The UI College of Dentistry is one of the research centers for a multi-center National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study that will focus on dental caries (cavities) in children.  The study, “Predicting Caries Risk in Underserved Children, from Toddlers to the School-age Years in Primary Healthcare Settings,” is a five-year competitive renewal that continues work on the development of a better dental caries risk prediction model for underserved toddlers and young children.  The study is funded by the National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) and is based at the University of Michigan, with Dr. Margherita Fontana as principal investigator.    

Dental caries is one of the most common chronic diseases of childhood, with about 23 percent of U.S. 2- to 5-year-old children being affected.  The proportion of children affected is higher for 6- to 8-year-old children, with over 50 percent affected.  This study will focus on children in low socioeconomic and minority population groups where the proportion of children with caries is higher and access to treatment is lower compared to the general population.  Dental caries is largely preventable, but finding effective tools to identify children in the underserved populations who are more likely to get the disease has been elusive, and thus, preventive efforts in these populations have largely been ineffective.   This study uses a unique, multidisciplinary approach to predict caries – one that is designed to be used in primary medical care settings – based on posing questions to parents of infants and toddlers and following these children until age 8 to allow for early identification of those at high risk for caries.  Identifying children at high risk for caries will permit cost-effective preventive and referral strategies to be developed and used in inter-professional settings, thereby reducing this significant oral health disparity in children.

The Iowa team for this project is led by site Dr. Steven Levy (Departments of Preventive & Community Dentistry and Epidemiology), who is principal investigator.  Other members of the UI study team are Drs. John Warren (Preventive & Community Dentistry), Justine Kolker (Operative Dentistry), Barcey Levy (Family Medicine) and Jeanette Daly (Family Medicine). 

Other sites for the study include Indiana University and Duke University, with coordination from the University of Michigan.

Dr. Azeez Butali, Iowa Institute for Oral Health Research (IIOHR), and Department of Oral Pathology, Radiology and Medicine, received a five-year National Institute of Health (NIH) Kids First Program service grant. 

The goal of the Garbriella Miller Kids First (GMKF) Program is to develop a data resources for the pediatric research community incorporating both childhood cancer and structural birth defects genomic and phenotypic data. 

Drs. Butali and Terri Beaty (Johns Hopkins University) are principal investihgators. Co-investigators include Dr. Mary Marazita (University of Pittsburgh), Dr. Adebowale Adeyemo (National Human Genome Research Institute, NIH), and Dr. Huojun Cao, IIOHR.

The long-term goal of their study is to identify specific genomic variants through whole genome sequencing (WGS) of orofacial clefts (OFC) case-parent triads from African and Asian populations. The knowledge gained from these WGS studies will drive future research on OFC and should eventually lead to more effective interventions to reduce the risk of OFC.

The grant will will be used to help develop his Biorepository project, which will combine biological materials, dental and medical records; establish a fully integrated medical, genetic, and dental patient record, to improve a patient's quality of care and enhance quality research across the UI medical and dental facilities; and make the data and biological materials available to UI researchers and other collaborators, to conduct ground-breaking research, deliver personalized precision medicine, and improve patients' health.

Through the service grant, NIH will pay a multi-million dollar amount for the whole genome sequencing of 805 samples at the Broad Institute (Cambridge, Mass.). The GMKF is a $126 million congressional mandate to support research that will find a cure for pediatric cancers and structural birth defects. It is from the NIH common funds and $12.6 million has been set aside each year for 10 years. Since 2015, there have been 23 funded applications; Dr. Butali's application has been one of the 8 funded grants in 2017.

Dr. Fabricio Teixeira, DEO, Department of Endodontics, was elected to serve as a director of the American Board of Endodontics during the 2017 American Association of Endodontists (AAE) annual meeting in New Orleans. 

Dr. Teixeira also gave a presentation, "Critical Apical Zone."

Dr. Keith Krell ('81 DDS, '83 MS endodontics) will serve as AAE vice president. He is an adjunct faculty in the Department of Endodontics.

Dr. Brian Howe, Department of Family Dentistry, received the William J. Gies Award in Clinical Research during the recent annual meeting of the International/American Association for Dental Research.

The William J. Gies Award is given to the best paper published in the Journal of Dental Research during the preceding year in the areas of biological, biomaterials and bioengineering, and clinical research. Dr. Howe received the award for his first published paper, “Spectrum of Dental Phenotypes in Nonsyndromic Orofacial Clefting.”
         
Dr. Howe’s research mentors are Dr. Lina Moreno Uribe, Department of Orthodontics, and Dr. Mary Marazita, vice chair, Department of Oral Biology, University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine.
         
