COMING UP

Indiana University School of Dentistry
Calendar of Events

March 2007

National Dental Assistants
Recognition Week, March 4-10

Feb. 28 (Wed.)

Indiana Section of the American Association for Dental Research presents NOVEL FACTORS INVOLVED IN REGULATING BONE MASS, by Dr. John Williams, Department of Internal Medicine's Division of Nephrology, Bone and Mineral Metabolism at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine; noon-1 p.m. in DS S116. All faculty, staff, and students are invited.

1 (Thurs.)

Support the Alternative Spring Break Service-Learning volunteers' trips to Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Mexico by buying LUNCH IN THE BASEMENT from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Indiana Section of the AADR presents THE AMALGAM CONTROVERSY: A NON-ISSUE ISSUE, by Dr. Dorin Ruse, chair of the Division of Biomaterials, Departments of Oral Biological and Medical Sciences and Oral Health Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; noon-1 p.m. in DS S116. All faculty, staff, and students are welcome.

1-4 (Thurs.-Sun.)

Final four days of the AMERICAN ACADEMY OF DENTAL PRACTICE ADMINISTRATION annual meeting, Scottsdale, Ariz.

2 (Fri.)

The Agony and the Ecstasy of a Hard Day's Night. Shooting of the Beatles' classic film A Hard Day's Night got under way on this date in 1964. Of the six camera operators on the film crew, one was assigned to shoot footage of the screaming fans during a concert scene.

The cameraman had two reasons to be miserable during the shoot: He disliked Beatle music, finding it "hard on the ears." And after being trapped in the midst of hundreds of hysterical teenyboppers, he also found the tunes of John, Paul, George, and Ringo to be hard on his teeth.

The cameraman had recently been to the dentist to have a tooth filled, and he felt that the endless sound of the heavily amplified, screeching kids was vibrating on his new amalgam, causing him to have an excruciating toothache. Out of frustration he returned to the dentist and insisted that the tooth be removed, even though the dentist protested that the tooth was healthy. Ultimately, the cameraman got his way, and returned to the movie set with one less pearly white to his name.

We asked our in-house metallurgical expert, Dr. B. Keith Moore, professor of dental materials, if screams in a music hall could cause an amalgam to be painful. Probably not, he says. "It's possible that a recently placed amalgam could result in significant pain after the local anesthesia wears off," says Dr. Moore, "but such pain is unlikely to be directly or indirectly associated with loud noises or acoustic vibrations."

While the cameraman may have too hastily said bye-bye to a sound tooth, we are left to wonder if the extraction somehow miraculously cured his hearing! When interviewed about his experience on the film's production many years later, he admitted that the Beatles' songs became music to his ears after he took a bit of time to listen to their words. He decided there was "something to these lads" after all.

Reference: A Hard Day's Night (DVD), Working Like a Dog feature, Miramax Collector's Series, 2002

3,4 (Sat., Sun.)

NORTH EAST REGIONAL BOARD (restorative dentistry/periodontics), held in the dental school's third-floor clinics

4-10 (Sun.-Sat.)

The dental community celebrates national DENTAL ASSISTANTS RECOGNITION WEEK.

On the home front, the IUSD PASS IT ON AWARD program for dental assistants has been reactivated, says Patricia Capps, associate professor of dental assisting, and Patricia Huff, dental assistant administrator for Clinical Affairs.

The newest recipient of the award is dental assistant Kristin Bohannon from Comprehensive Care Clinic G. She was honored in February. "We chose her because Kristin always has a positive attitude, is always willing to help out when needed, and enjoys teaching the dental assisting students and dental students, as needed," says Prof. Capps.

"The dental assistants in our school need to be praised for the hard work they do ‘above and beyond' on occasions such as Give Kids a Smile and when they assist our dental students on the examining boards," says Pat Huff. "During the Mock Boards, Kristin's contribution along with the rest of the dental assistants from the Comprehensive Care staff was outstanding."

