Faculty and Staff, Students

47 Students Participate in 34th Annual Table Clinic Day

, Sunday, May 10th, 2009

Six dental students, two graduate students, six dental assisting students and 33 dental hygiene students – 47 in total – participated in the 34th Annual Spurgeon Dental Society Table Clinic Day, held in mid-April at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Dentistry.

Third-year dental student David Walker, who serves as secretary of the Student Research Group and as Spurgeon Dental Society president, coordinated the event. The Student Research Group sponsors the event each year.

“The Table Clinic competition is a unique academic experience, which allows students from the dental assisting, hygiene, DDS and graduate programs to showcase their research for their peers and instructors,” said Walker. “This competition serves as the only student-run research competition at the UNC School of Dentistry and is a testament to the hard work and dedication to research demonstrated by so many of our talented students.”

Judges for the event were Dr. Rose Sheats, associate professor in the Department of Orthodontics; Dr. Enrique Platin, clinical professor in the Department of Diagnostic Sciences and General Dentistry; Dr. Rick Mumford, clinical associate professor in the Department of Dental Ecology; Dr. Ingeborg De Kok, assistant professor in the Department of Prosthodontics; Rebecca Wilder, director of the Graduate Dental Hygiene Education Program; and Dr. Barry Goz, professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Pharmacology.

Participating students were:

  • From the DDS program: Brett Alvey, Lindsey Rennick, Eric Hoverstad, Ryan Londry, Mahshid Bahadoran and Lauren Sanzone.
  • From the graduate program: Matt Olmsted and Sonali Rathore.
  • From the dental assisting program: Charice Holt, Lady Turlington, Tricia Wethington, Melanie Goforth-Moore, Ashley Manring and Hanna Gurynovich.
  • From the dental hygiene program: Lisa Greene, Jennifer Smith, Lindsay McMannen, April White, Leslie Hargis, Emily Nichols, Alicia Barbour Smith, Marinda Sapp, Bao Nguyen, Alexa Wilkinson, Megan Williams, Ashley Johnson, Whitney Goins, Amanda Fox, Jacquelyn Cole, Sara Lydick, Quiara Scrima, Sonam Shah, Afton Harrington, Amy Wilson, Jennifer Dillon, Kathryn Brann, Crystal Love, Keisha Pitts, Natasha Bee, Selam Alemu, Kailyn Tran, Katie Trapp, Ginny McBride, Whitney Wilkinson, Elena Sloan, Robyn Hicks and Courtney Graham.

Awards went to the following individuals and teams:

  • UNC Dental Alumni Basic Science Award: The $150 award for excellence in basic science research went to Mahshid Bahadoran for her research titled “Tooth Phenotype of Evc2/Lbn Mutant Mice During Tooth Development.”
  • UNC Dental Alumni Clinical Sciences Award: The $150 award for excellence in clinical science research went to Lauren Sanzone for her table clinic “Dentists’ Awareness of Oral Health Literacy and Confidence in Communication.”
  • Spurgeon Dental Society Dental Assisting Award and the Spurgeon Dental Society Allied Dental Award: These awards, both worth $100 and recognizing outstanding effort, were presented to Charice Holt for her table clinic “Missing Teeth: Innovative Options for Patients with No Dentition Distal to the Edentulous Area.”
  • Spurgeon Dental Society Graduate Award: The $150 award for an outstanding table clinic presented by a graduate student went to Matt Olmsted for his research on “Human Bite Force at Varying Tooth Positions for Given Vertical Dimension.”
  • International College of Dentists Award: The $150 award recognizes the outstanding table clinic with the most originality in concept, material and presentation and that contributes significantly to the clinical practice of dentistry. Brett Alvey received the award for his project “Speech Quality and Intelligibility with Lingual Braces.”
  • Upsilon Upsilon Chapter of Omicron Kappa Upsilon Excellence in Science Award: The $250 award to the presenter exhibiting excellence in the sciences went to Mahshid Bahadoran for her table clinic presentation on “Tooth Phenotype of Evc2/Lbn Mutant Mice During Tooth Development.”
  • Sigma Phi Alpha Xi Chapter Table Clinic Award: This award, which comes with a one-year membership in the UNC Dental Hygiene Alumni Association, went to Alexa Wilkinson, Megan Williams, Ashley Johnson, Whitney Goins and Amanda Fox for their presentation on the “Effectiveness of Different Disclosing Agents.”
  • SRG Award:  This award, sponsored by the Student Research Group, went to Brett Alvey for his research on “Recorded Seminars for Teaching in Orthodontics Residencies.” A one-year membership in the SRG and a $100 award comes with the honor.
  • N.C. American Association for Dental Research Award:  This award, recognizing the participant in the basic sciences category demonstrating the best organization, preparation, visual display, knowledge of topic and overall delivery, went to Ryan Londry for “MicroRNA profiles of Macrophages Explosed to A. actinomycetemcomitans and P. gingivalis LPS.” A $100 award comes with the honor.
  • Dentsply International Award: This award, sponsored by Dentsply International, is presented to the most competitive table clinic presenter and provides a trip to compete in the national Table Clinic Competition at the 2009 annual meeting of the American Dental Association in Hawaii. This year, the award went to Eric Hoverstad for his research on “Second Molar Periodontal Pathology after 3rd Molar Removal.”

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