The University of Missouri–Kansas City hosted an Ovation for Healthcare Innovation Event on October 17 to unveil their plans and new renderings for the highly-anticipated Healthcare Delivery and Innovation Building.

Students, faculty, staff, administration and community partners gathered at the Health Sciences Building on Hospital Hill for a morning of mingling, hands-on demonstrations at the student showcase and, of course, the reveal of the latest rendering of the building.

To kick off the presentation of the renderings, Nuhka Nguyen, a third year dental student, addressed the crowd, emphasizing her excitement as a student to make an impact on residents in Kansas City and the surrounding area in the new facility.

“It will be at the forefront of teledentistry,” said Nguyen, “Teledentistry is a technology that allows dentists to provide care to patients remotely. This is a huge breakthrough for underserved populations and individuals with disabilities who may not have access to traditional dental care.”

You can hear more from Nguyen in her interview with KSHB.

C. Mauli Agrawal, Chancellor of the University of Missouri–Kansas City, followed, highlighting the unique nature of the project.

“Our building will be one of a kind. We know of only one other combined medical and dental education building in the nation, and none other that will include what ours will: dedicated space for our Health Equity Institute, collaboration space for our Biomedical Engineering program and dedicated advancement of personalized medicine through the work of our Data Science Analytics and Innovation Center, also known as dSAIC.”

He continued by taking the crowd on what he playfully coined an “old-fashioned virtual tour,” describing the building floor by floor and each academic unit’s presence in the building. For dentistry, Chancellor Agrawal gave a glimpse into both patient and student life in the building.

“Patients will check in at our dedicated entrance on the second floor for oral surgeries, endodontics or emergency dental procedures,” he said, “Student teaching clinics, lockers, and labs will be on the third and fourth floors. A new digital design lab will give students a place to train on CAD software to scan and design crowns, bridges and implants and then either 3D-print or use milling machines to produce the dental prostheses. Our radiology and dental hygiene programs also will be located here.”

He pointed out the deliberately designed entrance for Dentistry, saying it is, “In part for ease of patient access, but also in anticipation of the future opening of an after-hours clinic to help Children’s Mercy and University Health handle dental crises that come in through their emergency rooms.”

UMKC Student National Dental Association/Hispanic Student Dental Association (SNDA/HSDA) and AWD (Association of Women Dentists) joined together to put on a “Pink Out” day, encouraging all faculty, staff and students to wear their best pink attire. From the classrooms to the clinic, pink lined the hallways in shirts, scarves, bracelets and more.

Throughout the week, the student organizations shared facts about breast cancer to raise awareness, and over the lunch hour on Friday, October 13, participants got together to join in on some tasty pink treats and take a group photo.

To view photos from the day, click here.

The Office of Academic Affairs is pleased to announce the approval of the long-awaited Advanced Standing International Dental Program from the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA).

This program will accept nine students and focuses on training dentists from foreign dental programs who desire to have a United States dental degree from a CODA approved institutional program. It includes a semester-long didactic and laboratory orientation to the dental school. The cohort will then enter the third-year dental class during the summer term and complete the Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) curriculum.

Applications are being accepted through the ADEA Centralized Application for Advanced Placement for International Dentists (ADEA CAAPID), and the program is slated to begin in January 2024.

Dr. Gustavo Leal, Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Restorative Clinical Sciences, will act as Interim Director.

For more details on the program, click here.

The dental school hosted 32 prospective students on Friday, September 29 for a showcase day, where attendees were able to meet each other and learn more about what their dental school experience would look like. Attendees came from far and wide, including Hawaii and Kuwait.

After being introduced to faculty, staff and the dean, attendees were led on a tour of the school. Although these students would have their clinical experiences in the new Healthcare Delivery and Innovation Building, which is currently in final planning stages, the current building will still house many key operations. Following the tour, attendees went to a  “Class 1 Prep” activity, where they were led through an operative experience to show the students what they can expect during their first two years of dental school.

Attendees were invited for a social gathering at Vested Coffee and tours of the Beacon Hill Apartments near campus after an informative day at the school.

To view photos from the event, click here.

This year’s JayDoc Memorial 5K took place on September 16 at Shawnee Mission Park. The run directly benefits the JayDoc Free Clinic, located at 340 Southwest Blvd and provides medical and dental care for the uninsured and underinsured population of Kansas City.

The clinic operates on the help of both student and physician/dentist volunteers and is funded entirely through donations and grants. This 5k is one of the many efforts to raise funds so that the clinic can afford lab testing, medications, and supplies.

The school has a long history with the JayDoc clinic, and is involved in multiple events, including a “pediatric night” of free dental care, where ten dental students in conjunction with pediatric faculty supervisors provided free dental care to 10 children who presented for care at the evening clinic.

