Teaching

The section is very active in teaching dental materials to a wide variety of students.

Pre-doctoral teaching assignments include providing basic lectures in amalgam, composites, bonding agents, glass ionomers, liners and bases as well as background on metals, casting, and ceramics for students involved in pre-clinical laboratory projects. The full dental materials course (3-credit hours) is presented in the Fall Semester of the Junior year and is a 16-week course designed to provide students with a solid background in materials concepts. The students then apply these basic concepts to various restorative materials, emphasizing clinical applicability. Faculty generate and update the course manual yearly, which is presented in a computer projected format for lecture. Didactic instruction is reinforced with the incorporation of selected hands-on laboratory sessions and critical review of selected research articles.

Post-doctoral teaching responsibilities include the participation in a seminar series within the Section of Prosthodontics. Dental Materials faculty present a wide range of materials related topics to the students participating in post-graduate training. These seminars are on a more advanced level, where not only material fundamentals are stressed, but also clinical applications are critically reviewed.

Mentorship in graduate research for Masters and Doctoral degrees, as well as for program certificates, is provided for students in the graduate specialty programs. Research has been conducted in the areas of prosthodontics, orthodontics and endodontics.