Chair, Departments of Pediatric Dentistry and Community Health

Rutgers School of Dental Medicine is searching for a Chair of the Departments of Pediatric Dentistry and Community Health. Responsibilities of the position will include the administration of the faculty and staff for the undergraduate and graduate programs in Pediatric Dentistry, Special Care Dentistry and Community Health. The department sponsors an active residency and post-graduate training program.

The Chair is expected to be a graduate of a CODA accredited training program with board certification in pediatric dentistry and eligibility for licensure in New Jersey. Successful candidates will have a track record of leadership, a strong interest in active clinical practice, and related scholarly achievement. It is expected that the Chair will participate in the intramural faculty practice, be eligible for hospital privileges at one of our teaching hospitals and hold an enteral sedation permit.

This Chair will be responsible for expanding the scope of clinical services as well as research initiatives in Pediatric Dentistry, Special Care Dentistry and Community Health. S/he will expand statewide outreach and education, and support the development of a new public health residency program in Community Health.

Salary and rank will be commensurate with experience.

1. Teaching - Building Upon the Strength of the Clinical Program and Training the Best Pediatric Dentists and Community health Professionals
Educating and training exceptional pediatric dentists is the highest priority of the RSDM Pediatric Dentistry Department. Teaching has always been recognized as the core strength of RSDM.

2. Academics, Scholarship, and Research
RSDM is distinguished by the academic and research training it requires of RSDM trained dentists. Research is a required element of scholarship for all RSDM postgraduate pediatric dental students.

3. Delivery of Dental Care to the Underserved and Those with Special Needs
A unique strength of the RSDM Pediatric Dentistry program is its close partnerships with the University Hospital's Pediatric Department. Relationships with additional medical centers are a goal of RSDM as it seeks to expand care for patients requiring procedures in operating rooms.

4. Advocacy and Dental Policy

A crucial part of the Department's mission has been advocating for children and individuals with special health care needs. RSDM has a strong relationship with the State Department of Health and the state dental director.

5. Alumni and Professional Relations
There are over one hundred postgraduate alumni of the RSDM Pediatric Dentistry Residency program. In addition to RSDM alumni, New Jersey boasts a large community of pediatric dentists.

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Established in 1956, Rutgers School of Dental Medicine ( RSDM) celebrates a rich tradition of providing an exceptional educational experience for its students while serving the dental needs of more than 136,000 patient visits annually. The only dental school in New Jersey, RSDM is located in the University Heights neighborhood in Newark, NJ, and is the largest center of dental research in the state. RSDM is part of the Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences ( RBHS), also called Rutgers Health, with main campuses in Newark, Piscataway, and New Brunswick.

Rutgers is one of the nation's leading comprehensive research universities and the only public university in New Jersey in the Association of American Universities ( AAU), North America's 71 leading research universities demonstrating high-quality academic research and scholarship, disciplinary breadth, and strong undergraduate, graduate, and professional education programs.

Research is fundamental to Rutgers' mission and provides a vital and growing foundation for the academic, community, and clinical service elements at the heart of Rutgers' excellence. Rutgers brings more federal research dollars to New Jersey than all other New Jersey colleges and universities. In fiscal year 2022, the university received $872.8 million in research grants and sponsored programs. Participating in the Big 10 Conference brings membership in the Big 10 Academic Alliance, a consortium of 14 world-class research universities.

RSDM provides a full range of oral health services for children and adults statewide to thousands of underinsured and uninsured working poor, with over 50 percent of patient visits were supplemented by Medicaid. With nearly 424 operatories RSDM clinical services range from

routine preventive care to complex treatment, periodontics, orofacial pain, diagnostic and biopsy services, orthodontics, endodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, oral medicine, prosthodontics and treatment for special needs patients with underlying conditions or illnesses. Inpatient care and teaching are also conducted at the University Hospital.

RSDM's state-of-the-art faculty practices are located in Newark and New Brunswick. The school also has extramural clinics in Galloway, Northfield, and Somerdale.

