news summer 2015
President's Report
News from Temple Orthodontics
Albert Einstein Medical Center: Orthodontic Residency Program
University of Pennsylvania Update
I am very proud and excited to be writing this GPSO update as we embark on our 70th year of orthodontic education and camaraderie. I am looking forward to continuing GPSO’s tradition of excellence that was started way back in 1945 when Dr. John Valentine Mershon was our first president.
I would first like to thank and congratulate our immediate past president, Dr. Vanessa Wang for her leadership and the excellent meeting she organized: Legal Concerns Affecting Today’s Orthodontic Practice. I think we all can agree that it was a very timely and informative session. Vanessa has definitely set the bar high, and I want to thank her for her dedication and support of our society.
I would also like to thank everyone on the GPSO Board for their efforts in helping to plan our annual meetings. I would like to especially acknowledge and thank Dr. Mark Mele who has served as Treasurer and Secretary since 1998. His dedication to our society has been the foundation and guiding light for our board over the past 17 years. This year, Dr. Mele will be stepping down in that role, and he will be turning over the reins to Dr. Steve Cohen. The GPSO board and I are grateful that Dr. Mele will still be serving the board in an advisory role, and are thankful to Dr. Cohen for attempting to fill such large shoes!
In celebration of our 70th year, we are thrilled to announce that Dr. James McNamara will be presenting a fantastic clinical course to our group. His topic will be “Straightening Teeth and Faces: Practical Lessons Learned During the First Forty Years.” The date for the course will be Wednesday, November 18, 2015. Dr. McNamara has been a luminary in orthodontics during the past four decades. His broad experience in both clinical and experimental arenas and his worldwide travels have provided him a unique opportunity to synthesize an approach to clinical practice that not only is evidence-based but also is focused on the art as well as the science of orthodontics. The course will range from discussions of the broad topic of treatment timing to the details of appliance management. Dr. McNamara will synthesize an approach to juvenile and adolescent treatment, incorporating many of the current orthodontic and orthopedic technologies that have emerged over the last four decades.
On behalf of the GPSO Board, I would like to wish everyone a wonderful summer, and we look forward to seeing everyone on Wednesday, November 18th, 2015!
Best wishes,
Charles Gemmi, DMD
President of the Greater Philadelphia Society of Orthodontists
From Temple University Department of Orthodontics
and Dentofacial Orthopedics
Temple University Kornberg School of Dentistry Department of Orthodontics continues to enjoy the excitement and great achievements of these past several months. The Class of 2015 is busy completing their cases, preparing for the ABO written exam and putting the final touches on their Master's Thesis.
Meanwhile, the Class of 2016 is busy learning the ropes of the profession and is preparing to spend 10 days at the Tweed Course in Arizona. It has also been a very busy year for our recent graduates from the Classes of 2012 and 2013, the majority of which have taken the ABO ICE exam and all have successfully passed or have banked cases.
This year, we are excited that 7 of our residents will be representing Temple Orthodontics at the 2015 AADR meeting in Boston. Each one will be presenting their research at the meeting. The following are the residents and their research titles that are presenting:
Dr. Patricia Campillo: "Differential Expression of miRNAs in Malocclusion Subjects with Facial Asymmetry"
Dr. Molly Hottenstein: "Differential Expression of PITX2 in Adults with Facial Asymmetry"
Dr. Yonatan Cohen: "Dimensional Slot Integrity And Precision of Self-Ligating Buccal Tubes."
Dr. Brian Zebrick: "α-actinin-2 Does not Compensate for Loss of α-actinin-3 in Humans."
Dr. Lauren Gray: "ATP2A2 Associates with Masseter Fiber Composition in Class II Malocclusion"
Dr. Daniel Wulc: "Efficacy of Fluoride Varnish in Management of Orthodontic White Spots"
Dr. Lindsay Rambo: "Relationship between TMD and Facial Asymmetry in Dentofacial Deformity Patients"
In addition, Dr. Brian Zebrick, Class of 2015, was one of 4 residents nationwide selected to receive the Thomas M. Graber Awards of Special Merit. He will be presenting his research at the AAO meeting in May. The title of his study is: "ACTN3 R577X genotypes associate with Class II and deep bite malocclusions."
In October, Dr. Jeffrey Godel directed a one week continuing education program entitled, "Contemporary Orthodontics in the United States" in Beijing, China. Dr. Natalie Parisi, Dr. Elizabeth Spannhake and Dr. William Viechnicki also made presentations during the week. The course was sponsored by Capital Medical University, College of Stomatology, Department of Orthodontics. The same group of 35 Chinese orthodontists will be coming to Philadelphia in June for the final week of the course.
Our program was also featured in the April edition of the AAO monthly publication The Bulletin. The article highlighted one of our residents in the Class of 2014, Dr. Karen Conn.
We would also like to welcome Dr. Jerald Ginsberg who has joined of our team of adjunct faculty. The department would also like to send out congratulations and well wishes to Dr. Venessa Morenzi, the newly appointed Program Director and Chair at Einstein. We hope to continue the relationship that the two programs share.
The Department would like to express our appreciation to the outstanding group of adjunct faculty, alumni and the Coben Foundation. Many travel extended distances to participate in the education of our residents. Their dedication to the program is second to none.
