News

On Tuesday, April 14, the SIU School of Dental Medicine (SIU SDM) hosted its Annual Research Day on the Alton Campus of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, bringing together students, faculty, staff and international guests for a day of sharing research presentations, international collaboration and networking.  

The event featured a presentation on “AI-Enhanced Evidence-Informed Clinical and Public Health Guidelines” by the keynote speaker Alonso Carrasco-Labra, DDS, MSc, PhD. Carrasco-Labra is an associate professor in the Department of Preventive and Restorative Sciences and director of the Cochrane Oral Health Collaborating Center at the University of Pennsylvania’s Faculty of Dental Medicine.  He previously served as senior director of Evidence Synthesis and Translation Research at the American Dental Association Science and Research Institute and as director of the ADA's Center for Evidence-Based Dentistry, and has consulted for the World Health Organization, the World Bank and health agencies in countries including Spain, the United Kingdom, Chile and Saudi Arabia. 

Carrasco-Labra highlighted the existing ties with SIUE as a sign of the collaborative possibilities ahead. "We have been working closely with faculty from this university and some research projects are coming out for everyone to see soon," he noted.   

"A great thing about our Annual Research Day is the connections that you build and networking—within the school, outside the school, across the country, across the world," said Barbara McCracken, PhD, Assistant Dean for Research at SIU SDM. "And so, it's a very special thing that we have these guests with us today," she added.    

The highlight of the event was the debut of SIU SDM’s first international student exchange program, a partnership with the Universität Internacional de Catalunya (UIC) School of Dentistry in Barcelona, Spain. The SIU SDM community welcomed Lluís Giner Tarrida, PhD in Medicine and Surgery and Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry and Elisa Sanagustín Sanchez, PhD, Executive Manager of the UIC Faculty of Dentistry, along with two D-4 students from UIC—Maria Giner and Alberta Marchan. Giner and Marchan spent two weeks immersed in the SIU SDM community, attending clinical sessions, participating in community outreach events such as Impressions Day and engaging with faculty and student life.    

Nathalia Garcia, DDS, MS, Assistant Dean for Career Development, School of Dental Medicine, noted the school's student community had played its own part in making the exchange a success. "We have a group of student ambassadors, and they have been very welcoming with these two students—taking them to different places, showing them around," she said. "It has been fantastic."  

The exchange students took part in an outreach event the previous weekend and shared their excitement.  

"We went to Impressions Day on Saturday, and it was amazing—we could explain to the kids how to do sutures in the lab," said Giner. "And the facilities here are very modern. In advanced clinics, they use microscopy connected to a TV, so you can see exactly what the clinician is doing during treatment. That's perfect, because otherwise you're just watching and you don't know what's happening," she added.

"The students are the future of different countries," said Tarrida. "This kind of collaboration lets students know about other cultures, other people, and other ways of doing different things. And networking is very important, because it leads to new opportunities—always."  

"This is our first international collaboration,” said Garcia. "It has opened so many opportunities for our students and faculty as well. In a more robust way, we want to make this collaboration an opportunity to open doors—to establish other types of initiatives to work together in academic projects and in research collaboration," she noted.  

The SIU SDM Research Day also featured the annual Student Research Table Clinic Competition. This year the competition showcased presentations by eight dental students who offered insights on six distinct research projects. The student presentations were reviewed by six distinguished judges drawn from the Illinois State Dental Society Foundation, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and Southwestern Illinois College, who evaluated student work across several categories.  

This year's overall winner was Victoria Clinton, a D-4 student whose research is entitled "Analysis of Oral Microbiome of Mice on High Sucrose Diet."    

"The school was very helpful in terms of the grant," she said. "Having great lab facilities and a great faculty is always super helpful. And I got into residency, so now I have some research experience for when I do all this again next year."   

The SIU SDM Research Day also featured research from the residents  of the School’s Post Graduate Programs, including residents of the AEGD Program, as well as the Graduate Endodontic and Orthodontic  Programs. Additional research competition winners and  acknowledgements will be announced at the school's upcoming  awards luncheon.  

PHOTOS: (L-R) SIU SDM Dean Saulius E. Drukteinis, DMD, MS, PhD, Elisa Sanagustín Sanchez, PhD, Executive Manager, School of Dentistry UIC, Maria Giner and Alberta Marchan, D-4 students at UIC, Nathalia Garcia, DDS, MS, SIU SDM Assistant Dean for Career Development and Lluis Giner Tarrida, PhD in Medicine Surgery and Dean of the School of Dentistry at UIC Barcelona 

Keynote Speaker Alonso Carrasco-Labra, DDS, MSc, PhD, University of Pennsylvania School of Dentistry 

Victoria Clinton, D-4 student at SIU SDM