RSDM has renovated its Pediatric Dentistry and Special Care Center with 32 operatories and state-of-the-art equipment that opened in February 2014. Since then, RSDM has completed several new expansion projects, including an interdisciplinary specialty clinic for orthodontics, periodontics, prosthodontics, and endodontics, a research center (see additional information under research), and a Central Sterilization facility for all clinical areas. The oral and maxillofacial surgery clinic and radiography clinics were expanded, too. The renovated clinic includes a total of eight closed surgical operatories for routine oral surgical procedures, and two anesthesia suites to administer more advanced anesthesia procedures.

RSDM centers of excellence include:

* The Craniofacial Center of New Jersey at The University Hospital

* Center for Oral Infectious Diseases

* Special Care Treatment Center

* Center for Temporomandibular Disorders and Orofacial Pain

The school plans for major capital improvement which will include a new simulation facility and additional research laboratories for RSDM. The new preclinic will bring in daylight and will increase student spaces with improved simulations.

RSDM's 200+ salaried faculty and over 100 voluntary faculty play a major role in guiding both university policy and procedures through shared governance with the boards and senior administration. RSDM is represented on the Rutgers University Senate, a university-wide representative body with several additional faculty councils.

Admission to RSDM is highly competitive. Ninety-two students enrolled in 2023 in the first-year class, admitted from 2,476 applicants. The students' reputation for clinical experience and skills is evident in the Match rate. In 2023, over 95 percent of students seeking placement through a match were placed. RSDM graduates substantially exceed the National Board pass rate. In 2023, the students achieved a 100 percent pass rate on the Integrated National Board Dental Examination.

One of the nation's most diverse dental schools, RSDM is proud of its holistic approach to the admissions process and the array of multi-cultural opportunities for student engagement that students have available to them. RSDM has long recognized the benefits of introducing prospective students to the profession at a young age, especially underrepresented students through a variety of pipeline programs, starting from pre-school all the way up to college.

RSDM also has international exchange programs with Trinity College School of Dental Science in Dublin, Ireland, University of Medicine, Tirana, Albania, Sibar Institute of Dental Sciences in Guntur, India, and it is exploring additional partners.

RSDM post-graduate programs attract hundreds of applicants from all over the world each year. Programs and degrees offered by RSDM are:

* Traditional DMD Program

* International DMD Program

* Master in Dental Science ( MDS)

* Master of Science in Dentistry ( MSD)

* Master of Science in Oral Biology (offered with the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences - GSBS)

* General Practice Residency Program

* Pediatric Dentistry Postgraduate Program

* Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Residency Program (4 and 6 years)

* Special Needs Dentistry Residency

* Prosthodontics Postgraduate Program

* Orthodontics Postgraduate Program

* Periodontics Postgraduate Program

* Endodontics Postgraduate Program

* Oral Medicine

* Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology

* Orofacial Pain

* Ph.D. in Oral Biology (jointly offered by GSBS)

Throughout the school and the extramural South Jersey sites, there are over 400 patient operatories. Annually, RSDM performs over 136,000 patient visits at the main Newark campus and its three Community Oriented Dental Education sites in Somerdale, Northfield, and Galloway, NJ. The Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery residents and General Practice residents from the Department of Diagnostic Sciences staff the adjacent University Hospital's clinics, seeing 10,000 patient visits each year.

RSDM is the largest provider of oral health care in New Jersey, the largest provider of dental Medicaid in the state, and the largest special needs dental provider in the New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania region.

Advanced biomedical research programs continue to improve the quality of life for New Jersey's diverse populations. RSDM is engaged in research at all levels - basic, translational, and clinical. The new Assistant Dean of Clinical Research and the Director of Research will establish a structure connecting researchers, experiences, and tools to create strong research teams. The Clinical Research Center received over $2MM to conduct a practice-based clinical trial researching the effectiveness of periodontal adjunctive antibiotics in support of antibiotic in support of antibiotic stewardship in dentistry. In addition, his translation program has received a $2MM NIH grant to pursue studies in the pathogenesis of peri-implantitis using cutting edge pre-clinical and clinical omics research methods to combat peri-implant inflammation.

