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Hello, it is my pleasure to introduce my two colleagues who are participants in
this course.
Doctor Thomas Sollecito and Doctor Eric Stoopler, so Doctor Sollecito,
please tell us your function here at Penn and what you do.
>> Yes, my name is Tom Sollecito, I'm a professor of oral medicine,
and I am the Chairman of the Department of Oral Medicine at the University of
Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine.
In addition, I am the Division Chief of Oral Medicine within the University
of Pennsylvania Health System.
>> Doctor Stoopler.
>> Sure, thank you Yuri, my name is Doctor Eric Stoopler,
I'm a associate professor of oral medicine here at the school,
I'm also director of the post doctoral oral medicine program.
In addition to that, I'm an attending physician in the division
of oral medicine at the University of Pennsylvania health system.
>> Thank you for this introduction, we are one of the few schools which is fortunate
to have an oral medicine department.
So perhaps you could tell us,
what is the mission of this specialty, what is your focus of study?
>> Well, you're right, Yuri, we are very fortunate, some would say that oral
medicine really started here at the University of Pennsylvania.
One of our former deans in the 1940's or 50's,
Lester Burket, was instrumental in understanding the relationship
of the oral cavity to overall the entire health of an individual.
As well as understanding the oral cavity as the first manifestation
of some underlying systemic disease.
In oral medicine, what we do on a daily basis is take care of
some of those diseases that manifest orally.
That perhaps may have a systemic cause, and
it may be the first manifestation of that systemic disease.
Let me give you an example,
we have patients that come in with aphthous ulcers, the common canker sore.
We know from science, and from review, that these lesions,
after about age 40, should be on the decline.
If we see a patient in which these lesions are increasing in frequency or
severity, we understand that these lesions could be related to anemia.
They could be related to some type of blood dyscrasia.
They could be related to some type inflammatory bowel disease.
And we'll initiate the investigation into those avenues.
But in short, what do we do as oral medicine specialists?
We take care of people with mucosal diseases,
we take care of people with non tooth related facial pain.
We take care of patients with salivary gland dysfunction and disease.
And we also provide care to patients that have complex medical histories,
provide dental care to those patients.
>> Your department and your faculty are basically forming the bridge between
the two disciplines of dentistry and medicine,
would you elaborate a little bit on it?
>> Sure, so,
we have many opportunities to collaborate with other healthcare providers.
Given what Tom has just explained, there are many oral manifestations of
systemic diseases, and so we have a bidirectional relationship.
If patients presented their physicians or nurse practitioners with disease
in their mouth, very often they will be referred to us in oral medicine.
For evaluation of the oral component of their condition, and
to potentially even rule out a systemic cause of their disease.
Conversely, patients with known systemic disease will present to us for
evaluation of their oral cavity,
to determine if there are manifestations that may be occurring.
And so we manage the oral or local components,
in conjunction with physicians and/or nurse practitioners who were managing
the systemic components of their condition.
>> So please tell me about your opinion,
how important is the education of oral medicine to dental students,
and within the context of modern dental curriculum?
>> That's, it's significant, there's absolutely no question.
The longer that I've been practicing, and I think my colleagues would agree,
certainly I believe many of my physician colleagues would agree.
That there's no one better to look at the oral cavity,
diagnose what's going on in the oral cavity than a well trained dentist,
and part of their training needs to occur in dental school.
And that's why dental education spends quite a bit of effort and time,
at least dental education here at Penn, in understanding some of these
concepts of the overlap between medicine and dentistry.
I think it is absolutely critical,
I think if we don't have a concept of understanding
what we're looking at and how to diagnose it, nobody will.
>> Just to elaborate a little bit on Tom's comments,
not only do we have an extremely strong pre-doctoral curriculum in oral medicine,
we also have a very strong post doctoral curriculum as well.
That is something that we're very
proud of here at the University of Pennsylvania Dental School.
Our Oral Medicine Residency Training Program,
it's been in existence since the 1960s.
We've graduated over 65 residents who've gone on to various
positions in private practice, but also in dental academia.
Also internationally, our residents have established
practices throughout the world, and carry the flag, so to speak,
of Penn oral medicine, and so we have our brand dispersed globally.
>> Well, thank you both, and so I'm very excited about your participation in this
course, because this is all about oral medicine.
And I hope we will try to share the excitement that you have for
this profession, thank you.
>> Great, thank you. >> Thank you.
Dr. Thomas P. SollecitoProfessor and Chairman of Oral Medicine
Dr. Eric StooplerAssociate Professor of Oral Medicine
Dr. Uri HangorskyAssociate Dean for Academic Affairs/ Director PASS