6 (Tues.)

Today is Dental Illustrations' DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING MATERIALS FOR POSTERS to be presented at the research meetings in New Orleans later in the month. Posters will be made with the school's new large-format printer. The cost is $20, and will be charged to your department. An account number is needed before printing can begin. The deadline must be observed. Templates for poster layouts are available on the Common I Drive under ILLUS>External>Poster Templates. For more information about Dental Illustrations' poster services, contact Mark Dirlam, division supervisor, at mdirlam@iupui.edu.

IUPUI FACULTY COUNCIL, 3:30-5:30 p.m. in the University Library auditorium

7 (Wed.)

IUSD FACULTY COUNCIL, 1:30 p.m. in DS S117

Faculty Enrichment session: AXIUM CALIBRATION: THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK; 2-5 p.m. in DS S117. No classes, labs, or clinics this afternoon.

Staff training session: DEALING WITH MEDICAL EMERGENCY FOR NON-HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS, by Kathy Thompson, the dental school's CPR program coordinator; 2:30-3:30 p.m. in DS114. Intended for non-clinical staff who work closely with patients on such tasks as billing and appointment arranging. By invitation. (All staff will receive details about the program and will be given the option to participate if their schedules permit.)

8 (Thurs.)

Support the ASB Service-Learning volunteers: LUNCH IN THE BASEMENT from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

9 (Fri.)

Indiana Section of the AADR presents CARIES MANAGEMENT: TRANSITIONING FROM EDUCATION AND RESEARCH TO IMPROVE PATIENT CARE, by Dr. Margherita Fontana, associate professor of preventive and community dentistry; noon-1 p.m. in DS S116. All faculty, staff, and students are welcome.

12-16 (Mon.-Fri.)

IUSD SPRING BREAK. No classes or special clinic assignments. Clinics are open Monday-Wednesday only. The library is closed on the weekends (10/11, 17/18), and it will operate with abbreviated hours on the weekdays, 7:30 a.m.-5 p.m.

14 (Wed.)

RESEARCH DAY ORGANIZING COMMITTEE, noon-1 p.m. in DS245

16 (Fri.)

RESEARCH COMMITTEE, 9 a.m. in DS S421

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION DEADLINE for Student Research Subcommittee's March 30 meeting

17 (Sat.)

ERIN GO BRAGH!

17-21 (Sat.-Wed.)

AMERICAN DENTAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION annual session, New Orleans

19 (Mon.)

Deadline for submission of applications/nominations for NEW IUSD Associate Dean for Graduate Education (limited to an internal search at this time). Submit materials to Executive Associate Dean Chris Miller, chmille@iupui.edu.

20 (Tues.)

Dental and graduate dental students graduating in 2007 who borrowed a federal and/or private loan while enrolled at IUSD are required to attend a FINANCIAL AID EXIT INTERVIEW today in DS S116. Dental students are scheduled from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and master's degree students from 4:45 to 6:30 p.m. This is a graduation requirement. Students should plan to bring their laptops for an interactive portion of the program. Food will be provided. (Note: Dental hygiene and dental assisting students will be required to complete their loan exit interviews online. They will receive more information about the process by email from Sallie Mae [for Federal Stafford Loans] and/or the IU-Bloomington Student Loan Administration [for Federal Perkins Loans]).

IUPUI FACULTY COUNCIL, 3:30-5:30 p.m. in IH 100 (subject to cancellation)

21-24 (Wed.-Sat.)

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR DENTAL RESEARCH/AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR DENTAL RESEARCH annual sessions, New Orleans

While you're Way Down Yonder, be sure to reserve the evening of the 21st to join Dean Lawrence Goldblatt and Associate Dean Domenick Zero in the traditional RECEPTION FOR IUSD FRIENDS, ALUMNI, AND ASSOCIATES; 7-8:30 p.m. at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel, Grand Salon A, Section 3, First Floor.

