UCSF School of Dentistry NEWSLETTER

Dean Charles N. Bertolami to Take Post at
New York University

Dean Charles Bertolami, DDS, DMedSc, professor and Dean of the UCSF School of Dentistry, has accepted an appointment as dean of the New York University College of Dentistry, effective September 1, 2007.

Dean Bertolami is a nationally recognized expert in the field of connective tissue repair and disorders of the temporomandibular joint. During his 12-year tenure at UCSF, the UCSF School of Dentistry has led the nation's dental schools in total National Institutes of Health funding. In addition to strengthening the school's basic science research presence, Dean Bertolami has become known for his advocacy of academic careers in dental research and education.

Clinical and teaching programs have been expanded, as well, including a new curriculum that integrated clinical and basic sciences, a DDS-MBA degree program, the International Dentist Program and a postbaccalaureate program for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

"Charles has been an invaluable member of the campuswide leadership, admired for his collegiality, integrity and commitment to excellence," said UCSF Chancellor J. Michael Bishop, MD, in an e-mail to the campus. "I thank him on behalf of the entire UCSF community and wish him continued success in the years to come. He will leave with my enduring personal gratitude for his service and friendship. The campus will conduct a vigorous national search to find a suitable successor to Dean Bertolami, which will be no mean task."

Just Announced: An Open House in honor of Charles and Linda Bertolami on Friday, July 6th, 2007, 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., in the Lange Reading Room of the Kalmanovitz Library. Click here to view the flyer for the event as an Adobe Acrobat PDF.

UCSF School of Dentistry Students Triumph at IADR / AADR

UCSF dental students performed extraordinarily well during the 85th General Session and Exhibition of the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) and 36th Meeting of the American Association for Dental Research (AADR), March 21st through 24th, in New Orleans.

D1 Chi Viet won First Place in the Junior Category of the prestigious 2008 AADR Johnson & Johnson Oral Health Products Hatton Award, the first such winner for the UCSF School of Dentistry, for Promoter Hypermethylation Quantification in Oral Dysplasia and Cancer. Nine abstracts were chosen for poster presentations from over 200 abstracts reviewed, including those of Chi Viet, Regina Nguyen, and Kirsten Rittenbach of the School.

Regina Nguyen's presentation was Inhibition of Sucrose-Dependent Multi-Species Microbial Biofilm Formation by Acarbose, and Kirsten Rittenbach's presentation was Profiling of Salivary Peptides in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC). AADR Student Research Fellowships were awarded to the School's Kyle Jones for Circadian Clock Protein Per-1 Is Downregulated in Oral Cancer, and Cathy (You-Chen) Tao for Near-IR Image Guided Laser Ablation of Artificial Caries Lesions.

All students expressed delight at having been honored, and felt enriched by having participated in the competition and the conference.

Front row, left to right: Regina Nguyen, Kirsten Rittenbach, Krista Hirasuna; Middle row, left to right: Alice Goodwin, May Wong, Katherine Kieu, Cathy (You-Chen) Tao, Chi Viet, Andre Guerrero; Back row, left to right: Steven Ross, Todd Fairbanks, Kyle Jones, Karen (Phuong-Nghi) Lam, Jeremy Jacquot

UCSF Dentistry's Kirsten Rittenbach Elected President of National Student Research Group

Kirsten Rittenbach

Kirsten Rittenbach, UCSF School of Dentistry, Class of 2009, has been elected as President of the National Student Research Group (NSRG) of the American Association for Dental Research (AADR). She will pass on her position as President of the John Greene Society, the UCSF Chapter of the NSRG, to Kyle Jones in 2007-2008. In the past, UCSF has produced two other members of the NSRG board of Directors: Jin Kim, 2005-2006 Councilor, and Steven Ross, current NSRG Councilor. Kirsten is thrilled to continue the great work of her predecessors.

"It is a tremendous honor to be elected as President of the NSRG, to lead a diverse, intelligent and talented group of students across the country. I want to thank the John Greene Society, as well as students and faculty at UCSF for the incredible support and encouragement they have offered. I will work hard and do my best to continue strong advocacy for student research at the national level, and represent the needs of the next generation of researchers and clinicians to the AADR."

