COMING UP
Indiana University School of Dentistry
Calendar of Events
May 2009
May Is Recognition Month for IUSD’s Computer
Technicians
A “Standing O” for Rodrigo: Dr. Viecilli to Receive
The Nation’s Highest Research Award in Ortho
Publisher Rolls Out 4th Edition of IU
Infection Control Textbook
IUPUI’s Top “MURI” Award Goes to IUSD’s Oral Biology
Researchers
This Issue In Memory of Dental Assisting Alumnus John
Adams Lewis
1 (Fri.)
Final day of ASSESSMENT WEEK for 4th year
dental students and of FINAL EXAMS WEEK for dental hygiene, dental assisting,
and graduate students (and Second Semester ends for these classes)
CPR TRAINING for full-time clinical faculty and staff, 8
a.m.-noon at Walker Plaza 201A; led by Kathy Thompson, CPR program
coordinator. Register at 274-8841; kthomps@iupui.edu.
IUSD AWARDS BANQUET for Classes of 2009, noon-2 p.m. at
University Place Hotel Ballroom. By invitation.
TOWN HALL ON THE FUTURE OF MOBILITY AT INDIANA
UNIVERSITY, 3-5 p.m. at ICTC 303 and Campus Center 308. University Information
Technology Services is inviting us to get involved in discussions about needs
related to the increasing variety of handheld and mobile devices in use on the
IUPUI campus. For more info, see the flyer:
https://www.slashtmp.iu.edu/public/download.php?FILE=eantonop/55819h5xmeZ.
Final day for IUSD faculty to complete the SURVEY ON
IUPUI’S INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS PROGRAM. Link to survey was sent to faculty
from Susan Crum on April 22. If you need it resent, send a note to smcrum@iupui.edu. (Staff will receive this
survey during the month of May.)
1-5
(Fri.-Tues.)
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF ORTHODONTISTS annual session,
Boston. The IU ORTHODONTIC ALUMNI ASSOCIATION is hosting a suite Friday and
Saturday nights till midnight at the Westin Boston Waterfront hotel.
IU to Have High Profile at AAO Meeting, Thanks to Dr.
Rodrigo Viecilli. In April 2008, graduate student Dr. Rodrigo Viecilli
stepped into the local spotlight as the winner of not one but two IUSD Research
Day awards.
He was recognized for his biomechanical investigation of
the P2X7 receptor, which is a protein molecule that plays a significant role in
orthodontic mechanotransduction, the process by which the dental appliances
worn by patients stimulate the necessary changes to bone structure during
orthodontic therapy.
Now, just 12 months later, the spotlight on Viecilli’s
research has grown brighter – and taken on national proportions: At the
American Association of Orthodontists’ annual meeting, he will receive the
prestigious Milo Hellman Research Award, the highest honor bestowed by the AAO
for graduate-level research. While in Boston he will also present the results
of his study, which demonstrated that orthodontic responses are related to the
principal stress patterns in the periodontal ligament. The work also draws
attention to the important role the P2X7 receptor plays in mechanotransduction.
The results will be published later this year by the American Journal of
Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics.
The prize includes $3,000, but for Viecilli the value of
the Hellman award has little to do with money. “The award itself is the
greatest prize for me,” he says. “It is a lifetime recognition I will share
with some of the most prominent scientists in my specialty.”
A native of Brazil who earned his dental degree at
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Viecilli came to IU
to study in a combined program that in his case will culminate in a PhD degree
in Dental Science and a master’s degree in Orthodontics. He’s currently at the
tail end of the PhD and approaching the half-way point in the master’s program.
His primary mentor for the award-winning project is Dr. Thomas Katona, a
faculty member holding both dental and engineering degrees in the Department of
Orthodontics and Oral Facial Genetics.
The Hellman award helps validate Viecilli’s decision to
steer himself toward the orthodontic specialty’s academic community, he says.
“I left a profitable orthodontic practice in my country to pursue an academic
career and spend four financially unprofitable years pursuing a PhD. It was
very difficult at times, and it wouldn’t be true if I said I never questioned
my decision. Getting this award made me very happy and confirmed that I am on
the right path in dedicating my professional career to research and teaching.
