A Healthier Mouth = A Healthier Mississippi

Good morning!

We often refer to the many “onlies” at the Medical Center – things that just aren’t found or offered anywhere else in the state. One such “only” is the UMMC School of Dentistry. Not only do its students and faculty provide stellar care, much of it highly specialized, but it’s also home to researchers who collaborate with the best and brightest minds.

New dean Dr. Sreenivas Koka is rightly proud of his faculty, students and the staff that supports all of the school’s missions. Within weeks of his April 2021 start date, Dr. Koka put into motion plans for culture change on many levels, one of the most important being bringing together people resources to make the school better reflect the state’s racial diversity.

What’s truly special about our dental school is the many ways that its research and patient care activities are integrated throughout campus. Cardiovascular care? There might be a dentistry tie. Need a transplant? You might need dentistry first. Want to share in research with other universities and institutions? Dentistry faculty can show you how.

Let’s start with the Department of Biomedical Materials Science led by professor and chair Dr. Amol Janorkar. Under his leadership and in partnership with outstanding faculty, BMS plays a key role in numerous research initiatives not just in Mississippi, but around the world. Just a few of the dozens of research projects where BMS shines:

• BMS faculty Dr. Jason Griggs, Dr. Michael Roach and Dr. Yuanyuan Duan are collaborating with Ole Miss civil engineering and Mississippi State University industrial engineering faculty to use artificial intelligence for designing dental implants.
  
  
• Janorkar’s BMS research group collaborated with academic departments across campus to utilize a three-dimensional cell culture and drug delivery developed in Dr. Janorkar’s lab. Those departments include Physiology, Biochemistry, Surgery, Plastic Surgery, Neurology and Microbiology, in addition to the Cancer Center and Research Institute. Dr. Janorkar also is collaborating with the National Chemical Laboratories in Pune, India, to develop silk- and elastin-based hydrogel materials for use in wound healing.
  
  
• Griggs is collaborating with Brazilian dental faculty at the University of Sao Paulo and Sao Paulo State University to retrieve and purify waste cattle bones and combine them with titanium oxide nanotubes to form ceramic and metal dental implants.
  
  
• Susana Salazar Marocho is also engaged in a Brazilian collaboration with dental faculty from the University of Passo Fundo and the University of Taubate on testing a potential new material to replace the hard, dense tissue forming the bulk of a tooth, and on studying the lifetime of dental restorations.

Dr. Mark Livingston chairs the Department of Advanced General Dentistry. Make no mistake, what Dr. Livingston and his colleagues and residents do isn’t very “general.” They are called on to provide dental treatments to severely ill patients from across the Medical Center in addition to adults who are developmentally delayed.

While cavities, abscessed teeth, decay and periodontal and gum disease usually don’t pose an immediate threat to most people’s lives, they can put the brakes on your ability to get complex care. Advanced General Dentistry faculty treat such patients, correcting dental issues that could keep them from receiving life-saving treatments.

Much of Advanced General Dentistry’s care is given at the Jackson Medical Mall, and much of it goes to underserved patients, many with transportation or other socio-economic challenges.

Among that department’s activities:

• Dr. Kevin Nelson works closely with faculty in the departments of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and Radiation Oncology to pinpoint dental issues that could keep them from receiving cancer radiation or surgery. This takes Dr. Nelson and his team not just to the clinics, but into the operating room.
  
  
• Dr. Alicia Hathorn and her team partner with the Division of Infectious Diseases to treat dental issues in HIV patients, especially those who might not be able to find a provider willing to treat them in the community. Dr. Hathorn also has secured grant funding to pay for two additional treatment rooms at the JMM. One will house a specialized dental chair for patients in UMMC’s bariatric program. While current dental chairs can accommodate patients up to about 400 pounds, the new chair will make it possible for patients weighing up to 800 pounds to get necessary care.
  
  
• Dr. Katherine Ruiz-Meneses and her team are treating cardiovascular and transplant patients for dental complications that can keep them off an organ or bone marrow transplant list, or from receiving a heart valve or other devices that could be placed in jeopardy if the patient has an active infection.

Dr. Koka has appointed Dr. Kristin Nalls as the assistant dean of Student Affairs and Inclusion and lead director of Admissions. She will lead the board charged with overseeing the recruitment and admissions process: Dr. Bill Boteler, Dr. Duan and Dr. Alexa Lampkin.

Working closely with Admissions and Student Affairs will be a related team focusing on diversity and inclusion. Dr. Nalls is joined on that team with education administrator Sandra Johnston and administrative assistant Rochelle Anthony, both employees in Admissions and Student Affairs.

Dr. Koka is keeping the focus on patient care and dental wellness, from education of the state’s future dentists, to specialists providing care not available anywhere else in the state, to researchers who not only teach, but discover new and better treatments for oral health.

Our clinic numbers are a testament to just how invested we are in our state’s oral health and wellness. Statistics in our Epic medical records for the period between August 1, 2020 and July 31, 2021 show our dental and dental hygiene students, residents, faculty and hygiene staff together completed more than 36,000 patient appointments.

Some of that care comes each spring during Dental Mission Week. Its centerpiece is Give Kids a Smile, which brings hundreds of Jackson district elementary-schoolers to campus for teeth cleaning and fluoride treatments – for some, their first trip to the dentist. 

The week also includes free dental treatments for underserved and underinsured adults, many of them military veterans.  Joining SOD faculty and students in treating the patients are volunteers from the schools of Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Related Professions and Medicine. It’s all made possible by the amazing people, led by SOD ambulatory operations manager Melody Longino, who give of their time and talents.

Our SOD alums distinguish themselves in their communities every day, and we’re grateful for their support and how they give back to their school. That group includes Dr. J. Walt Starr, president of the Mississippi Board of Trustees of Institutions of Higher Learning and a member of the Class of ’84.

Dr. Starr says he and his classmates “received a top-notch education that prepared us for the workforce. Since then, I have watched the UMMC School of Dentistry progress to new heights. The school enjoys a reputation as one of the top dental schools in the nation.  Along with its research and comprehensive care at UMMC, the dental school prepares its graduates to deliver excellent dental care to the citizens of Mississippi.

“The UMMC School of Dentistry is one of the shining stars in our IHL system.”

I’m proud of what our School of Dentistry is doing and the important role it has played in Mississippi since opening its doors in 1975. Oral health is a vitally important component to establishing A Healthier Mississippi.