January 2014

Message from the Dean

The year 2014 promises to be a very exciting and busy one at RSDM. We kicked off the New Year with the long-awaited and highly anticipated move to our new Pediatric Dentistry/Special Care Center. It was a great day for all of us. We are in the early stages of develop-ing a new strategic plan, which will guide us through the next five years. We have also selected an architect to over-see the renovations of C-Level and one to renovate the laboratories, and we are starting the process of revamping the curriculum, to meet new accreditation standards. I look forward to working with all of you, as together we continue to move RSDM ahead. Sincerely,

AxiUm Nears its First Anniversary About eight months after RSDM launched AxiUm, a group from the College of Dentistry at the University of Illinois, Chicago, paid a visit to the school. “They have been using AxiUm for 11 years,” says Michael Conte, DMD, senior associate dean for clinical affairs. “They came to see how we were able to get so much accomplished in such a short time. Our launch was very successful, thanks to everyone pulling together.” Many of the modules in the electronic health record system are being used, including tracking the charts; notifying the practitioner that patients’ dentures, crowns, etc. have arrived from the lab; trans-ferring information to insurance companies; and automatically lock-ing charts when a patient has not paid the bill. The dentist or student taking care of the patient can also electronically make notes on the patient’s chart right at the terminal. There is also a function known as Running Man that has become very popular. Requests for fee reduc-tions or waivers and requests for implants no longer require a practitioner to leave the clinic to get approval. It is now done through AxiUm. There are features specifically designed for the students, as well. There is a personal planner so they can see their schedules, and they have Amail access , which is AxiUm’s version of email. Each time a patient is assigned to them, they are notified by Amail. Students have access to the patients assigned to them until the case is completed. Although things are running smoothly now, there were some bumps along the way. Fourth-year student Naina Kushal says going from paper charts to an electronic health record system was quite a transition. But she readily admits the system has made life in the clin-ic much easier. “It took some time to get used to,” she says. “Between figuring out patients financial issues, scheduling and getting the kinks out of the system, we have come a long way.” The students all went through a weeklong training program, giving them an overview of AxiUm. “Even with the training, it was hard to get used to the new interface,” student-doctor Kushal says. “The faculty and the students spent a lot of time working together to troubleshoot and learning to decrease the time spent on the computer and increasing time on pa-tient care.” Nevertheless, she says AxiUm has made student life much easier. “We no longer have to wait to get paper charts from the chart room, we have easy access to our schedules, as well as digital x-rays. It has been a tough nine months, but AxiUm has helped streamline patient care. I'm sure as we go forward it will become more user friendly as we work through the issues that arise.” In addition to further improving patient care, the students will be well prepared to use this or similar technology after graduation.

Calendar of Events

Friday, February 7, 2014 10 am to 1pm

Give Kids A Smile! RSDM Atrium and Pediatric Dentistry

Thursday, February 20, 2014

8:30 am to 10 am Grand Opening of Pediatric Dentistry

and Special Care Center RSDM Atrium

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

10 am to 4 pm Oral Health Coalition Summit

Delta Dental Educational Conference Center

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Pediatric Dentistry/Special Care Center Up and Running

A dream finally became a reality at RSDM on January 13, when the newly renovated Pe-diatric Dentistry and Special Care Center opened for business. The new space has gotten nothing but rave reviews. "This is a beautiful facility with abso-lutely nothing lacking," says Chris Hughes, DMD, chair of pediatric dentistry. "It will greatly enhance our postgraduate teaching program, and it is an incredible place to treat kids. What's also exciting is that we can now expand the population we treat, since we have increased capacity." He added that several institutions in New Jersey that provide care for special needs patients are expected to close, which will increase the number of pa-tients who come to RSDM. Evan Spivack, DDS, professor, says it's the subtle things that most people don't notice that are making a huge difference. "Patients now have privacy, which means a calmer environment," he says. "They do much better in a calm environment, and we're able to do some procedures we couldn't do before. And because we are adjacent to pediatric dentistry, we have a better referral process and a closer relationship for consulting and problem solving."

RSDM Mourns Emeritus Professor

Longtime faculty member William Cinotti, DMD, passed away in Jupiter, Florida on January 17, 2014, after a long illness. Dr. Cinotti had more than four decades of distinguished service at NJDS (now RSDM), including serving as chair of the Department of Restorative Dentistry and as associ-ate dean for extramural affairs. He was an emeritus professor at the time of his death. Considered a pioneer in expanding clinic services to underserved populations, Dr. Cinotti established the Statewide Network for Oral Health, which ultimately operated 11 dental clinics throughout New Jersey. He did so through a unique partnership with the New Jersey Dental Association and Region 2 of the US Public Health Service. His work enabled the school to establish the nation’s foremost community-based service-learning program for dental students. Dr. Cinotti's influence was so great that an endowed scholarship fund was established in his name by several of his former students. Upon announcing the scholarship, Dr. George Bambara, 1989 class president, said of Dr. Cinnotti, “We have all been influenced by people as we travel through life. Sometimes one special person makes all the difference. Bill was such a person." A memorial service was held in Florida.

