College of Dentistry and Dental Clinics

Dean's Message

Our advanced education programs are some of the best in the country representing most of the recognized specialty programs. Our residents and graduate students play a vital role in meeting our patient's needs and educating our dental students even as they grow into established specialists in their own rights. This past weekend, many of our residents and graduate students attended their commencement ceremony. Congratulations on the accomplishment! I look forward to seeing your further successes over the coming years! ~Clark Stanford

Updates for May 19, 2023–May 25, 2023

Azeez Butali delivering commencement address

Butali delivers keynote address for the 2023 International Student Graduation Celebration

As a global leader in cleft lip and palate research and a decorated mentor, Azeez Butali was invited to deliver the commencement address for the 2023 International Student Graduate Celebration. In his charge, Butali challenged the graduates to believe in themselves, recognize their failures, show persistence, find a mentor and be a mentor, and to be intentional about what you do—all with gratitude!

Butali consistently has numerous international students participating in his research group and he has fostered a large network of international collaborators through his efforts. Last year at the celebration, Butali was selected as mentor of the year for his efforts.

Curtis receives CRISP grant for dental education research

The college’s Clinical/Dental Education Research Initiative Support Program (CRISP) selected Joseph Curtis's pilot study assessing various modern methods of the design and fabrication of custom edentulous impression trays and record bases. This purpose of the study is update the third-year curriculum incorporating more modern, digital components into the denture design process.

2023 OPRM Award Winners

On May 11, 2023, the Department of Oral Pathology, Radiology, and Medicine (OPRM) held their annual student award luncheon.

Cover of A Compendium of Veteran Oral Health Best, Promising, and Emerging Practice Approaches

Veterans Oral Health Care

Iowa Dentistry was featured alongside other excellent programs for veterans in the latest A Compendium of Veteran Oral Health Best, Promising, and Emerging Practice Approaches. This resource guide is intended to share resources that are available to meet the oral health care needs of veterans who are an underserved population.

Why Iowa: We help others succeed

Each Hawkeye is unique and has a different set of needs. Hawkeyes know that we all grow best by supporting and helping one another.

Kudos to you

Jamie Hayes: "We had a great experience, and all our questions were answered In a way that we could understand."

Collaborative and Innovative Research

Roux S, Camargo AP, Coutinho FH, Dabdoub SM, Dutilh BE, Nayfach S, Tritt A. iPHoP: An integrated machine learning framework to maximize host prediction for metagenome-derived viruses of archaea and bacteria. PLoS Biol. 2023 Apr 21;21(4):e3002083. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002083. PMID: 37083735; PMCID: PMC10155999.

Abstract: The extraordinary diversity of viruses infecting bacteria and archaea is now primarily studied through metagenomics. While metagenomes enable high-throughput exploration of the viral sequence space, metagenome-derived sequences lack key information compared to isolated viruses, in particular host association. Different computational approaches are available to predict the host(s) of uncultivated viruses based on their genome sequences, but thus far individual approaches are limited either in precision or in recall, i.e., for a number of viruses they yield erroneous predictions or no prediction at all. Here, we describe iPHoP, a two-step framework that integrates multiple methods to reliably predict host taxonomy at the genus rank for a broad range of viruses infecting bacteria and archaea, while retaining a low false discovery rate. Based on a large dataset of metagenome-derived virus genomes from the IMG/VR database, we illustrate how iPHoP can provide extensive host prediction and guide further characterization of uncultivated viruses.

Hawkeye history: The origin of the oral and maxillofacial radiology ADA specialty

The approval of the Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology (OMR) specialty by the American Dental Association (ADA) in 1999 can be largely attributed to two individuals: Axel Ruprecht, former professor, UI College of Dentistry’s Oral Pathology, Radiology, and Medicine; and Mel Kantor, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire. Learn more about how it all happened!