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ABOUT US
IUPUI shares its location on the near west side of the city with the Indiana University Medical Center, one of the finest teaching and research centers in the world. Many of the dental school’s faculty members have established strong collaborative ties with physicians and other scientists in the medical center facilities.
IUSD is one of the oldest dental schools in the nation. It got its start as the Indiana Dental College in 1879 and was acquired by Indiana University in 1925. In 1933, IU built a facility to house the school at its current site. Today this sprawling, five-story edifice is composed of the original building plus two major additions -- the first addition was constructed in 1962 and the second a decade later.
The IU dental school has more than 11,000 living alumni. They are pursuing careers throughout the United States and in more than 30 other countries. The IU Alumni Association counts dentistry among its most supportive groups. IU grads have been named to prestigious leadership posts in organized dentistry and in dental education throughout the world. For example, alumna Carol Turner (DDS’75) was appointed chief of the U.S. Navy Dental Corps in 2003, becoming the first woman to hold the Navy’s top position in dentistry; Ronald Zentz (DDS’85) is senior director of the American Dental Association’s Council on Scientific Affairs; Jeffrey Dalin (DDS’80) is one of the founders of the American Dental Association’s Give Kids a Smile, a program in which volunteer dentists and allied dental professionals across the country provide free dental services to children in need; and Stephen Ralls (M’81 Periodontics) is executive director of the American College of Dentists.
During the 2007-2008 academic year, 690 students are pursuing seven types of degree and/or certificate programs in dental assisting, dental hygiene, dentistry, and graduate dentistry. In addition, three other IU campuses (in Gary, South Bend, and Fort Wayne) offer certificates and degrees in allied dental programs.
The dental school has a total of 106 full-time and 120 part-time faculty members contributing to IUSD’s teaching and research programs. Many have earned solid reputations as experts in their fields. Additionally, about 80 persons serve the school as adjunct and volunteer teachers and non-paid consultants. An outstanding roster of teachers trained as dentists, allied dental professionals, and dental specialists is complemented by teachers trained in such areas as molecular biology, medical genetics, pharmacology and toxicology, microbiology and immunology, biochemistry, anatomy, mechanical and electrical engineering, dermatology, anthropology, pathology, law, and healthcare communications.
Two professors and two emeritus faculty members hold endowed faculty positions: David Avery, Ralph E. McDonald Professor Emeritus of Pediatric Dentistry; Jeffrey Platt, Ralph W. Phillips Scholar in Dental Materials; W. Eugene Roberts, Joseph R. and Louise Ada Jarabak Professor of Orthodontics; and Myron Kasle, Howard Riley Raper Professor Emeritus of Radiology. The Indiana Dental Association Endowed Chair in Restorative Dentistry was held until 2003 by former IU faculty member Dr. E. Steven Duke.
PATIENT CARE
Most of the dental school’s patients are treated on four floors of the dental building, but the school also provides treatment at several other outstanding patient care facilities, including the pediatric dentistry clinic at Riley Outpatient Center, which is part of IU’s acclaimed Riley Hospital for Children; the dental and oral surgery clinics at University Hospital and Regenstrief Health Center; and Cottage Grove and Grassy Creek, two clinics located in community centers.
The clinical dentistry program at IU is one of the strongest in the country, gathering its strength from IU’s time-honored traditions in educational excellence and drawing on a patient population of more than 22,000 persons. A Comprehensive Care Clinic, divided into seven sections, is contained on the third floor of the school. Students scheduled about 110,000 appointments for dental patients during the past fiscal year.
EDUCATION
In 1997, IUSD launched a totally revamped Doctor of Dental Surgery curriculum. Phased in one class at a time, the graduating class of 2001 was the first to participate in all four years of this new program. Now known as the Indiana Model of Dental Education, the new curriculum is a dynamic blend of contemporary and traditional learning environments designed and continually refined so as to maximally promote the principles of student centeredness, critical thinking, problem solving, evidence-based decision-making, competency-based clinical care, and lifelong learning. The programs for allied dental professionals have also undergone revisions that embrace the tenets of the Indiana Model.
RESEARCH
The school’s reputation for excellence took firm root in the 1940s, when pioneering dental dean Maynard Hine and several key teachers and researchers began long and prolific careers on the dental faculty. It was during this era, for example, that three IU scientists, including dental professor Joseph Muhler, created the first successful stannous fluoride formula that became the active decay-preventing agent in Crest toothpaste. Dr. Muhler and other IU pioneers (e.g., oral pathologist William Shafer, materials scientist Ralph Phillips, and pediatric dentist [and future dean] Ralph McDonald) contributed a body of groundbreaking work that drew worldwide attention to Indiana University. Each man left a legacy of knowledge that helped build the foundation for contemporary dental science.
IUSD has a significant multidisciplinary research program. In all, nearly 40,000 square feet of research space divided into more than a dozen facilities, including the Oral Health Research Institute, has been devoted to wide-ranging research activities supported by about $6.9 million in external funding last year.
Built in 1968 from royalties generated from the sale of Crest toothpaste, the Oral Health Research Institute is also one of the best-known product-testing sites in the world. The Institute’s longtime director was renowned scientist Dr. George Stookey, who now holds IU’s prestigious title of Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Preventive and Community Dentistry.