“Plus,” Viecilli adds, “the award will get more people
interested in reading my papers!”
The year 2009 is turning out to be a very good one for
Rodrigo Viecilli in more ways than one. In a couple of months he’ll start
another biomechanics clinical project with Dr. Jie Chen, a professor at
both the dental school and the School of Engineering and Technology. Their RO1
study is funded by the National Institutes of Health for about a million
dollars.
Viecilli will also be a presence on the lecture circuit:
He’s been asked to present his research to the Portuguese Orthodontic Society
in the Porto University medical school in Porto, Portugal.
Viecilli isn’t sure where he’ll relocate after his IU
education is complete – he expects his job quest to coincide with his fiancée’s
search for a place to do her residency after she graduates in 2010 from the IU
medical school – but he envisions a career for himself that ultimately balances
a full-time professorship with a part-time orthodontic practice. He sees his
particular area of research as filling an important educational niche in the
specialty.
“I believe the greatest weakness in orthodontic education
is a limited understanding of scientific biomechanics and lack of a stronger
application of it in the clinic,” he says. “Therefore, I believe I can have a
bigger impact in patient care by producing science and educating residents
rather than seeing a couple hundred patients in an office. But a part-time
private practice is also professionally important because direct patient care
is fundamental to any clinician.”
He views the Hellman award and the new NIH grant as
positives for IU. “When the AAO gives the Hellman Award to an
engineering/biology paper, and the NIH approves an RO1 project on the same
subject in spite of all the competition with biological research areas, it is a
great sign that orthodontic research at IU is moving in the right direction,”
he says. “Pursuing biomechanical research will certainly help IU’s Orthodontic
Program maintain its place among the best in the country.”
2 (Sat.)
Final day of the annual meetings of the AMERICAN ACADEMY
OF ORAL MEDICINE, Miami, and AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF ENDODONTISTS, Orlando,
Fla. Clinics in graduate and undergraduate endodontics will reopen on May 4.
4 (Mon.)
D4 MODULE GRADES due to course directors
CPR TRAINING for full-time clinical faculty and staff,
1-5 p.m. at Walker Plaza 201A. Register at 274-8841; kthomps@iupui.edu.
5 (Tues.)
D4 COURSE GRADES due today in the Student Office
CPR TRAINING for full-time clinical faculty and staff, 8
a.m.-noon at Walker Plaza 201A. Register at 274-8841; kthomps@iupui.edu.
IUPUI FACULTY COUNCIL, 3-5 p.m. in Campus Center 409
7-9 (Thurs.-Sat.)
INDIANA DENTAL ASSISTANTS ASSOCIATION and INDIANA DENTAL
ASSOCIATION annual sessions, Downtown Marriott hotel
8 (Fri.)
IUSD FACULTY COUNCIL, 9-10 a.m., followed by FACULTY
ENRICHMENT (room TBA). No morning classes, labs, or clinics.
9 (Sat.)
IU SCHOOL OF DENTISTRY COMMENCEMENT CEREMONY for all IUSD
graduates, 500 Ballroom of the Indiana Convention Center. This year’s commencement
speaker is Dr. Jeffrey Dalin, a 1980 dental graduate of IU, private
practitioner in St. Louis, and co-founder of the national “Give Kids a Smile”
program. Dalin launched the charitable event in St. Louis in 2002, and then
worked with the American Dental Association to take Give Kids a Smile
nationwide in 2003. “This program is now one of the most visible and positive
‘faces’ of American Dentistry, and a symbol of our profession and its
commitment to broad access to oral healthcare…,” Dean Lawrence Goldblatt
says.
Graduates line up for the processional at 9:30 a.m. The
program, approximately two hours long, begins promptly at 10.
10 (Sun.)
MOTHER’S DAY
11 (Mon.)
SUMMER SESSSION begins for dental hygiene and graduate
students
CPR TRAINING for full-time clinical faculty and staff,
1-5 p.m. at Walker Plaza 201A. Register at 274-8841; kthomps@iupui.edu.
13 (Wed.)
CPR TRAINING for full-time clinical faculty and staff, 8
a.m.-noon at Walker Plaza 201A. Register at 274-8841; kthomps@iupui.edu.
