to contribute to it. After all, Penn Dental Medicine is “second to none”.”

PENN DENTAL MEDICINE JOURNAL | FALL 2020 41

ALUMNIHIGHLIGHTS Class of 2020 OKU Inductees Penn Dental Medicine’s ETA Chapter of the Omicron Kappa Upsilon (OKU) National Dental Honor Society welcomes its newest members, inducted from the Class of 2020 in May. New inductees are selected based on scholarship, exemplary traits of character, and potential qualities of future professional growth. The new OKU members from the Class of 2020 include: Dr. Ali Al-Sammak

Dr. Nasim Levin

Dr. Marie-Elena Cronin

Dr. Selin Soyupak

Dr. Vincent Michael Debitetto

Dr. Lauren Elizabeth St Laurent

Dr. Sarina Priyesh Dodhia

Dr. Ashley Elizabeth Swan

Dr. Lauren Elizabeth Fitzgerald

Dr. Justin Lewis Tomack

Dr. Mordechai Fried

Dr. Erica Weinberg

Dr. Michael Eli Ginzburg

Dr. Catherine Marie Wroclawski

Dr. Jonathan Griffin

Dr. Eliott Eytan Zarabi

Alumni Board Call for Nominations

Connect with other alumni and current students while lending input on programs and policies at Penn Dental Medicine as a member of the Alumni Society Executive Committee. You can nominate yourself or fellow alumni at www.alumni.upenn.edu/ PDMnominations. Voting on new Committee members will take place in April 2021 for the term starting July 1, 2021.

The newest members, who joined the Committee this July, include: Cindy Choi (D’20) Katherine France (D’16, GR’16, GD’18) Andrew Fraser (D’16) Maria Perno Goldie (DH’71) Stephen Howarth (D’16) Mel Mupparapu (D’96) Steven Ryoo (D’20) Lisa Schildhorn (DH’75), Shabnam Sedaghat (D’06) Ben Truong (D’19) Robert Weiner (C’72, D’79)

Some Certainty in Uncertain Times Some Certainty in Uncertain Times we continue to navigate way through challenging times, it’s natural out security.

As we As continue to navigate our wayour through challenging times, it’s natural to seek to outseek security. planning a Penn gift toDental Penn Dental Medicine, consider a Charitable Gift Annuity.

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Plan aPlan gift and today’stoday’s financial resources to ensure tomorrow’s stability.stability. a giftcommit and commit financial resources to ensure tomorrow’s

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For a personalized illustration of how For a personalized illustration of a how a Charitable Gift Gift Annuity can work for you, Charitable Annuity can work for you, contact: contact: Elizabeth Ketterlinus Elizabeth Ketterlinus ViceVice Dean PennPenn Dental Medicine Dean Dental Medicine Office of Institutional Advancement Office of Institutional Advancement

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SAMPLE RATES FOR AFOR $20,000 CHARITABLE GIFT ANNUITY ON A SINGLE LIFE* LIFE* SAMPLE RATES A $20,000 CHARITABLE GIFT ANNUITY ON A SINGLE

Annuitant Age Age 55 Annuitant 55 60 60 65 65 70 70 75 75 80 80 85 85 Annuity Rate 3.7% 3.9% 4.2% 4.7% 5.4% 6.5% 7.6% Annuity Rate 3.7% 3.9% 4.2% 4.7% 5.4% 6.5% 7.6% Annual $740 $780 $840 $940 $1,080 $1,300 $1,520 Annual Payment $740 $780 $840 $940 $1,080 $1,300 $1,520 Payment

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DEN Ad Fall 2020.indd 1 42 WWW.DENTAL.UPENN.EDU

9/23/2020 10:03:32 AM 9/23/2020 10:03:32 AM

CLASSNOTES

NEWS FROM FELLOW ALUMNI

1960s

1970s

Martin Levin (D’72, GD’74) sat down with the American Association of Endodontists’ (AAE) podcast to discuss his work on archaeologic dentistry.

The episode is available on the AAE’s website, www.aae.org, (episode 16).

