Researcher focuses on patient outcomes and relationships in her oral health career

Caroline Sawicki, DDS, PhD.

Building and maintaining patient relationships was something that drew Adams School of Dentistry’s Caroline Sawicki, DDS, PhD, to a career in health care initially, but it was dentistry that grabbed her attention and helped her fulfill her dream of working more closely with patients while pursuing her research interests.

Sawicki, 33, has been with ASOD since January and grew up in a family with both researchers and medical doctors. She had always planned to go into medicine, so much so that she pursued her undergrad at the University of Dayton, which guaranteed her a seat in medical school.

“Although I grew up in a family of doctors, I didn’t truly realize what the profession entailed until I started shadowing in college. The whole reason I wanted to go into medicine was to develop relationships with patients, and I didn’t feel like doctors were receiving the necessary clinic time to develop and cultivate these patient relationships.”

A different kind of doctor

The realization created an early-life crisis for Sawicki, but a friend saw her struggling with her career path and suggested dentistry. “He knew how important it was for me to be able to build relationships with my patients, and he also knew how much I wanted research to be a part of my career,” she said. Sawicki shadowed her friend’s father, and everything finally clicked.

“Over time, I got to see how he built long-standing relationships with patients. They knew everything about him, and he knew all about their lives. It didn’t feel like [this job] was speeding from door to door, and there was significant time interacting with patients. I also saw a huge opportunity for research in dentistry, and realized there weren’t a lot of people doing it.”

At Ohio State University, Sawicki took the opportunity to pursue a combined DDS and PhD, pairing her interests in dentistry and research.

“The DDS/PhD program director at Ohio State saw that I had a significant amount of research experience from undergrad and encouraged me to apply to the program. I initially thought research in dentistry was only focused on dental materials, like which composite material performs the best, but I ended up joining a neuroscience-based lab and learned that research in dentistry can really be all encompassing,” she said.

Southbound

Sawicki completed her residency in pediatric dentistry at New York University, while simultaneously completing a postdoc in clinical-translational research. As she was ready to start her career, Sawicki was interested in working with mentors that could help grow her work as a clinician and a scientist, and UNC was the right fit.

“I hadn’t spent any time in North Carolina, but when I came here, it seriously felt like home but with better weather!” she laughed. “I look up to Dr. [Jessica] Lee, and being able to work for someone who’s a role model to me and I aspire to be like, it’s amazing.”

Work-life balance

Sawicki with Grayson.

Sawicki is able to structure her work in a way that suits her and her growing family – she has a 14-month-old daughter – to pursue research while also making time for service and clinical care. Her research interests stem from her background in neuroscience, and she’s exploring the biopsychosocial factors that contribute to temporomandibular disorder pain in young adolescent patients.

“We are collecting physiological and psychosocial data from youth suffering from temporomandibular disorder pain in order to ultimately stratify these patients into distinct subgroups. The better we can understand the biopsychosocial mechanisms underlying temporomandibular disorder pain, the better we can treat each individual patient.”

Sawicki and her husband co-authored a textbook on dental anaesthesia.

For Sawicki, she hopes the research yields insights into patient-oriented treatment approaches and how each patient might respond better to one therapy versus another. Sawicki hopes to implement personalized, non-pharmacological treatment interventions to target underlying issues in these patients, preventing future problems down the line.

Science and collaboration

In addition to Lee, Sawicki is also working closely with ASOD’s Gary Slade, PhD, DDPH, BDS, and Anne Sanders, PhD, MS, who also research TMD pain, and their insights and perspectives have been valuable as she works. “Both of them are so knowledgeable, and they are always willing to discuss ideas with me and help me plan for the future.”

Sawicki also gains insight and perspective at home with her husband, a dentist anesthesiologist, as they often talk shop, comparing ideas on sedation from their different viewpoints. They talk about sedation and dentistry so often, they put their heads together and co-authored a textbook, titled “Anesthesia for Dental and Oral Maxillofacial Surgery.”

“It’s incredible how many dental students at UNC have already come to me asking about dental anesthesiology. When I was a dental student, I didn’t even know what dental anesthesiology was until I met my husband. But it’s a rapidly growing specialty with so much potential to help patients receive dental care,” she said.

When she’s not working on research or seeing patients, Sawicki said she bases her schedule on her daughter and her daughter’s busy social calendar, often going on playdates and exploring museums or getting outside.

“My family loves going on walks. Finding a good park and going on a walk outside brings all of us so much joy. Now that my daughter walks, we get in more steps than ever, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Sawicki loves to take walks with her daughter.