Faculty and Adviser Training Series: RECOGNIZING
DIFFICULT SITUATIONS, 1:30-2:30 p.m. in DS S116. Presented by Jerry Baker,
IUPUI Police department. Faculty are strongly encouraged to attend. Register by
emailing Elizabeth Hatcher, ehatcher@iupui.edu.
15 (Fri.)
GRADUATE PROSTHODONTICS CLINIC closed today
PROPOSAL SUBMISSION DEADLINE for Student Research
Subcommittee's May 29th meeting
RESEARCH COMMITTEE, 9 a.m. in DS245
15-20 (Fri.-Wed.)
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ORAL AND MAXILLOFACIAL PATHOLOGY
annual meeting, Montreal
18 (Mon.)
CPR TRAINING for full-time clinical faculty and staff,
1-5 p.m. at Walker Plaza 201A. Register at 274-8841; kthomps@iupui.edu.
18-24 (Mon.-Sun.)
IU PEDIATRIC DENTISTRY ALUMNI ASSOCIATION’S BIENNIAL
CONFERENCE, May 18-20 at the Sheraton Kauai Resort, Island of Kauai, Hawaii. In
association with the AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRIC DENTISTRY annual session,
Honolulu, May 21-24. Alumni’s evening hospitality suite (Tuesday at Sheraton
Kauai Resort and Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at Hilton Hawaiian Village in
Honolulu) opened till midnight.
21 (Thurs.)
CPR TRAINING for full-time clinical faculty and staff, 8
a.m.-noon at Walker Plaza 201A. Register at 274-8841; kthomps@iupui.edu.
Staff Dental Assistant Lunch and Learn Series presents
EXOTIC ANIMAL DENTISTRY, by Dr. George Willis, Restorative Dentistry;
noon-1 p.m. in DS S117.
24 (Sun.)
93rd running of the INDIANAPOLIS 500
25 (Mon.)
MEMORIAL DAY HOLIDAY (school closed)
28 (Thurs.)
LOCAL ANESTHESIA LABORATORY for second-year dental class,
1:30-5 p.m. in Comprehensive Care Clinics A,B,C, and D
STUDENT AFFAIRS COUNCIL/DEAN'S STUDENT TOWN HALL, noon in
DS116
29 (Fri.)
STUDENT RESEARCH SUBCOMMITTEE, 8 a.m. in B29
CPR TRAINING for full-time clinical faculty and staff, 8
a.m.-noon at Walker Plaza 201A. Register at 274-8841; kthomps@iupui.edu.
FUNNY TO THE KOR. TV funny man Harvey Korman
died one year ago today at the age of 81. His television and film career
spanned decades, but he is best known for his work in the 1960s and 1970s as a
member of the comedy team on “The Carol Burnett Show.” Often during Korman’s skits
on that show, it was difficult to know where he rightfully belonged – on the
stage or in the audience. America loved Carol Burnett and her gaggle of zany
sidekicks, but no one loved the skits more than Korman himself. He found it
almost impossible to keep a straight face, especially when he was teamed with
master comic Tim Conway. The effect of Korman cracking up on stage usually
made the audience laugh even harder. In no skit is Korman’s inability to
suppress his own laughter more evident than in the famous Conway/Korman piece
called “The Dentist,” in which Korman plays a dental patient with a toothache
and Conway an inept dentist (from the days of wet-finger dentistry) who manages
in less than 3 minutes to anesthetize his own hand, thigh, and forehead. You
can watch the sketch at this MSNBC site, which paid tribute to Korman upon his
death last year: http://testpattern.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/05/29/1078986.aspx
People, Places, and Things
SHELTER SEALANT VOLUNTEERS. Twelve youngsters from
homeless families received preventive dental care from IU dental students
during the April session of the school’s Shelter Sealant Program, held at Holy
Family Shelter. Contributing to this effort were Soy Lim, Matt Rasche,
and Tamara Smith, Class of 2009; Kira McCoy and Ryan Williams,
Class of 2010; and visiting faculty member Dr. Amul Singh, Restorative
Dentistry.
