OU dentistry lands $33.6 million grant for equipment, starts pediatric residency

Sep. 5—The State of Oklahoma earned a D on its last Oral Health Care Report Card and finished 49th of the 50 U.S. States, according to a University of Oklahoma professor, but a series of recent grants, including one totaling $33.6 million may close that gap.

Dr. Fernando Luis Esteban Florez, a professor at OU's College of Dentistry, said the multidisciplinary grant comes from the U.S. Department of Energy, and it looks to improve oral health outcomes by improving research infrastructure.

The grant will support state-of-the-art neutron scattering equipment at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee that will allow researchers to look into how atomic bonds are impacted by different types of stimuli.

"This grant will allow us to understand how some materials that we use to solve problems like cavities and periodontal disease or even dental implants are working with adjacent tissues," Florez said.

He said this will directly impact dental patients in Oklahoma as the research will provide for better procedures at a lower price.

"This not only will potentially decrease the costs associated with the delivery of oral health care, but it can also decrease the disparities across the nation in terms of Oklahoma being 49th in the Oral Health Report Card," he said.

In tandem with the recent grant, OU has also secured multiple funding opportunities from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Since 2013, it has developed a better filling for patients experiencing cavities.

"In parallel to that, we have gotten other grants that are linked to this big one that allowed us to develop novel dental adhesive resins that are anti-microbial, and they have long term properties," he said. "So what that does is it reduces the necessity to replace restorations or fillings."

He said the U.S. spends $5 billion on refilling cavities, which is more than they spend on cancer.

A filling is when a "dentist removes that tissue that is contaminated by bacteria and no longer can function and replaces it with a material that is plastic, but looks like a tooth," he said.

"Over time, that interface between the plastic and the tooth structure degrades because bacteria penetrates and causes a secondary caries lesion," he added.

He said if patients keep their fillings for a lifetime they would see prices go down for overall health care.

"It decreases health care costs, decreases frustration, decreases the need for the removal of additional tissue and ultimately can actually reduce the burden on governments and patients alike," he said.

Florez said grants like these are important because they facilitate multidisciplinary research, which the dental field can't perform on its own.

"It shows how health care now is integrating with other disciplines, such as people from civil engineering, petroleum engineering, organic chemistry, physics ... all these backgrounds," he said. "They are coming together to solve highly complex problems that we, physicians and dentists, cannot solve by ourselves."

To improve oral health outcomes, OU announced on Tuesday it would launch the state's first pediatric dentistry residency, which will be a two-year program offered through the OU College of Dentistry.

According to a release from the OU Office of Communications, the program will provide pediatric dental care to patients with special needs, mental health challenges, and different medical conditions, as well as typically-developing children.

"The OU College of Dentistry is excited to add pediatric dentistry to our advanced graduate and residency programs," said Paul M. Mullasseril, dean of the OU College of Dentistry.

"Oral health is an essential component of one's overall health, and healthy habits begin early in one's life. This program will help the college fulfill our mission of improving the oral health of Oklahomans by expanding access to care for some of our state's most vulnerable patients," he added.

Gary Raskob, senior vice president and provost of the OU Health Science Center, said the move will help the state to improve its overall oral health.

"As the State of Oklahoma's only professional dental education program, the OU College of Dentistry is well-positioned to lead the state in expanding access to affordable oral health care," Raskob said. "This pediatric dental residency will have a significant impact on addressing the oral health care needs among children and on the workforce demand for pediatric dentists in our state."

The program will launch in July 2024, and the school will begin accepting applications in October.

Brian King covers education and politics for The Transcript. Reach him at bking@normantranscript.com.