Education
- Certificate, Oral Medicine, National Institute of Dental Research, 1990
- Certificate, General Practice Residency, UNC/North Carolina Memorial Hospital, 1988
- DDS, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1986
- AB, Dartmouth College, 1980
Areas of Expertise
- Head and Neck Cancer Oral Complications
- Oral Health of People Living with HIV/AIDS
- Clinical Trials
- Medically Complex Dental Patient Management
- Oral-Systemic Disease Connections
- Interprofessional Patient Care/Management
- Evidence-Based Dentistry
- Health Services Research
Biosketch
Dr. Lauren L. Patton is a professor in the Division of Craniofacial and Surgical Care. She is the Advanced Education Program Director for the Adams School of Dentistry (ASOD) General Practice Residency (GPR). She served previously for 11 years as Department Chair for Dental Ecology. Her primary teaching responsibilities include didactic and clinical teaching in the GPR program, while providing care in the ASOD Geriatric/Special Care clinic and operating rooms of UNC Medical Center. Her clinical interests are in the management of special needs and medically complex dental patients and diagnosing and managing oral manifestations of systemic disease.
She has conducted as principal investigator industry, NIH, and CDC-funded research, published over 175 papers, monographs and book chapters, and lectured nationally and internationally on oral manifestations and management of patients with medical complexities, such as HIV/AIDS and oral cancer. She is a life member of American Academy of Oral Medicine (AAOM), Omnicron Kappa Upsilon (OKU) dental honor society, and the American Dental Association (ADA). An advocate for evidence-based dentistry, she served the ADA as a past member of the ADA Council on Scientific Affairs and remains a liaison for medical associations developing systematic reviews and practice guidelines at the intersection of medicine and dentistry. In 2013, she received the AAOM’s Samuel Charles Miller Award for Significant Contributions to the Science, Literature, and Patient Care in the Field of Oral Medicine.
She is a Diplomate and past president of the American Board of Oral Medicine and a Diplomate of the American Board of Special Care Dentistry. She is a past president of the AAOM (2019-2021). She is the Oral Medicine Section editor of the journal Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, and Oral Radiology and co-Editor of the ADA Practical Guide to Patients with Medical Conditions.