Faculty Spotlight Q&A with Kenneth Peters, DDS ’84

Q: Looking back at your 23-year history with the CU SDM, what stands out the most to you? What are those moments of joy?

Q: Can you touch on the long-standing relationship between the CU SDM and CDA?

A: Many things bring me joy from working at CU Dental. I still come in every morning with a big smile on my face. I get the opportunity to work with students and see their growth from the time they first come in the door and barely know which end of the drill to use. By the time they walk out of here, they’re ready to work alongside me as a colleague and that’s a wonderful thing for me to see.

A: We have a great relationship. Since I became involved in leadership at the CDA in 2002, the partnership between our two organizations has been getting stronger. The CDA contacts the school for advice and we turn to the CDA to know what’s going on in the profession and how we should be training our students to help them prepare for life after graduation.

Q: What exciting things are happening at the CU SDM?

A: A lot of it surrounds technology. We’re finding new ways to integrate virtual reality into the program. In fact, one of my colleagues did a study that showed providing local anesthesia for patients was more successful when students learned in the virtual world prior to going into the clinic. We also have machines called haptic simulators, which give feedback through your hands. Students can practice using real tools on simulated teeth, and it feels just like they’re treating a patient in real life. They can take a scan of their patient’s teeth, put it into this machine and practice tooth preparations on the exact teeth they’re going to be seeing in the clinic. CU Dental is on the cutting-edge of adopting technologies. We’ve also got scanners, milling machines and printers, so we’re preparing students for today’s advanced digital landscape.

We also have a great relationship relating to licensure. We’ve gone through several changes in Colorado where we expanded licensure opportunities and made it more user friendly; that’s in large part because of the collaboration between CU and the CDA. In fact, I remember Dean Kassebaum nominated the CDA for the William J. Gies Award in 2017, which is the American Dental Education Association’s highest honor, and the CDA won because of the work they did on expanding licensure in Colorado.

Q: How has the Save a Tooth program benefited the partnership between CU SDM and CDA?

A: The Save a Tooth program is a wonderful venture that brings patients who couldn’t otherwise get care, particularly endodontic care, here to the dental school so they can get root canals fixed for a reduced fee. We’ve extended that to another project the CDA started called the Colorado Mission of Mercy (COMOM) which is a very large 125-chair portable dental clinic. The CDA has a long history of providing care to under-resourced communities, but there’s only so much they can provide, so they’ve extended that program to COMOM. Whenever some treatments can’t be done at COMOM, the dental school can step in to help.

Q: How has the CDA Scholarship Endowment made an impact for students at the CU SDM?

A: Scholarships have an enormous impact. It doesn’t matter what school it is, professional education at the doctorate level costs so much and very few students can pay for it fully out of pocket. It requires some help from others, and the CDA has been a tremendous supporter of scholarships for our dental students. Many of these students have become leaders in the dental profession, working to help shape the profession for us, so everything comes full circle.

There’s so much that the CDA has done for our school — teaching students how to be advocates and giving them opportunities to get involved. The scholarships they provide give students opportunities they might not have had otherwise.

All of that is so meaningful, and sometimes, it’s meaningful in levels that we don’t see because it can happen back in the shadows. Sometimes it’s the things you don’t see that can have the biggest impact on the life of a student.

Kenneth Peters, DDS ‘84 Clinical Associate Professor Restorative Dentistry, School of Dental Medicine