Co-authors on Dr. Howe’s paper included ME Cooper, AR Vieira, SM Weinberg, JM Resick, NL Nidey, GL Wehby, and Drs. Marazita and Moreno.

Dr. Gustavo Avila-Ortiz, associate professor in the Department of Periodontics, has received an $82,500 research grant from Osteogenics Biomedical, Inc. (Lubbock, Texas) to conduct a study entitled, "Clinical, Radiographic and Histologic Evaluation of a Novel Alveolar Ridge Reconstruction Approach in Post-Extraction Dehiscence Defects: A Case Series Study." This study will evaluate the treatment of severe dihiscence defects in extraction sockets using a minimally-invasive guided bone regeneration (GBR) technique that involves the application of a particulate bone allograft and a non-resorbable polyetrafluoroesthylene (PTFE) membrane.

Dr. Marian Antonious, a second-year resident in the Department of Periodontics, will participate in this study as co-investigator. She will use the results of this project to complete the requirements related to her M.S. degree in 2018.

Other co-investigators include Dr. Georgia Johnson, DEO, Department of Periodontics; Dr. Chris Barwacz, Department of Family Dentistry, and Iowa Institute for Oral Health Research; and Dr. Veeratrishul Allareddy, Department of Oral Pathology, Radiology and Medicine.

This study is currently ongoing and is actively recruiting patients; Mr. Richard Barwacz, Iowa Institute for Oral Health Research, is the study coordinator.

Dr. Matthew Geneser has received the James H. McLeran Faculty Award. A faculty in the Department of Pediatric Dentistry since 2011, Geneser works with the residents and predoctoral students as a teacher, mentor, and as the pediatric dentistry graduate program director, a position he assumed in 2012. 

In 2012, Dr. Geneser also became director of the newly established Nasoalveolar Molding Clinic at the Center for Disabilities and Development, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. 

Nasoalveolar molding (NAM) is a form of pre-surgical molding designed to reduce the size of a child's cleft and improve the anatomy of the soft tissues and also the nasal artilage before surgery. This procedure is offered to families whose infant has a complete cleft of the alveolus and the lip. 

Soon after birth, an impression is made of the baby's upper jaw. After the device is custom made, it is taped to the baby's cheeks and worn 24 hours a day. Children are still able to feed with a bottle while the device is worn; most tolerate it well. Every one to two weeks, the NAM appliance is modified, putting pressure on the tissues to promote hard and soft tissue changes and reducing the severity of the cleft. The appliance is worn continually until the baby's first surgery, usually around six months of age. Dr. Geneser works closely with the craniofacial team, which includes an orthodontist, oral surgeon, otolaryngologist, audiologist, speech pathologist, and plastic surgeon, among others. Dr. Geneser's clinic has so far treated twenty-six children with cleft lip and palate.

Dr. Geneser is currently serving as a consultant with the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry's (AAPD) Scientific Program Committee as a site examiner for the American Dental Association Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA), and as a consultant and board examiner for the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry (ABPD). He also serves as the AAPD's public policy advocate for the state of Iowa.

The College of Dentistry & Dental Clinics acknowledged Dr. Geneser's dedication and commitment to his patients, students, and profession by presenting him with the 2016 James H. McLeran Award.

Dr. Teresa Marshall, a professor in the Department of Preventive & Community Dentistry, received the Michael W. Finkelstein Centennial Professorship.

Dr. Marshall was hired in 1991 to integrate nutrition into the student curriculum; she volunteered to facilitate problem-based learning (PBL) sessions after meeting Dr. Michael Finkelstein, a faculty in the Department of Oral Pathology, Radiology and Medicine. Eventually she assumed responsibility for the PBL curriculum. 

As director of experiential learning, she integrated evidence-based practice and critical thinking content into the curriculum.

Dr. Marshall and colleagues have published and presented Iowa's curriculum at the American Dental Education Association's (ADEA) annual meeting. This year, she and Dr. Cheryl Straub-Morarend, Department of Family Dentistry, received the Evidence-Based Dentistry Faculty and Practice Team Award from the American Dental Association/American Association for Dental Research. 

She is director of the Dental Student Research Program and has twice received the Student Research Group Mentor of the Year.

Dr. Marshall received the 2016-17 Nutrition Educators of Health Professional Excellence in Nutrition Education Award.

She is a member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND), the International Association for Dental Research (IADR), the American Dental Education Association, and the American Association of Public Health Dentistry. She is a research editor for AND journal, past chair, secretary and newsletter editor of the Nutrition Education for Health Professionals practice group, and past president of the Iowa Section, IADR.