In the past year, the Oral Biology Department received awards totaling over $5 million in extramural funding in fiscal year 2022. Researchers led by the school's Dean Cecile A. Feldman has received a $11.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to research the combination of ibuprofen and acetaminophen as an alternative to opioids. An RSDM faculty member is using predatory bacteria in the battle against drug-resistant infections, and the U.S. Department of Defense has invested more than $7MM in his work to help tackle deadly, antibiotic-resistant infections. A faculty member has received a $1.5MM five-year NIH grant to pursue her studies in how to regenerate dental pulp and dentin as an alternative to removing the pulp during root canals.

The approximately 25,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art RSDM Research Center provides the infrastructure to enhance clinical and translational investigations and services as a resource for the training of clinical investigators. The Center houses most of the oral biology department offices and labs and the orofacial pain labs. The center houses faculty offices for the researchers, four closed labs, 18 open labs, support labs, conference and classroom space, and a lounge area. This Center enhances RSDM abilities to secure external funding and support the school's ability to attract new researchers.

Separately, RSDM has a clinical research center that conducts a variety of industrial trials.

Research is a required element of scholarship for most RSDM postgraduate dental students. Some students leverage this research requirement to pursue a master's degree while completing their training. A distinctive strength of RSDM is that it has always gone beyond the traditional skill and technique training of "wet hands" dentistry. RSDM is distinguished by the academic and research training it requires of its students.

RSDM's Newark Campus is the flagship site for New Jersey's Give Kids A Smile! ( GKAS) program. Each year RSDM's GKSA treats hundreds of children with the support of many employees, students, and volunteers.

The school has several special programs:

* Rutgers School of Dental Medicine has provided oral health care services to New Jersey's HIV communities through the Ryan White Oral Health Services Program for over 25 years.

* The Holocaust Survivors Program was established in 2022 to deliver complimentary dental care to survivors of the Holocaust.

* Most recently, RSDM proudly offers free dental treatment to veterans under the VETSmile Program.

RSDM is a founding member of the Oral Cancer Consortium, a 19-member institution that promotes awareness of oral cancer and early diagnosis and treatment. The Consortium has performed more than 10,000 free screenings in the New Jersey/New York region.

The DMD program requires that students volunteer for a minimum of four hours of community project work; many develop programs working with children or seniors in the community. Others participate in a wide range of community health fairs in the metropolitan area. RSDM students participate in around 65 community service projects each year. RSDM DMD students spent over 19,000 hours in community?based service?based learning at the South Jersey sites in the 2022-2023 academic year.

As the state's only dental school and as part of the state university system, RSDM has a significant opportunity to build an influential presence in the Governor's Office, the State Department of Health, and other health leadership forums. Our state has a newly appointed director of oral health with whom we can create strong relationships to address some of the needs of New Jersey to improve the oral health care of residents. For instance, New Jersey ranks 49th out of 50 states in the percentage of population that drinks fluoridated public water at the recommended CDC level, according to the New Jersey Dental Association. RSDM also has a unique opportunity to advocate for the dental needs of children of New Jersey and patients with special care needs around the tri-state area. For example, while all children must have a physical exam to attend school, they are not required to have a dental exam unless they are in Head Start programs. This, and many other issues, can be improved with advocacy work and expertise stemming from RSDM. The school must also continue to develop relationships to strengthen its influence in the City of Newark. Policy advocacy starting from the local level can spread to state and national levels, too.

The Pediatric Dentistry Department fulfills the School's mission with approximately 11,000 visits annually in the Pediatric Dentistry and Special Care Treatment Center clinics for underserved children, as well as adults and adolescents with special health care needs. There is a total of 8 full- and 5 part-time faculty members in Pediatric Dentistry and Special Care.

Undergraduate Dental Program in Pediatric Dentistry. The didactic course in pediatric dentistry is presented in the third academic year. The course offers instruction in basic topics including patient management, prevention and restorative techniques as well as addressing advanced areas of pediatric dentistry including sedation, the treatment of trauma, and the care of patients with special health care needs.