And speaking of the IADR/AADR, the associations' Publications Committee recently approved the appointments of two IUSD faculty members to the editorial board of the prestigious Journal of Dental Research: Dr. James Hartsfield Jr., professor of oral facial genetics and orthodontics (School of Dentistry) and medical and molecular genetics (School of Medicine); and Dr. L. Jack Windsor, associate professor of oral biology (School of Dentistry) and adjunct associate professor of anatomy and cell biology (School of Medicine). Their two-year appointments will conclude in December 2009.

22 (Thurs.)

Support the ASB Service-Learning volunteers: LUNCH IN THE BASEMENT from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Hoosiers in High Places. Q. What's better than an IUSD faculty member serving as president of an international dental organization? A. Faculty from IUSD holding the top spot in that organization for two years running.

We are pleased to report that after presiding over the IADR's Cariology Research Scientific Group for the past year (Cariology Group for short), Dr. Hafsteinn Eggertsson, assistant professor of preventive and community dentistry, is passing the presidential baton today to his IU colleague Dr. Margherita Fontana. The change of officers takes place during the IADR annual session in New Orleans.

These back-to-back presidencies are just one more sign of the global reputation our Oral Health Research Institute has earned, and continues to build upon, as a leader in caries and preventive dentistry research. Among the OHRI scientists' many accomplishments in recent years has been their collaboration with colleagues at Copenhagen University in Denmark and the universities of Michigan and Dundee, Scotland, on the creation of the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS). It entails visual criteria that propose a new international standard in early caries detection, and will figure prominently in research that the OHRI has recently undertaken with a $3.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

23 (Fri.)

IU's Worldwide Reputation in Preventive Dentistry: The Prequel
"…We met for lunch the next day at a popular faculty restaurant Dr. Muhler had suggested, the Campus Club. I was surprised by how young he looked. He was then 32 years old, but my guess would have been about 25. He had a powerful, athlete's build. His thick black hair, which could have used a trim, was combed straight back, and it was either slightly wet or slicked down with hair tonic. He was as affable in person as he had sounded on the telephone, and we got right down to business over the shrimp cocktails. The details of the work he had been doing tumbled forth, although I realized that he was going about as slowly as he could bear to go, trying to make it all simple..."

The excerpt above comes from the March 23, 1963, issue of the legendary consumer magazine, The New Yorker. Writer Bruce Bliven's article "And Now a Word from Our Sponsor" tells in great detail the story of how research started in the 1940s by IU-Bloomington student (and future IU dental student and professor) Joseph Muhler led to the patent of the world's first successful stannous fluoride formula, which was subsequently used by Procter & Gamble in Crest toothpaste. Crest ads could point to scientific evidence when stating that the paste was capable of significantly reducing dental caries (a statement backed up, first with provisional approval from the American Dental Association Council on Dental Therapeutics, now called the Council on Scientific Affairs, and finally with full ADA approval in 1964).

When Muhler moved to the Indianapolis campus for his second year of dental school (first-year dental students were located on the Bloomington campus in those days), he was given his own lab so that he could continue the studies he had started in Bloomington's chemistry department. By the time he earned his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree in 1948, he had already published 11 research papers! The patent he was awarded for the stannous fluoride formula (along with IU chemistry professors Harry Day and William Nebergall) would bring fame to both the researchers and the university.

Royalties from the sale of Crest made it possible for a dental research facility to be constructed across the parking lot from the dental school. It was known officially as the Preventive Dentistry Research Institute, and informally as "the House that Crest Built." Muhler served as director, and also became a major force in establishing the discipline of preventive dentistry in the curricula of U.S. dental schools. When he transferred from his faculty appointment at IUSD to one on the Fort Wayne campus in 1972, the institute's name moved with him, and the dental school's facility was renamed the Oral Health Research Institute. Serving as OHRI director prior to current director Dr. Domenick Zero were Dr. Ralph Phillips (until 1981) and Dr. George Stookey (until Dr. Zero's appointment in 1999).