DR. William Bird Wins 2007 AAPHD Distinguished Service Award

Dr. William Bird

The 2007 American Association of Public Health Dentistry (AAPHD) Distinguished Service Award was presented to Dr. William F. Bird, DDS, DrPH, Interim Chair of the UCSF School of Dentistry's Department of Preventive and Restorative Dental Sciences.

Dr. Bird joins Dean Emeritus John Greene, a past recipient of the award, as an honoree.

The award was presented by Dr. Robert Weyant, Immediate Past President of the AAPHD, at the National Oral Health Conference in Denver, Colorado, on May 1, 2007. It cited numerous achievements throughout Dr. Bird's career, concluding with several since joining the faculty of the UCSF School of Dentistry in 1989:

Director of the Geriatric Dental Fellowship program

Interim Department Chair of the Department of Dental Public Health and Hygiene

Associate Dean for Clinic Administration

Developed and directed the UCSF International Dentist Program for foreign-trained dentists

Recipient of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant "Pipeline and Profession: Community-Based Dental Education", one of ten in the United States

Dr. Francisco Ramos-Gomez Wins 2007 Chancellor's Award for Public Service

Dr. Francisco Ramos-Gomez

Dr. Francisco J. Ramos-Gomez, Associate Professor in the Department of Orofacial Sciences, Division of Pediatrics at the UCSF School of Dentistry, was honored with the 2007 Chancellor's Award for Public Service at the Founder's Day Luncheon on May 11, 2007.

Described in his nomination letter by Dean Bertolami as "a leader and visionary in the field of children's oral health", he was cited as "an advocate for underserved and uninsured children [ ... ] demonstrated at the local, state, national, and international levels."

A member of the UCSF faculty for 15 years, Ramos-Gomez is recognized as a leader in children's oral health and a champion of increasing access to dental care for uninsured and underserved children and families. When the Family Dental Health Clinic closed at San Francisco General Hospital because of lack of funding, Ramos-Gomez found a way to serve the community. He became the first School of Dentistry faculty member to locate his practice in the Mission District, serving very young underserved children in a preschool-like setting. Ramos-Gomez started in San Francisco the Give Kids A Smile program, which has expanded in the city serving hundreds of children a year.

At the Native American Health Center in San Francisco, Ramos-Gomez translates research findings into clinical practice and works to eliminate disparities in underserved communities, specifically in the prevention of early childhood caries. He also was instrumental in voter approval of the California children and family act, which provides comprehensive early childhood dental care in San Francisco. The program receives funds to raise awareness of dental health and provide outreach programs to promote health and disease prevention.

Click here to view the Dean's nomination letter in its entirety as an Adobe Acrobat PDF.

Opening of Dental Implant Facility

Dr. Pogrel (second from left), Chair of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, with Holly Wojcak, Implant Coordinator, at the entrance to the facility.

The Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery held a reception on November 16, 2006 to celebrate the opening of their newly renovated Dental Implant Facility contained within the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Clinic on the first floor of the Dental Clinics Building at 707 Parnassus Avenue in San Francisco. Guests included UCSF faculty and staff, as well as community dentists.

The Dental Implant Facility includes a newly renovated waiting room, implant consultation suite, complete with audiovisual implant related demonstration models and audiovisual aids, a newly constructed dedicated implant surgical suite (fully accredited by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care), and a newly renovated office for the dedicated Implant Coordinator and a financial counselor associated with the implant program.

The implant surgical suite is equipped to carry out all implant procedures, including related hard and soft tissue procedures, autogenous bone grafting from the tibia, iliac crest and cranium, as well as intraoral donor sites. The suite is equipped and accredited to give general anesthesia as well as sedation, and has an intraoral video camera facility with the capability of transmitting the video in real time to distant sites.

The facility represents a significant upgrading of implant services available through the School of Dentistry.

The Implant Coordinator can be contacted for further details at: 415-476-3021.

2007 Recognition Banquet

President of the UCSF Dental Alumni Association, Dr. Antonio Ragadio (D'76), addresses the Recognition Banquet audience.

The 2007 Recognition Banquet, co-presented by the UCSF School of Dentistry and the UCSF Dental Alumni Association, took place on the evening of Monday, June 4th, 2007, at San Francisco's Marines Memorial Club. The well-attended event included a total of 105 students and guests, 65 faculty, staff, and guests, and 20 past and current Medal of Honor winners and guests.