Tim Tam (D’75) has been elected as Secretary and Treasurer for the British Columbia Dental Association. He is currently practicing Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics with two of his sons in Vancouver, B.C.

After 25 years providing foreign service, Albert Repicci (D’65) retired from Medical Ministries International and put away his scalpel and forceps. He has likewise retired as a special foreign correspondent for the “Greenwich Times,” sharing his most interesting assignments having been the genocide trials in Cambodia, the Nazi war crimes trial In Lunenburg, Germany, and most recently the earthquakes in Nepal, which found him scrambling for his life. Finally, as a story teller, he retired from his fourth career interest. With eight stage plays written and performed off Broadway or off-off-Broadway, he is leaving his position as a resident playwright at the Manhattan Repertory Theatre in N.Y. At this point in his life, he can honestly say that his training at Penn, the classmates he was honored to study with, and his career in dentistry formed the common thread that ran through every career option he pursued.

1980s

After 37 years of practicing Pediatric Dentistry, Jeff Ginsberg (D’81), decided to join his wife in retirement and sold his practice. He is looking forward to traveling and spending time with family post-pandemic. It has been a great and fulfilling career for him and he is very happy and excited for the future.

2000s

Jay Kansal (D’07, GED’07) earned recognition from Incisal Edge among its 40 Under 40, America’s Best Young Dentists. Hadi Ghazzouli (D’08), Sodabeh Etminan (D’09), Julee Gil (D'10, GR'10), Erin Issac (D'11), Jeremy Kay (D'12), Ngozi Okoh (D'12), and Robert Peterman (D'11) were also recognized.

Hadi Ghazzouli (D’08) see Jay Kansal (D’07, GED’07).

Sodabeh Etminan (D’09) see Jay Kansal (D’07, GED’07).

2010s

Julee Gil (D’10, GR’10) see Jay Kansal (D’07, GED’07).

Wayne Maibaum (D’84) retired from dentistry and now lives in Danbury, CT. His journey in dentistry was presented in the January 2018 issue of the New York State Dental Journal, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the New York State Dental Association.

Robert Fleisher (GD’76) has published eight books. His new thriller novel, The America Strangler, was published in July by Black Rose Writing. His previous novel, The Divine Affliction, received the 220 Bronze eLit Award in the Mystery/Suspense/Thriller category. Dr. Fleisher is an active, lifetime member of International Thriller Writers and is currently working on his next novel.

Erin Issac (D’11) see Jay Kansal (D’07, GED’07).

Sarah Khan (D’11) was awarded the Clinical Expertise Award from Benco Dental’s Lucy Hobbs project. Her recent undertakings include pharmaceutical development, and participation as a board member for a dental informatics company, aimed on improving patient care through the use of information technology. She also earned recognition from Incisal Edge among its 40 Under 40, America’s Best Young Dentists. She was joined in this recognition by eight of her fellow alumni.

Robert Peterman (D’11) see Jay Kansal (D’07, GED’07).

Paul Rosen (D’86) was honored by the University of Maryland School of Dentistry with their Distinguished Achievement Alumni Award. This award honors a graduate for significant professional accomplishments in science, dentistry, or education.

Jeremy Kay (D’12) see Jay Kansal (D’07, GED’07).

Ngozi Okoh (D’12) see Jay Kansal (D’07, GED’07).

PENN DENTAL MEDICINE JOURNAL | FALL 2020 43

CLASSNOTES Resources to Stay, Get Connected Looking to find a former classmate? Get your practice in front of potential patients? Hire a new associate? There are a number of resources to help Penn Dental Medicine alumni do just that. Here is a brief review of these easy online resources: Rakhee Porecha Mody (D’15, GD’17) and Ronak Mody (D’14) welcomed their son, Niam Zubin Mody, into the world on April 25, 2020. They are currently practicing pediatric dentistry and orthodontics, respectively, in Southern California.

Kevin Luan (GD’17) was selected for the ADA Institute for Diversity in Leadership Class of 2020-2021.