IU ALUMNUS DONATES CONTEST MONEY TO SEAL INDIANA. The
American Dental Association reports that IU dental graduate Dr. Paul Glass
(Class of 1996), of South Bend, has donated $20,000 to IUSD that he won through
a “Make-A-Difference” contest held by the Premier Dental Products Company for
community dentists. Glass’s mother, Anne Ackerman-Glass, was one of IU’s
first teachers of dental hygiene. “The contest was designed to appeal to the
inner philanthropist in every individual, empowering them to give on a grander
scale than normal circumstances might allow,” says Julie Charlestein,
Premier’s vice president of Branding and Business Development. Glass’s donation
to the school’s Division of Community Dentistry Priority Fund will help equip
the Seal Indiana mobile clinic so that restorative treatment can be provided to
rural-Indiana children from low-income families who are enrolled in Head Start.
You can access the full ADA News story at http://www.ada.org/prof/resources/pubs/adanews/adanewsarticle.asp?articleid=3550
.
THE ENVELOPE, PLEASE. Congratulations to
researchers in IUSD’s Department of Oral Biology, who learned earlier this
month that they and a group of students they mentored in the summer of 2008
have been chosen as the recipients of the Best MURI Research Team Award. The
award is named for the campus’s Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Research
Institute, which is associated with the School of Engineering and Technology.
Students enrolled as MURI scholars receive stipends that make it possible for
them to delve into research studies with a wide range of professors on our
campus.
The award-winning faculty are Dr. Richard Gregory,
project mentor; and co-mentors Dr. L. Jack Windsor and Dr. Fengyu
Song.
“Effects of Exposure of Human and Bacterial Cells to
Tobacco” is the name of the project that garnered the top prize. The research
is linked to the dental school’s Tobacco Cessation and Biobehavioral Center,
which is one of the IUPUI Signature Centers.
The award, which was presented at the School of
Engineering and Technology’s honor convocation on April 24, includes cash
prizes of $250 for the students and an honors banquet sponsored by the IUPUI
Center for Research and Learning.
Congratulations to the six talented young scholars whose
outstanding collaborative project brought the top MURI award home to IUSD: Mallory
Marquie, Butler University Department of Biology; Elif Gurdogan, Yeditepe
University Dental School, Istanbul, Turkey; Tiffany Morales and Elizabeth
Smith, IUPUI Department of Biology; Chia Lei Ang, IUPUI Department
of Biomedical Engineering; and Eric Grow, IUPUI Department of Chemistry.
4th EDITION IS FRESH OFF THE PRESS. Administrator
and faculty member Dr. Chris Miller completed his 37-year career at the
IU School of Dentistry in 2007, including service as IUSD’s executive associate
dean, but his reputation as one of our nation’s leading authorities on infection
control in dentistry did not follow him into retirement. His latest
contribution to advancing knowledge in this ever-evolving field is the 4th
edition of the textbook Infection Control and Management of Hazardous Materials
for the Dental Team, which he has once again written with his longtime IU
colleague Dr. Charles Palenik, research laboratory manager in the
Department of Oral Biology. Palenik, whose own record of service at IUSD
currently stands at 31 years, assumed the directorship of the dental school’s
Infection Control Research and Services after Miller’s retirement.
Published by Mosby/Elsevier, the 384-page paperback was
recently released with a 2010 publication date. Miller and Palenik published
the original book in 1994. After all these years, the division of editorial
labor comes naturally for these good friends. “We know each other’s particular
areas of special expertise,” says Miller.
Plenty is new in the 4th edition, including
descriptions of 6 new diseases that have emerged since the previous edition and
9 additional genera of microbes that have been discovered in the human mouth.
The authors describe the recent case of patient-to-patient spread of hepatitis
B in a dental office as well as an alternative to the “spray-wipe-spray” method
of cleaning and disinfecting surfaces. In addition to updating all the existing
chapters, they’ve written three new ones: OSHA Inspections, Medical Travel, and
Green Infection Control.
The toughest part of revising the book is keeping up with
all the new products and equipment, says Miller.
On the local front, our dental assisting students use Infection
Control and Management of Hazardous Materials for the Dental Team in their
Microbiology and Asepsis Technique course, and it’s widely used elsewhere. “The
majority of community college dental assisting programs use the text as well as
some dental hygiene programs and a few dental schools,” Miller says.
