The School of Dentistry has received two federal grants that have the potential to change the way dental and dental hygiene students are educated and how, after graduation, those students will provide oral health care to patients.

The two grants, totaling $1.2 million, were awarded by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR). One grant will be used to help accelerate the transfer of research findings from the laboratory to clinics so predoctoral and dental hygiene students can enhance the quality of oral health care their patients receive. The other grant will use videoconferencing and Internet technology to bring together experts from around the nation to provide students with the most current information from the burgeoning field of genetics. They also will discuss the ethical, legal and social implications of making decisions about the health and well-being of patients based on their unique genetic makeup. Michigan is the nation’s only dental school to receive both awards.

“These grants have the potential to reshape how dentistry is taught not just here, but conceivably at other dental schools around the nation,” Dean Peter Polverini says. “I know of no other dental school that has ever received this amount of simultaneous funding from NIDCR for educational projects such as these. The fact we received these two grants speaks volumes about the caliber of our faculty and others who help make this school the world-renowned institution it is.”

The first grant, entitled Virtual Simulations for Dental Research Education and totaling $600,000 over four years, was awarded to Dr. Marilyn Lantz, associate dean for academic affairs, and professor of dentistry in the Department of Periodontics, Prevention, and Geriatrics.

Lantz and other professors from the school will develop a program designed to improve the research skills of all dental and dental hygiene students. U-M researchers from the dental school and across campus will design research problems that all students will work on in virtual laboratories and virtual clinics. Students will conduct computer-based simulations of basic, clinical, educational, behavioral and health sciences research. Once they finish their virtual research, the students will discuss their findings with their colleagues and have their work evaluated by the faculty.

Lantz anticipates the program will be test piloted in approximately two years. The results of the pilot test will be evaluated before the program becomes a part of the curriculum at the school.

The second grant, totaling $600,000 over four years and entitled Genetics Education in Dentistry, was awarded to Dr. Lynn Johnson, director of the school’s Office of Dental Informatics, and associate professor in the Department of Periodontics, Prevention, and Geriatrics.

The program, designed to prepare dental and dental hygiene students to use genetically based diagnostic and treatment techniques in patient care, also will be a collaboration with four other dental schools around the nation as well as NIDCR.

Educators from the School of Dentistry will collaborate with their counterparts at the University of Southern California, the University of North Carolina, the University of Iowa and the Oregon Health Sciences University to develop and test pilot a curriculum to enhance the understanding of genetics among dental and dental hygiene students.

The project will make extensive use of the World Wide Web and videoconferencing technology, including the new, higher-speed Internet known as Internet 2. The program in genetics education first will be test piloted during the 2005-06 academic year. Eventually, it could become part of the school’s curriculum.