Saro Atam (D’18) is the recipient of two prestigious awards in recognition of his outstanding work within the field of orthodontics. Dr. Atam, an orthodontic resident in the Advanced Education Program in Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics at Stony Brook University, received the Journal of Clinical Orthodontics (JCO) Eugene L. Gottlieb Student of the Year Award, presented by American Orthodontics.

Dr. Atam was selected for this award over 24 other participants from schools around the United States in a two-stage, months-long competition judged by members of the JCO editorial board. In addition, Dr. Atam was recognized with the American Association of Orthodontists Foundation (AAOF) Resident Research Aid Award (RAA) for his project, "Orthodontic Digital Workflow: From 3D Printing to Appliance Fabrication.”

"Follow your dreams,” he says. “Let my journey be a testament that hard work and perseverance ignited with true passion can fuel a pathway to success despite all odds.”

Share Your News We want to hear from you.

Submit a Class Note to www.dental.upenn.edu/classnotes Or, you can send your submissions to: Robert Schattner Center Penn Dental Medicine Office of Institutional Advancement 240 South 40th Street Philadelphia, PA 19104

44 WWW.DENTAL.UPENN.EDU

MY PENN QuakerNet is now MyPenn!

The dynamic new universitywide alumni community serves as a one-stop portal for Penn students and alumni, offering the same benefits of the old systems along with new opportunities to connect with alumni, customize your experience, and access university resources. For more information or to create your account visit www.alumni.upenn.edu/mypenn.

CAREERS Career Opportunities is an online resource for those beginning a job search and a place to submit a posting if you are seeking a new employee or looking to sell your practice. Visit www.dental.upenn.edu/careers.

FIND A PENN DENTIST Find a Penn Dentist, located prominently on the Penn Dental Medicine web site, allows visitors to the site (whether other clinicians or potential patients) to search a directory of Penn Dental Medicine alumni practices by city/state, zip code, or specialty.

Register your practice by contacting the Office of Institutional Advancement at 215–898–8951 or at www.dental.upenn.edu/map.

SOCIAL MEDIA Social Media offers a number of ways you can engage with Penn Dental Medicine. Join “Penn Dental Medicine” on Facebook or follow “PennDentalMed” on Twitter and Instagram. You can also connect to “Penn Dental Medicine Alumni” on LinkedIn (a private group of nearly 400 Penn Dental Medicine alumni and current students).