He attributes the book’s long-term success to the fact
that it offers more than just a list of facts for students to memorize. “It’s
designed to teach infection control, not just present the facts. We’ve kept the
teacher and the student in mind and included test questions for each chapter as
well as summary boxes, procedure charts, an extensive glossary, and teaching
aids on the publisher’s Website.”
Is there a 5th edition in this talented
editorial team’s future? As long as the text continues to be well received,
says Miller, they’ll plan to work on another edition.
You can see a picture of the book and read more about it
on the publisher’s Website:
http://www.us.elsevierhealth.com/product.jsp?isbn=9780323056311
REMEMBERING JOHN ADAMS LEWIS. John Lewis’s
dream to establish a career in dentistry began – and ended – with the awarding
of his IU certificate in Dental Assisting in May of 1992.
Lewis’s decision to go back to school at the age of 57 –
in his case, as the first male student in dental assisting on the IUPUI campus –
put him in a class by himself.
He turned more than a few heads when he first appeared in
the hallways of the school in the fall of 1991. A massive, mountain-sized man
with gray hair, Lewis loomed above his 23 female classmates. He could have been
a classmate of most of their grandfathers.
But Lewis wore his uniqueness with grace, and he quickly
earned a reputation as one of the most popular individuals in the school. “John
became everyone’s friend,” Prof. Pauline Spencer, then Dental Assisting
director, said at the time. “It’s hard to describe the number of people he
touched emotionally while he was here.”
“When he found out what you were interested in, he
remembered it,” Dr. Sybil Niemann, then director of Dental Auxiliary
Education, said at the time. “He could find a common ground with anyone to get
a conversation going.”
“John developed a special rapport with his classmates,”
Spencer said. “He had a way of joking with them. Although they may not realize
it yet, they’re going to know that they benefited from his wisdom.”
Spencer also recalled casually mentioning to her class
one October day that she was so busy, she hadn’t even had time to carve a
pumpkin for her home. The next day, she discovered a 40-pound pumpkin in her
office, a gift from Lewis. Once, when a classmate balked at chipping in 50
cents for a class project, Lewis quietly paid for her.
Admittedly, most people at the school were at first a bit
baffled by Lewis’s presence. “Even I tried to talk him out of the
program when he was applying,” Spencer said in 1992. “But the more I got to
know him, the more I saw that John had made a well thought-out decision to go
into dental assisting. He was absolutely certain of what he wanted to do. He
never missed a day of class. It was a dream-come-true for him to be getting
back into dentistry.”
In the early years of his life, Lewis had worked as a
dental assistant and dental lab tech in the U.S. Air Force. He studied
chemistry and bacteriology at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, and then at the
University of Cincinnati.
For much of his life, he worked in food services. He was
an executive steward and restaurant manager for Netherland Hilton Hotel and a
banquet supervisor and sales manager for the Westin Hotel, both in Cincinnati.
After he moved to Indy, he worked for the Radisson.
He turned to the dental school for an education when he
learned that he needed certification for radiology in order to find a job as an
institutional dental assistant.
After earning his dental assisting certificate on Sunday,
May 10, he enrolled the following morning in the summer session’s optional
expanded functions program. Because of Lewis’s perfect attendance record,
Spencer new something was wrong as soon as he failed to show up on the 9th
day of the expanded functions class. Then word came that John Lewis had passed
away in his sleep the night before – just 11 days after he had donned cap and
gown with his classmates.
John Adams Lewis’s death shocked and saddened many at the
school, who recognized that the passing of their friend was also a loss for the
dental profession. “We lost a potentially great ambassador for dentistry,”
Niemann said at the time. “John was the kind of person that dentists want in
their practices. He would have been an asset in any dental office.”
References
Garvin, Jennifer: Dentist
Wins $20,000 to Donate, Gives It to Indiana University. ADA News, April
20, 2009, page 16.
Crum, Susan: Any Man’s
Death Diminishes Me—John Donne. Indiana University School of Dentistry Alumni
Bulletin, Vol. 6, No. 4, 1992, page 16.
End May 2009 Calendar
Send items for June
calendar by May 22: 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
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