This year’s event was in honor of Caroline Trupp. Caroline was a rising second-year medical student who was passionate about giving to the underserved and the JayDoc Free Clinic. She was also an enthusiastic runner and thus, it is with a heavy heart and great sense of purpose the JayDoc Memorial 5K was named in her honor.

See photos from the event here.

UMKC School of Dentistry JayDoc Officers
Executive Directors:
Claire Freeman
Seth Hofheins

Directors of Finance:
Jacob Trammell
Jacey Ciko

Directors of Fundraising:
Anthony Leisure
Francisco Flores

Director of Student Volunteers:
Cole Daniel

Directory of Faculty Volunteers:
Tanner Robert

Director of Patient Records:
Riley Pereles*

Directors of Patient Outreach:
Anh Nguyen
Jett Schroeder

Faculty Advisor:
Dr. Todd Brower

Dr. Yong Wang, Professor in the Department of Oral and Craniofacial Sciences and Director of Craniofacial Bioengineering, was recently named a University of Missouri Curators’ Distinguished Professor. The Board of Curators voted unanimously to present this honor which recognizes his exemplary service, performance, and teaching record. Dr. Wang received enthusiastic endorsements from peers as well for his contributions, research and engagement, which bring great credit to UMKC and the University of Missouri System.

Wang came to UMKC in 1999 and it’s been his home ever since. “I have stayed because this is the place where I could collaborate with researchers across disciplines and campus,” he says.

Wang’s research focus has been translational dental and craniofacial research related to dental biomaterials, material/tissue interfaces and dental/oral tissues, which requires interdisciplinary collaborations. Wang’s collaborative research has made some significant contributions to these fields.

For example, his research on quantifying the interfacial chemistry of adhesive and dentin bond obtained considerable international recognition, has laid foundation for understanding failure mechanisms of dental restorations. His collaborative research revealed the new underlying mechanisms of tooth enamel loss and dental caries caused by head neck cancer (HNC) radiotherapy, an oral disease disturbing detrimentally the quality of life of HNC survivors. His lab developed novel hyperspectral imaging techniques including infrared and Raman spectroscopy to explicate the heterogeneous interfaces between tissues and biomaterials. And working with engineers, he is the pioneering researcher to apply non-thermal atmospheric plasmas into various oral and dental applications.

“I’m proud to be surrounded by talented and dedicated professionals, like Dr. Wang, who have made such a profound impact on the field and the university,” says Dr. Steven Haas, Dean of the UMKC School of Dentistry.

Wang’s research and achievements have earned him highly regarded research reputation internationally. He is an elected Fellow of American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), whose fellows are the top 2% of medical and biological engineers. He is also the elected Fellows of the American Association for Dental, Oral and Craniofacial Research (AADOCR) and Academy of Dental Materials (ADM). He has served on the editorial or advisory board of eight peer-reviewed journals related to Dentistry or Biomaterials research. Dr. Wang has been an ad hoc reviewer of several NIH study sections as well as a member of NSF, DOD and NIST panels. He was selected as a standing member of NIH ODCS study section (2021-2025). His insights and expertise are widely sought after.

“Dr. Wang is an internationally renowned researcher and scholar who has dedicated his career to UMKC while making outstanding contributions to dental biomaterials research. I can’t think of anyone more deserving of this prestigious recognition,” says Dr. Melanie Simmer-Beck, Professor and Chair of Dental Public Health and Behavioral Science.

Dr. Mary Walker, Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Programs, echoes that statement, “His science is world-class and he has been internationally recognized for his research by a number of societies that elected him as a Fellow.  He is an outstanding collaborator and mentor and one of the most productive investigators at UMKC. The unanimous approval for his appointment as a Curators’ Distinguished Professor is well-deserved recognition of his career accomplishments and contributions to the university.”

Wang has co-authored ~200 papers in peer-reviewed journals and proceedings, which have been cited over 10K times with H-index of 55. In addition to his research contributions, Wang is a dedicated mentor, who has successfully guided over 80 students and fellows, including 24 DDS students participated in summer research programs, 33 MS and PhD students as a chair, co-chair or member of thesis committees and about 30 post-doctoral fellows and visiting scholars. More of Dr. Wang’s work can be found on his Google Scholar page here.

“This is surely an important moment of my more than two-decade career at UMKC, and I feel so honored and proud,” says Wang. “I view this honor as recognition for all of the collaborators, colleagues, post-doctoral fellows and students I have worked with over the years.”

Congratulations to Dr. Wang for this exceptional and truly deserved honor!

UMKC School of Dentistry offers clinical experience at the Kansas City Zoo and Aquarium.
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Story by Bryce Puntenney | University of Missouri-Kansas City Marketing and Communications