College of Dentistry and Dental Clinics

Dean's Message

It has been an honor to recognize and celebrate so many of your accomplishments as our semester drew to a close. I know that we all work hard and push ourselves most of the year, but it is also important to rest, enjoy, and celebrate what we have accomplished. From our first-year dental students treating their first patient to our commencement ceremony for our seniors, in addition to our numerous faculty and staff accomplishments and awards, we are proud of what you have done. I hope that you will take some time to enjoy it! ~Clark Stanford

Students playing foosball

Updates for June 16, 2023–June 22, 2023

NIH awards subcontract to Iowa Dentistry researchers

The University of Iowa was one of four research institutions, along with Michigan, Duke, and Indiana, collaborating on a newly-funded National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)/ National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant investigating the causes and implications of adolescent tooth decay, especially among underserved populations.

2023 Iowa Dentistry Commencement

On June 2, 2023, Iowa Dentistry's commencement ceremony took place at Hancher Auditorium. The ceremony recording and select photos are available on the Iowa Dentistry website. Additional photos will be posted on the Intradent sometime next week.

A new partnership between Cedar Rapids clinic and Iowa Dentistry

Iowa Dentistry and His Hands Clinic in Cedar Rapids, under dental director Jeff Akey ('87 DDS), began a new partnership this year offering clinical outreach experiences for second-, third-, and fourth-year dental students on select Saturdays.

Clark Stanford, Karin Weber-Gasparoni, Kelby Scandrett

Iowa Dentistry Faculty and Staff receive excellence awards

On June 14, Karin Weber-Gasparoni and Kelby Scandrett were recognized as recipients of Regents Faculty and Staff Excellence Awards at the Levitt Center. UI President Barbara Wilson and Board of Regents president Michael Richards presented the awards, and Dean Clark Stanford was there to support Weber-Gasparoni and Scandrett.

Preventive and Community Dentistry students and faculty at the awards luncheon

2023 Department of Preventive and Community Dentistry Annual Awards Luncheon

The Department of Preventive and Community Dentistry held its annual awards luncheon on May 31, 2023. The picture shows some of the dental student and graduate student awardees and mentors. The awards presented show achievement preventive dentistry, dental public health and geriatric and special needs dentistry. The department also recognized students in the Dental Student Research Program who won awards for research under the direction of preventive and community dentistry faculty. Congratulations to all award winners and best wishes to the 2023 graduates!

2023 Family Dentistry Faculty Awards

During their fourth year of dental school at Iowa, students become fully competent clinicians who draw from their earlier educational and clinical experiences to comprehensively manage the oral health care needs of their patients as they would in a dental office. The Department of Family Dentistry is responsible for helping fourth-year dental students accomplish this goal so that they are prepared to enter into general practice after graduation. Each year, the the Department of Family Dentistry selects outstanding students based on their body of work. The 2023 Family Dentistry Student Awards were presented during a ceremony held on May 25, 2023.

Collaborative and Innovative Research

Ganesan SM, Peter TK, Withanage MHH, Boksa F, Zeng E, Martinez A, Dabdoub SM, Dingra K, Hernandez-Kapila Y. COVID-19 associated oral and oropharyngeal microbiome: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Periodontol 2000. 2023 Jun 5. doi: 10.1111/prd.12489. PMID: 37277934.

This systematic review and meta-analysis looks at studies examining how COVID-19 affects the oral microbiome. In doing so, the team (a) systematically reviewed the current literature associating COVID-19 with changes in the microbiome; (b) performed a re-analysis of publicly available data as a means to standardize the analysis, and (c) reported alterations in the microbial characteristics in COVID-19 patients compared to negative controls. Like other diseases, this analysis showed that oral microbial dysbiosis is associated with COVID-19. The studies showed a loss of microbial diversity, and the meta-analysis was able to identify one particularly species of bacteria, Neisseria, which may be a biomarker associated with COVID-19, but the mechanism linking Neisseria to COVID-19 etiopathogenesis needs further investigation.

Old Dental Room at the Free Medical and Dental Clinic

Hawkeye Trailblazers: Commemorating Juneteenth

The National holiday of Juneteenth is commemorated this coming Monday on June 19 and will be commemorated locally on Friday, June 16 on the Pedmall. Although Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation was official on January 1, 1863, it did not become a reality for all enslaved people until June 19, 1865 when Union soldiers arrived to enforce it. Juneteenth commemorates when their freedom became a reality. Freedom and justice happen not when words are said or written, but when reality is changed to match those words. Commemorating Juneteenth with our words is valuable, but it is much more important to change our reality so that it matches those words. Affordable and accessible health care, including dental care, is a central part of bringing our reality in line with our words about justice. To that end, the Iowa City Free Medical and Dental Clinic is a long-term partner with both Iowa Dentistry and local commemorations of Juneteenth in Iowa City. The Free Clinic’s work and the college’s ongoing partnership with the clinic since 1997 is a small step toward making our reality match our ideals. We recognize that there are many more small and big steps that we can and will take.