INMEMORIAM

REMEMBERING MEMBERS OF THE PENN DENTAL MEDICINE COMMUNITY

Elizabeth J. Prang (DH’44) Charlottesville, VA January 1, 2020

Reinald J. Chutter (D’54) Sherrills Ford, NC April 24, 2020

Arnold B. Porges (D’59) Penn Valley, PA May 16, 2020

Ronald A. Cameron (D’67) Funchal, Madeira November 1, 2019

Thomas Watkins, Jr. (D’44) Dana Point, CA October 4, 2019

Vincent J. Smith (D’54) Farmington, CT August 31, 2020

Frederick W. Richartz (D’59) Stonington, CT July 6, 2020

Jerome R. Gutterman (GD’68) Sacramento, CA April 30, 2020

Ruth Shenkle Maley (DH’47) Venetia, PA May 1, 2020

Harvey E. Strizak (D’54) Old Westbury, NY January 1, 2020

Peter B. Gregory (D’60) Morris, NY March 12, 2020

Samuel E. Lippincott (D’68) Moorestown, NJ April 6, 2020

Marie C. Pietrafesa (DH’48) Beverly Hills, CA September 1, 2020

John R. Mann, Jr. (D’55) Delray Beach, FL May 21, 2020

James J. Canalichio (D’61) Maple Shade, NJ May 24, 2020

Ellen M. McDevitt (DH’73) Scituate, MA June 7, 2020

Wilmer A. Abbott, Jr. (C’48, D’51) Ventnor City, NJ April 23, 2020

Martin H. Schwartz (D’56) Monroe Township, NJ April 10, 2020

George F. Becker (D’62) Blue Point, NY August 20, 2020

Bruce H. Schneider (D’73) Hudson, MA May 20, 2020

Mary Bratton Stewart (DH’52) Palm City, FL April 8, 2020

Albert Eichen (D’57, GD’58) Teaneck, NJ March 26, 2020

Nan Thomas Woolley (DH’62) Dexter, MI May 31, 2020

Michele E. Magnotta (DH’75) Wilmington, DE March 11, 2020

Harvey Cedarbaum (D’53) Orange, CT July 1, 2020

Joseph W. Quinn (D’57) Scarborough, ME July 18, 2020

Harvey M. Zalesin (GD’63) Birmingham, MI July 6, 2020

David Stanton (D’88, M’92, GD’95) Wynnewood, PA November 13, 2020

Paul M. Ratner (D’53) Millbrook, NY September 21, 2020

Gerald F. Feeney (D’59) Sarasota, FL January 1, 2020

Philip R. Schoolnik (D’66) Tampa, FL February 22, 2019

Donald G. Lovejoy (D’59) Hilton, NY April 3, 2020

Luis J. Fujimoto (D’90, GD’93) New York, NY March 3, 2020 Baldwin S. Dy (D’94) Scranton, PA August 14, 2020

PENN DENTAL MEDICINE JOURNAL | FALL 2020 45

2020/2021CALENDAR UPCOMING EVENTS & PROGRAMS

With COVID-19 continuing to move our events to virtual gatherings for the time being, the calendar of events now and into 2021 remains fluid as we develop programs to connect in these unique times. Visit www.dental.upenn.edu/events for an up-to-date listing of upcoming events.

Visit www.dental.upenn.edu/cde for information on ongoing continuing education programming that features a robust schedule of virtual and online lectures.

46 WWW.DENTAL.UPENN.EDU

PENN DENTAL MEDICINE ALUMNI SOCIETY 2020-2021 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Eric Spieler, D’84 President Scott Chanin, D’83 Vice-President Members-at-Large Deena Alani, D’13 Pam Alberto, D’80 Hope Berman, C’77, D’83 L. Bui, D’18 Jennifer Caughey, D’19 Larry Chacker, D’85 Cindy Choi, D’20 Keith Dunoff, D’84 Katherine France, D’16, GR’16, GD’18 Andrew Fraser, D’16 Alyssa Marlin Greenberger D’02 Maria Perno Goldie, DH’71 Wendy Halpern, D’99, GD’02, GD’03 Sehe Han, D’18 Stephen Howarth, D’16 JV Kracke, D’17, GD’19 Daniel Kubikian, D’01, GD’04, GD’05 Bernard Kurek, D’73, WMP’03 Bret Lesavoy, D’19 Rachel Levarek, D’11 Mel Mupparapu, D’96 Ngozi Okoh, D’12 Steven Ryoo, D’20 Trevan Samp, D’14 Lisa Schildhorn, DH’75 Shabnam Sedaghat, D’06 Josh Simpson, D’16 Matt Sones, D’16 Ann Eshenaur Spolarich, DH’82 Ben Truong, D’19 Gary Wegman, D’83 Robert Weiner, C’72, D’79 Michael Yasner, C’79, D’83, GD’84, GD’86

The University of Pennsylvania values diversity and seeks talented students, faculty and staff from diverse backgrounds. The University of Pennsylvania does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, creed, national or ethnic origin, citizenship status, age, disability, veteran status or any other legally protected class status in the administration of its admissions, financial aid, educational or athletic programs, or other University-administered programs or in its employment practices. Questions or complaints regarding this policy should be directed to the Executive Director of the Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Programs, Sansom Place East, 3600 Chestnut Street, Suite 228, Philadelphia, PA 19104–6106; or (215) 898–6993 (Voice) or (215) 898–7803 (TDD).