IU awarded the distinguished title of "Research Professor" to Muhler, who retired in 1983 and moved to Sturgis, Mich. He died on Christmas Eve in 1996.

Remarkably, while Muhler juggled dental school with the unique demands of a full-fledged researcher, he was often hard pressed to find two nickels to rub together. For a time in those early years, this young man of enormous vision who was conducting groundbreaking research in preventive dentistry was also hitting the pavement at dawn to earn money as a newspaper carrier.

The New Yorker story can be found in the third-floor stacks of the IUPUI Library, AP2.N6763. (And if you're a fan of The New Yorker's cartoons, which are as legendary as the magazine itself, there's an amusing book of dentally related cartoons in our own library â€" check out The New Yorker/American Dental Association Book of Cartoons, WZ336 N532.)

References:

The New Yorker: And Now a Word from Our Sponsor, by Bruce Bliven Jr.; March 23, 1963, begins p. 83

Indiana Alumni Magazine: We Are Not Limited by Our Past Successes, by Joseph C. Muhler; Sept. 1983, pgs. 18-22

24 (Sat.)

DENTAL ASSISTING PROGRAM PRESENTATION AND TOUR, 9 a.m. beginning in lecture hall DS S117

26 (Mon.)

Today is Dental Illustrations' DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING MATERIALS FOR POSTERS to be presented at IUSD's upcoming Research Day. Posters will be made at a cost of $20, and will be charged to your department. An account number is needed before printing can begin. The deadline must be observed. Templates for poster layouts are available on the Common I Drive under ILLUS>External>Poster Templates. For more information, contact Mark Dirlam at mdirlam@iupui.edu.

27 (Tues.)

NATIONAL DENTAL HYGIENE BOARD EXAMINATION, held at the dental school

28 (Wed.)

This evening at a banquet at University Place Hotel, 5 dental hygiene students and 11 dental students will be inducted into the field of dentistry's two national honor societies: SIGMA PHI ALPHA (Dental Hygiene) and OMICRON KAPPA UPSILON (Dentistry).

Congratulations to:

Sigma Phi Alpha, Theta Chapter
Stephanie Clester
Jennefer Dilk
Erin Hudson
Samantha Judge
Maggie Sunkel

OKU, Theta Theta Chapter
Allison Bergdoll
Justin Brown
Patrick Carroll
Grant Cleveland
Kristine Donnelly
Joel Dragoo
Carl Drake
Jessica Jarboe
J. Terrence O'Neill
Kirk Yegerlehner
Derrick Young

One of the students listed above is OKU's 2007 Outstanding Student â€" the top honor will be announced at the banquet.

OKU will also honor 4 other individuals, as follows:

Sherry Benenhaley, recipient of the William S. Kramer Award, which is given each year to an outstanding third-year dental student;

Dr. Jonathan Gray, clinical associate professor of periodontics, and Dr. Scott Reef, clinical assistant professor of periodontics, faculty inductees; and

Dr. William Babler, acting chair of the Department of Oral Biology and associate professor of oral biology, named an honorary member (a category that recognizes faculty who are not dentists).

In addition, 9 OKU alumni members will be recognized for attaining life membership in 2007:
Donald Darbro (DDS'75, M'77 Ortho), Bargersville, Ind.
Prof. Emeritus Rolando DeCastro (M'73 Anatomy), Carmel, Ind.
Gary Drury (DDS'72), Osceola, Ind.
Dennis Ford (DDS'77), Lawrenceburg, Ind.
John Harker (DDS'71), Hope, Ind.
Prof. Emeritus Norris Richmond (DDS'63, M'65 Operative Dent), Indianapolis
Bryan Snook (DDS'76, Cert'79 Oral Surg), LaPorte, Ind.
Prof. Emeritus Donald Tharp (DDS'64), Danville, Ind.
Don Wilkins (DDS'71, M'73 Ortho), Merritt Island, Fla.

29 (Thurs.)