Since 1999, the Institute has been moving ahead faster than ever under the fine leadership of Dr. Domenick Zero, and continues to build on its international reputations for studies on fluoride, early caries detection, and caries prevention. For example, OHRI scientist and IU faculty member Dr. Andréa Ferreira Zandoná is using a $3.4 million, five-year grant from the NIH to chronicle the natural history of the progression of early dental caries and to study the effectiveness of three early detection methods used in combination.
IUSD’s research programs address several of the priority areas cited by the U.S. Surgeon General and include efforts to identify specific genes and related genetic factors in the etiology and treatment of malocclusion; molecular studies of the microbial factors involved in the etiology of dental caries and periodontal disease; investigations of dental plaque accumulation as a risk factor for heart disease; studies on how the structure and compositional changes of biofilms impact dental caries; identifying ways to optimize the benefits of fluoride while reducing its detrimental effects; finding more effective measures for the early detection and control of incipient dental caries; basic and clinical studies of strategies for further improving restorative materials; studies to understand the factors that play a central role in chronic inflammation and autoimmunity and to identify targets for developing therapeutic agents; and investigations on the role of toll-like receptors in oral and paraoral soft tissue pathology.
COMMUNITY
IU stresses to its students the importance of becoming professionally engaged with the community at large. The Division of Community Dentistry, under the direction of Dr. Karen Yoder, seeks to continually broaden the scope of the school’s outreach efforts and thus the students’ exposure to community populations having special needs.
IUSD is developing long-term relationships with various community agencies in Indiana, and in 2001 the school added an international component to its service-learning program. With guidance on site from IUSD faculty mentors, dental and dental hygiene student volunteers have been gaining a global perspective on patient care and the profession of dentistry by treating underserved patients in other nations during the dental school’s annual Alternative Spring Break (ASB). Groups of volunteers served in Haiti from 2001 to 2003 and have been visiting rural Mexico since the inception of the ASB program. A team of volunteers has been conducting service-learning missions to Ecuador since 2004. In 2007, the ASB program was expanded to include Guatemala and Brazil.
One of many examples of IUSD’s service-learning efforts closer to home is participation by faculty, staff, and student volunteers in an ongoing program that provides dental sealants to children residing in several city shelters housing homeless persons and victims of domestic violence. Another is a collaborative project between the school and a local community health center in which second-year dental hygiene students and fourth-year dental students provide treatment to homeless persons. Through the second-year dental hygiene Community Dental Health course, which sends students into the community to assist citizens in need in a variety of ways, the school has now established ongoing, mutually beneficial relationships with the Gennesaret Free Clinic and Hawthorne Community Center in Indianapolis and with Trinity Dental Clinic in Carmel.
Several years ago, volunteers from the school began providing oral healthcare to Amish children in several northern Indiana communities by using the dental office of an IUSD graduate in Elkhart. That commitment, in combination with a series of grants obtained by IU faculty, resulted in the construction of a new clinic for the Amish in Shipshewana, Ind., where IU volunteers continue to provide treatment to those in need.
In 2006, Goodwill Industries of Central Indiana, Inc., awarded the IU School of Dentistry "Partner of the Year" honors for its ongoing service-learning program that provides dental treatment for adults who are developmentally disabled and employed by Goodwill.
The SEAL INDIANA program, launched by IUSD in early 2003 in collaboration with the Indiana State Department of Health, is the centerpiece of the school’s community outreach program for low-income children. Operating year-round, the mobile unit travels across the state with dental staff and IUSD students to apply sealants to the teeth of children enrolled at schools that serve low-income families and in programs associated with community centers. Examinations are also provided to youngsters participating in Head Start. The two-chair unit is outfitted with extra portable equipment to expand treatment capabilities on site at schools and community centers.
The SEAL INDIANA staff also works with Indiana’s dentists and dental societies to try to help children with dental needs other than sealants find a permanent dental "home" within their own communities. Through SEAL INDIANA, more than 10,000 sealants have been placed for 7,000 children who have been examined at 280 schools, community health centers, and Head Start programs. SEAL INDIANA has received generous grants from the Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation and the Delta Dental Foundation to help support preventive dental care provided by the mobile unit.
For decades, the Oral Health Research Institute has managed a fluoride mouth rinse program for Hoosier schoolchildren. Every year, tens of thousands of youngsters in grades K through 12 participate in the supervised program, rinsing with fluoride once a week during the school day.
Several IUSD faculty members work in cooperation with faculty from medicine and nursing to development community-based participatory research involving Indianapolis’s Hispanic population. They are involved with the Binational/Cross-Cultural Health Enhancement Center project, which is part of the IUPUI Signature Center Initiative, an investment in the future of research at IUPUI.
The dental school is also proud to extend a hand of friendship to the global community through its relationships with other schools of dentistry around the world. The school has enjoyed warm relations with many international schools for decades. The first formal Agreement of Friendship and Cooperation took place in 1985, when an agreement was sealed with Matsumoto Dental College (now Matsumoto Dental University) of Shiojiri, Japan. Today, IUSD has contracts with schools in 12 countries, including most of the dental schools in Thailand. The most recent agreement was signed in 2007 with Centro Universitario Positivo – UnicenP in Curitiba, Brazil.
The dental school’s strong group of international alumni has been key to the success of these programs. The agreements typically have led to student and faculty exchanges and to the pursuit of collaborative research projects.
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