Presiding for the final time as Dean of the School, Dean Charles Bertolami joined Alumni Association President Antonio Ragadio and others in the presentation of awards and the recognition of honorees.

The UCSF Dental Alumni Association Medal of Honor presentations were introduced by Phoenix Sinclair (D'76) and Norma Solarz (D'80). Recipients of the medal at this year's event were:

Steven Cavagnolo (D'73)
Mark Dellinges (D'81, Prosth'87)
Greg Goddard (D'67)
Frank Grimaldi (D'81)

Click here to open the complete 2007 Recognition Banquet program as an Adobe Acrobat PDF.

Click here for a gallery of photographs taken at the 2007 Recognition Banquet.

Dean Bertolami Speaks to Pre-Dental Students in SoCal

Members of the ASDA group at UC Irvine welcome Dean Bertolami to their May 23rd meeting, including ASDA chapter president Ahmad Abazari (second from the right, next to Dean Bertolami) Also present, from left: Kim Do, Bebe Ehsan, Flora Trang, Lana Tran, and Laura Antonie (in back).

Dean Charles Bertolami was welcomed by enthusiastic groups of pre-dental students last month in Southern California. Ahmad Abazari, president UC-Irvine's American Student Dental Association, introduced the dean to forty students who had come to hear his well-publicized presentation in Steinhaus Hall.

The following evening, at the Dean addressed almost 200 members of the UCSD Pre-Dental Society, which is also attended by students from San Diego State. It was his second visit to the La Jolla campus in the past two years. Both campuses are major feeder schools of the UCSF School of Dentistry.

The Dean spoke about his own path into dentistry and research from his origins at a community college in Lorain, OH to his 12 years as dean at UCSF. The heart of his lecture was about ethics. He led the students through an examination of how ethical choices are made. He examined the consequences to society, dental practice and education, citing a series of recent cheating scandals at several dental schools in the United States.

"The feedback from our members and officers was very positive," said Ahmad, a fifth-year senior from Newport Beach involved in a research project at Irvine. "The PowerPoint on ethics was an enlightening experience. I was telling my research professor all about it. She graduated from UCSF pharmacy years ago."

Kjeld "Kell" Aamodt (left) is pursuing an M.S. in Dental Biofilm Microbiology through UCSD and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He participated in the UCSF Undergraduate Mentorship Program last summer. One of Kell's inspirations is UCSF graduate John Eisinger, Ortho '76, from Carmel. Find out more about Kell at www.aspiringdentist.com.

Give Kids a Smile Day 2007

The UCSF School of Dentistry's Give Kids a Smile Day 2007 took place on February 3^rd in the School's Predoctoral Clinic at the Parnassus Heights campus. Third-year dental student Paul Johnson reports that the American Dental Association-sponsored event was "a huge success," with 165 pediatric patients treated by a total of 123 student providers (dental students, assistants, and oral hygiene educators), overseen by six faculty. Among the supervising faculty was Dr. Robert Ho of the Department of Preventive and Restorative Dental Sciences, who remarked that the student organizers "simply did a fantastic job." So well-attended was the event that there wasn't time to see the nearly twenty late arrivals.

Concurrent with Give Kids a Smile Day, fourth-year students organized an adult screening in a separate clinic, seeing some 75 patients with 40 more on the waiting list – a significant increase over last year's attendance. Participating organizations included the California Public Health Association North, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Children’s Health Hut, and the ADA. "I think we actually did something good for the community" Johnson said, "something the community is in desperate need of."

More photos from Give Kids a Smile Day 2007, below.

100,000th Continuing Dental Education Receipt

Dr. John Campbell, left, receives a certificate from moderator Steve Goldman at a recent Continuing Dental Education course. Seated at right, course speaker Dr. Rich Cohen.

Dr. John Campbell, D'52, received the 100,000th receipt generated by UCSF's Continuing Dental Education, and was awarded a gift certificate for a free CDE lecture course from Moderator Steve Goldman, D'64, at a recent course on TMD and Orofacial Pain. Dr. Campbell, who has been coming to UCSF for his continuing dental education courses since the unit was established more than fifty years ago by Dean Emeritus Ben Pavone (1965-1980), remarked that receiving this certificate was "like winning the lottery."