Support the ASB Service-Learning volunteers: LUNCH IN THE BASEMENT from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

30 (Fri.)

STUDENT RESEARCH SUBCOMMITTEE, 8 a.m. in DS B29

People, Places, and Things

JEFFREY JONES BACK ON HIS HOME TURF ALONG WITH OTHER IUSD VOLUNTEERS. Third-year dental student and Muncie, Ind., native Jeffrey Jones and 5 other IU dental school volunteers recently went "on safari" to Jeff's hometown, where they joined a variety of professionals committed to helping youngsters learn about issues of importance to their health and safety.

The Health and Safety Safari on Feb. 10 was sponsored by the Indiana District of Kiwanis Clubs.

The other IUSD volunteers were staff member Elvia Reyes-Martinez, a dental assistant in the Department of Oral Facial Development; dental students David Gallup (DDS'09), Matthew Rasche (DDS'09), and Christian Kelly (DDS'08); and faculty supervisor Dr. Joan Kowolik, assistant professor of pediatric dentistry.

The dental team rounded out its educational program with some important "chair time" for the children, providing oral screenings and fluoride treatments.

"It's a chance to come back and help the kids out," Jeff told Ric Routledge of The Star Press, an East Central Indiana newspaper that included a photo of the dental students examining a 6-year-old fair participant from Gaston, Ind. "We're here to promote good dental habits â€" giving away toothbrushes and toothpaste."

SWENSON SCHOLARS. Congratulations to third-year periodontic graduate students Drs. Jung-Sun Han and Karim El Kholy, who are the 2007 recipients of Henry M. Swenson Periodontic Scholarships. Presented in February in Chicago, the scholarships honor IU Professor Emeritus Swenson, a part-time professor of periodontics and an IUSD faculty member since 1943.

DELTA DENTAL FOUNDATION GRANT EXTENDS CARE BEYOND "GIVE KIDS A SMILE." The IU School of Dentistry will use a grant from the Delta Dental Foundation to provide additional free dental care to children who participated in the American Dental Association's nationwide Give Kids a Smile program at the dental school treatment site on Feb. 2.

The dental school provided dental exams, protective sealants, and restorative care to a total of 89 youngsters.

Selecting recipients from more than 100 applications, the Delta Dental Foundation awarded its first annual Community Mini-Grants to 10 organizations and institutions in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. The IU dental school received a $5,000 grant, which will make it possible for the school to continue treating an estimated 30 children whose dental needs were too extensive to complete during Give Kids a Smile day.

"We'll use the Delta Dental Foundation's funds to provide comprehensive treatment to the children we found to be in greatest need during the event," said Dr. Judith Chin, associate professor of pediatric dentistry and the grant's recipient. Dr. Chin screened dozens of youngsters for dental problems during a pre-event session at the Westside Clinic, and children found to be in need of care were then treated at the dental school along with the other event participants.

Give Kids a Smile relies almost entirely on volunteers. This year's efforts at our school, when officially tallied, are likely to exceed the nearly 2,200 volunteer hours we contributed to Give Kids a Smile in 2006. Numerous faculty and staff members volunteered, as did the following students:

Dental Assisting
Kristian Allbright, Natalie Evans, Lauren Evoy, Rachael Goldstein, Rebecca Groth, Tara Hughes, Brittany Jeswald, Rachel Moore, Christina Orcutt, Sarah Rogers, Maria Schoettmer, and Karla Spruell

Dentistry
3rd Year
Jami Bangert, Rebecca Downie, Todd Larrabee, Ryan Pulfer, Adam Rector, Sean Schafer, Derek Smith, and Nicole Weddell

4th Year
Marcus Ditto, Kristine Donnelly, and Kristin York

••••••

Send items for April calendar by March 26: Indiana University School of Dentistry, Room DS B32, 1121 West Michigan Street, Indianapolis IN 46202-5186. Fax: (317) 274-7188. E-mail: smcrum@iupui.edu