Dr. Jeffrey H. Godel
Interim Chair and Graduate Program Director
Albert Einstein Medical Center (AEMC) Orthodontic Residency Program
Resident Activities:
Our rising third year residents, Erin Mahoney, Kathleen Pale and Justin Silvestre are eager to welcome those who are entering our program on June 25, 2015. They are:
Chirag Patel is a dental graduate of Temple University. He continued his dental education in the GPR program at Albert Einstein Medical Center (AEMC) Philadelphia. Subsequently, in addition to his time in private general dental practice, he has been a regular, volunteer faculty member in the GPR program at Einstein. Chirag lives in Ambler, PA.
Sheila Othman is a recent graduate of the Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health. She participated in the Orthodontic Honors Program. While at A.T. Still University, Sheila concurrently completed a Masters in Public Health (MPH) degree. As a youth, she earned her Girl Scout Gold Award for humanitarian and philanthropic work in her hometown area. Sheila hails from Lewisburg, WV.
Wasna Dabbagh is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine and is currently a general practice resident at Lancaster General Hospital. Prior to entering Penn, Wasna completed dental graduate studies at the University of Baghdad and was a practicing dentist. She currently lives in Lancaster, PA.
We extend our gratitude to the members of the Selection Committee - Alan Borislow, Steve Cohen, Karen DeSimone, Chuck Gemmi, Mark McDonough, Stuart Messinger and Harold Middleberg - and to the second year residents named above for hosting those who were interviewed. We also sincerely thank each of our volunteer and part-time faculty for their invaluable support and dedication to the program and for the education of our residents. Without the valued commitment of the part-time faculty, it would be almost impossible to provide a quality educational experience. We are indebted to all of our community-based clinicians who give of their time to teach and mentor our residents.
During these past 2 years we completed a curricular change to allow the movement of the ABO Initial Written Examination (ICE) from the 3rd year of our program into the 2nd year. We are happy to report that all three of the 2nd year residents passed their Board examination which was administered in April 2015.
2nd year resident, Kathleen Pale, presented an ePoster at the AAO meeting in San Francisco entitles "The Orthodontic Management of a Patient with Stickler Syndrome".
Program Graduate Activities:
Shira Lazebnik Tor (Class of 2014) successfully completed the Oral and Case Presentation Examination of the ABO in February 2015 and is now a Diplomate. She is practicing in the Cleveland, Ohio area. Several of her Board cases were on display at the AAO meeting in May.
Faculty Activities:
We congratulate each of our faculty on their many and varied gifts and talents which they graciously provide to our profession and to our communities. These include, Charles Gemmi III who currently serves as President of the Greater Philadelphia Society of Orthodontists (GPSO) and who will host this November's annual meeting featuring Dr. James McNamara. In addition, Steven Cohen, Harold Middleberg, Michael Roth and Mark McDonough serve as GPSO board members.
All are welcome to come and visit us at AEMC. We are proud of our legacy and the residents that we are educating today who will become tomorrow's clinical and professional leaders.
Vanessa A. Morenzi, DMD
Orthodontic Residency Program, Chairman and Program Director
Albert Einstein Medical Center
University of Pennsylvania Update
June 2015
Our comprehensive clinic and didactic Orientation Program will begin on July 6, 2015 as we welcome our incoming Class of 2017: Dr. Michael Capogna, Dr. Matthew Cassera, Dr. Isaac Chung, Dr. Robert Vincelli, Dr. Brianna Yang; Dr. Manal Sabir (2nd year Perio-Ortho combined program); Dr. Samaneh Mojarrad (3 yr. MSOB program), and Dr. Juyoung Park (5 yr. DScD program).
In this semester, the first year residents completed the Tweed Course on March 22-31, 2015. Also in April, all our second year residents participated in the written ABO exam.
The 2015 graduation ceremony to be held at The Union League of Philadelphia on June 19, 2015. Dr. Alexandra De George, Dr. Kristen Michelle Hann, Dr. Jameson Louis Hardy and Dr. Philip Kamaal Josephs are expected to receive their Orthodontic certificate, Dr. Hye Yoon Choi will receive her Orthodontic certificate as well as the Masters in Oral Biology Degree. Dr. Michael Abrams is graduating from the combined program in Orthodontics and Periodontics. We wish them all the best.
This summer, the new first-year and upcoming second-year residents will attend 27th Annual Graduate Orthodontic Residents Program (GORP) will be held Thursday, July 30–Sunday, August 2nd, 2015. Once again, we are inviting all orthodontic residents from the United States and Canada to attend. The meeting will be held in St. Louis, Missouri on the campus of Saint Louis University.
The J. Henry O'Hern annual Orthodontic Alumni Day will on Oct 9, 2015. Our speaker is Dr. Kee-Joon Lee, Professor of Orthodontics, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea. Topics will be Three Dimensional Ortho Mechanics, Soft tissue/designing the face, and, Lingual orthodontic. Once again, our meeting will be held at The Union League of Philadelphia, 140 South Broad Street, Philadephia 19102 and CEU credits will be available. Anyone interested in further information may contact Barbara Del Regino bdelregi@dental.upenn.edu .
As always, we would be privileged to have you visit with us at UPENN!
Respectfully submitted by
Chun-Hsi Chung, DMD, MS
Chauncey M. F. Egel Endowed Chair
Associate Professor and Postdoctoral Program Director
Department of Orthodontics, University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine
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