Members of the School of Dentistry’s inaugural class of dental therapy students donned caps and gowns for a Campus Club ceremony on December 3 to celebrate the completion of their bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in dental therapy. The students are the first dental therapists in the nation to graduate from an accredited school of dentistry. More than 100 family members, friends and faculty were on-hand to participate and applaud the honorees as pioneers of a new profession.
More than 40 energized students, staff, faculty and families marched with the School of Dentistry in the 2011 Homecoming Parade on October 21, distributing School of Dentistry toothbrushes up and down the parade route. Among those accompanying Interim Dean Buchanan were mascots The Tooth Fairy (fourth-year dental student Nellie Pooler), Toothy (fourth-year dental student Molly McKibben) and second-year dental student Student Robert Henson as Count Plaquela. In addition to alumni and their families, the following dental school faculty and staff also participated: Peter Berthold, Kim Johnson and Sheila Riggs (all members of the Department of Primary Dental Care), Jeff Ogden (Dean’s Office), Joe Menth and Linda Jones (Clinical Affairs), and Development Office staff Fred Bertschinger and Emily Best.
Renovations begin on state’s only hospital-based pediatric dental clinic
The walls are coming down at the site of the school’s new pediatric dental clinic. Some 35 faculty, staff and donors gathered on October 4 to launch the renovation of existing space in the Park Plaza Building on the University’s West Bank campus.
Goldy Gopher joined pediatric dentistry and donor representatives, University V.P. for Health Sciences Aaron Friedman, Provost Tom Sullivan, and interim Dean Judith Buchanan, as they all took sledge hammers in-hand and struck the first blows to a wall targeted with a maroon and gold bull’s-eye.
The University of Minnesota Pediatric Dental Clinic, made possible by Delta Dental of Minnesota, will be home to the state’s only hospital-based pediatric dental clinic and to the dental school’s advanced education program in pediatric dentistry. It will be a regional resource for children, including those with complex medical, developmental and emotional needs, both on an inpatient and outpatient basis. The clinic is scheduled to open in Spring 2012. See the story and photos here.
Attention patients:
Construction is underway on the Twin Cities campus and some access ramps and roads are closed. Please allow extra travel time when arriving for your dental appointment.
Click here for more information about driving to the School of Dentistry and parking, or call 612-625-5000.
Murial Bebeau (Primary Dental Care-Community Oral Health), David Bereiter (Diagnostic & Biological Sciences), Judith Buchanan (Restorative Sci-Prosthodontics) Tom Larson (Restorative Sci-Operative Dentistry), Nelson Rhodus (Diagnostic/Biol. Sci-Oral Medicine & Diagnosis), Paul Olin (Restorative Sci-Prosthodontics), Jill Stoltenberg (Primary Dental Care-Dental Hygiene), and Larry Wolff (Developmental-Surgical Sci-Periodontology), were quoted in an article about leadership transition in the School of Dentistry that was printed in the Minnesota Daily. Members of the Council of Chairs and associate deans responded in a follow-up Opinion Piece. Also printed was a letter to the editor from V.P. Aaron Friedman and Provost Tom Sullivan, and follow-up editorials.
Nelson Rhodus (Diagnostic/Biol. Sci-Oral Medicine, Diagnosis & Radiology) was interviewed for an article in Minnesota Medicine about the increase in the diagnoses of HPV-associated oral cancer.
Todd Thierer (Primary Dental Care-Clinical Systems) and Jeff Ogden (Dean’s Office) were quoted in a Minnesota Dailyarticle 10/20/11 about updates to the school’s emergency preparedness plan.