The first patient to be treated in the new Special Care Center with

hygienist Sheryll Victoria

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2014 Winter Gala a Hit When faculty, students and staff entered the Palace at Somerset Park for the 2014 gala, they stepped back in time to the Roaring Twenties and the age of Gatsby. A total of 475 people bought tickets, which were sold out in less than a week. Posters with delightful caricatures of faculty inviting everyone to the gala were drawn by sec-ond-year student Brian Meulener and were placed throughout the school. The decor at the Palace was complete with pearls, feathers, boas, red velvet ropes and a green light at the candy table, a reference to The Great Gatsby. An elaborate cocktail hour featured some prohibition-era drinks and an NYC jazz band, The Recessionals. Fourth-year student Melanie Lee worked with the Student Affairs Office to organize the event. “I felt this year’s gala should be extra special, since it was the year we became Rutgers School of Dental Medicine,” she said. Keeping that in mind, she incorporated several Rutgers themes. “There was red pomegranate champagne, a special cocktail called the Scarlet Knight, a custom designed ice sculpture featuring a large tooth with the Rutgers R, and a knight’s helmet for photo ops,” she explains. “There was a photo booth, and this year for the first time there was a step and repeat with a Rutgers background.” Following a three-course dinner, complete with candy de-veloped in the 1920s, everyone danced to the DJ, Cruel One. Student-doctor Lee says she had a great deal of help from many students, faculty and staff. “Others shared their talents, for example sharing ideas, shopping wisely, creating spreadsheets and doing clerical work,” she says. “That’s why the event was such a hit.”

RSDM students enjoy the 2014 winter gala

Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

Maano Milles, DDS, professor, presented lectures,

including “Management of Benign Tumors of the

Jaws,” to the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and the

Plastics and Head and Neck Surgery departments at the

Northern Regional Hospital in Tallinn, Estonia, in No-

vember.

Talib Najjar, DMD, MDs, PhD, professor, presented

“Detection and Diagnosis of Premalignant Oral Le-

sions” to practicing physicians at Cuffly Surgical Clinic

in London, England, and “Head and Neck Cancer Stag-

ing Diagnosis and Treatment” at the XXV International

Odontostomatologic Congress in Monte Carlo, France,

in November.

New Technology Captures Lectures Students at RSDM now have another high-tech learning tool: They can replay videos of lectures, including PowerPoints, anywhere, at any time, on smart devices that are MP4 compatible. The new Crestron Fusion Server, installed in the fall of 2013, manages the classroom technology known as Crestron Capture HD. When a room is booked through Outlook, the hard-ware automatically turns the capture device on and off at the beginning and end of the lecture. Faculty can make annotations on their PowerPoints during lectures, and they can monitor and control the lecture hall remotely. When the lecture is over, the server tells the Capture HD where to send the video file. Academic Affairs is managing all video content and publishes it on NJVID. Anyone with permission can access it by using a NetID. In addition, room schedules—past, present and future—are now displayed on motion-activated touchpads in the front of every room.

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Professional Activities

Trying Dentistry on for Size

College students from across the country converged on RSDM this month to participate in the first Gateway to Dentistry program of 2014. The program enables 30 students to get hands-on experience in the clinic and take basic sciences classes like those given to first-year dental students. They also have the option of living on campus to get a real feel for dental school life. Among this year’s students was 19-year-old Jus-tin Dinowitz, a student at Rutgers University. He is not the first in his family to complete the program, however. His older sister, Andrea, also went through the program and graduated from RSDM. She is currently working in private practice and is married with 4-month-old twins. Justin’s older brother, Daniel, followed in his sister’s footsteps. He was in Gateway, graduated from RSDM and is a postgraduate student in pediatric dentistry here.

Three graduates of the Gateway program, (l-r)

Justin Dinowitz, Daniel Dinowitz, DMD and

Andrea Dinowitz, DMD.

Rafael Benoliel, BDS, professor and associate dean of research, has been named an associate editor of Pain, the official journal of the International Association for the Study of Pain. Dr. Be-noliel will be a reviewer and an author. Rosa Chaviano-Moran, DMD, assistant dean of admissions and student recruitment, is one of eight people chosen by the American Dental Education Association to be an Admissions Commit-tee Workshop trainer. Dr. Chaviano-Moran will train dental school admissions committees in the holistic admissions process, or whole file review, and explain how they can implement these prac-tices at their schools. Saul Weiner, DDS, professor, Restorative Dentistry, was a speaker at the International Con-gress of Oral Implantology's 6th Dentist Consensus 2013 in Dubai, UAE, in December 2013.

Save the Date RSDM will be hosting a Surgical and Restorative Excellence in Dentistry Symposium on April 4 and 5, 2014, at the Marriott Hotel at Newark Airport. The symposium will feature a roster of in-ternationally acclaimed experts. For general practitioners, this symposium will provide a compre-hensive understanding of evidence-based philosophies that specialists use to achieve outstanding results in surgery and restorative dentistry. Attendees will earn 14 CDE credit hours.

For more information go to cde.sdm.rutgers.edu