BOARD OF ADVISORS

William W. M. Cheung, DMD, D’81, GD’82, Chair, Power of Penn Dental Medicine Campaign Co-Chair Nancy L. Baker, Esq. Stanley M. Bergman Sidney Bresler, Esq. Dirk Brunner, MSC, MBA Julie Charlestein Joanne Chouinard-Luth, DMD, D’79 Richard Copell, DMD, D’80 Terry Dolan, DDS, MPH Matthew J. Doyle, PhD Patrik Eriksson C. Mitchell Goldman Steven W. Kess Anne E. Klamar, MD Anne Koch, DMD, D’77, GD’93 Madeline Monaco, PhD, MS Haruo Morita Vincent Mosimann Joan O’Shea, MD Daniel W. Perkins Lewis E. Proffitt, DMD, D’73, WG’80 Garry Rayant, DDS, GD’77 Maria Ryan, DDS, PhD Tony Saito, DMD, D’95 Ken Serota, Esq. Alfred L. Spencer, Jr. David Tai-Man Shen, DMD, D’79, GD’81, Power of Penn Dental Medicine Campaign Co-Chair David S. Tarica, DMD, D’83 Larry Turner, Esq. Robert Zou, WG’94 Ex Officio Members Martin D. Levin, D’72, GD’74, Chair, Dean’s Council Eric Spieler, D’84, President, Alumni Society

DEAN’S COUNCIL

Martin D. Levin, D’72, GD’74, Chair Robert Brody, C’80, D’84 Stefani Cheung, C’08, D’11 Egidio Farone, D’84 Charlene Jennings Fenster, DH’75 Joseph P. Fiorellini Howard P. Fraiman, D’91, GD’93, GD’94 Joseph E. Gian-Grasso, C’67, D’71 Jeffrey N. Grove, D’04 Elliot Hersh Anil J. Idiculla, C’98, GD’06 Meetu Kohli, D’02, GD’05 Brian Lee, D’00, GD’04 Daniell J. Mishaan, D’03 Saul M. Pressner, D’79 Howie Rosa, D’82 Louis Rossman, D’75, GD’77 Gail E. Schupak, D’83 Tara Sexton, D’88 Robert Stern, D’87 Susan Stern, C’77, D’81 Arnold Weisgold, GD’65

PDMJ ADVISORY COMMITTEE Beth Adams Director of Publications Dr. Faizan Alawi Associate Professor, Basic & Translational Sciences Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Dr. Markus Blatz Professor of Restorative Dentistry Chair, Department of Preventive & Restorative Sciences Corky Cacas Director of Admissions Sarah Burton Flynn Director of Strategic Development & Alumni Relations Maren Gaughan Associate Dean for Leadership Giving Dr. Joan Gluch Division Chief and Professor of Clinical Community Oral Health, Associate Dean for Academic Policies Dr. Dana Graves Professor, Department of Periodontics Vice Dean for Research and Scholarship Elizabeth Ketterlinus Vice Dean of Institutional Advancement Dr. Robert Ricciardi Professor, Acting Chair, Department of Basic & Translational Sciences Susan Schwartz Director of Career Services Dr. Thomas Sollecito Professor of Oral Medicine Chair, Department of Oral Medicine

INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT Elizabeth Ketterlinus, ekett@upenn.edu Vice Dean of Institutional Advancement Maren Gaughan, gaughan@upenn.edu Associate Dean for Leadership Giving Sarah Burton Flynn, sburton@upenn.edu Director of Strategic Development & Alumni Relations Lindsay Murphy, lhonzak@upenn.edu Assistant Director of Annual Giving Megan Connolly, megcon@upenn.edu Assistant Director of Development & Alumni Relations Events Yarrow Randall, yrandall@upenn.edu Development Assistant Beth Adams, adamsnb@upenn.edu Director, Publications Pam Rice, pamrice@upenn.edu Director of Continuing Education Shaunna Lee, shaunna@upenn.edu Continuing Education Program Manager Delanie Wampler, wdelanie@upenn.edu Continuing Education & Communications Administrative Assistant

Office of Institutional Advancement: 215–898–8951

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PA ID Permit No. 2563 Philadelphia, PA

Robert Schattner Center University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine 240 South 40th Street Philadelphia, PA 19104–6030

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