Undergraduate dental students rotate through the Pediatric Dentistry Clinic one half-day each week in their third and fourth academic years. The students also rotate in the Special Care area of the clinic for 9 sessions during their fourth year.

Postdoctoral Pediatric Dentistry Program.The mission of the postdoctoral program in Pediatric Dentistry at RSDM is to educate and train specialists in Pediatric Dentistry who can competently evaluate, improve, and maintain the oral health of infants, children, adolescents, and persons with special health care needs in a productive and compassionate manner.

This is a 24-month program beginning July 1 of each year. Six new positions are offered each year. This is a combined university and hospital-based residency/certificate program open to graduates of CODA accredited dental schools and internationally trained dentists. An optional Masters of Dental Science degree program may also be pursued.

The Pediatric Dentistry Department is a high priority and has received increased investment in its infrastructure and development to expand the school's capacity to serve more children and enhance the education of the RSDM students.

The Brunsden-Villa Pediatric Dentistry Clinic has 20 open-bay pediatric dental operatories and 5 closed pediatric operatories, all equipped with nitrous oxide. On-site digital radiology is also available in the clinic. This footprint allows for program expansion in the future. Today, the Pediatric Dentistry Clinic serves as the dental home to many of the Newark, NJ school children.

Immediately adjacent to the Pediatric Dentistry clinic is the Delta Dental Special Care Treatment Center with 9 closed operatories, specially equipped to serve patients with special health care needs including persons with developmental disabilities, complex medical problems, significant physical limitations, cognitive impairment, and the vulnerable elderly. This is one of the few Special Care Clinics in the region, serving adolescents and adults from as far away as Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New York with over 10,000 patients in its registry. The Clinic accommodates nearly 5,000 patient visits annually and performs approximately 250 complex procedures in the operating room each year. The Special Care Dentistry Honors program, a unique effort that focuses on treating patients with special health care needs, gives two fourth-year students the opportunity to focus on oral healthcare for these individuals.

The Chair, the Postgraduate Director, and the Director of the Special Needs Clinic all have private offices in the clinical space.

Community Health consists of a multidisciplinary group of individuals dedicated to health promotion and disease prevention with the elimination of oral health disparities in the community. This department includes appointed faculty consisting of 9 full- and 2 part-time faculty members who also teach in the Community-Oriented Dental Education sites. The department has received funding to support activities aimed at enhancing oral health knowledge and behaviors, and overall well-being. Disciplines represented within the department include: dentistry, medical sociology, epidemiology, geriatrics, ethics/law, dental public health, practice management, prevention and early detection of oral cancer, and community outreach and service.

The Department of Pediatric Dentistry will continue to incorporate various Community Health activities into its program. By actively promoting the connection of oral health to overall health within the community, pediatric dentistry students have the chance to influence public policy, gain exposure to demographics, cultural factors, epidemiology, and related subjects on the health of children in the community. This emphasis on Community Health is consistent with the school's priority of service and its tradition of leadership on many community initiatives.

Continuing its commitment to Community Health, the dental school has recently hired the Director of the Dental Public Health Residency, a full-time faculty member in the department. This individual will be instrumental in developing a CODA accredited residency program in Dental Public Health. This will include curriculum and course development, administering the program, and providing instruction to the students. Additionally, they will provide professional service to the field, develop and maintain a line of scholarly research, and continue to publish and seek grant funding.

It is university policy to provide equal employment opportunity to all its employees and applicants for employment regardless of their race, creed, color, national origin, age, ancestry, nationality, marital or domestic partnership or civil union status, sex, pregnancy, gender identity or expression, disability status, liability for military service, protected veteran status, affectional or sexual orientation, atypical cellular or blood trait, genetic information (including the refusal to submit to genetic testing), or any other category protected by law. As an institution, we value diversity of background and opinion, and prohibit discrimination or harassment on the basis of any legally protected class in the areas of hiring, recruitment, promotion, transfer, demotion, training, compensation, pay, fringe benefits, layoff, termination or any other terms and conditions of employment. For additional information please see the Non-Discrimination Statement at the following web address: http://uhr.rutgers.edu/non-discrimination-statement

Rutgers School of Dental Medicine