Leaders in Evidence-Based Dentistry Honored

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CHICAGO, October 13, 2022 — The American Dental Association (ADA) and the American Association for Dental, Oral & Craniofacial Research (AADOCR) today announced the winners of the annual Evidence-Based Dentistry (EBD) Faculty & Practice Awards. The awards are supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Colgate and are presented to educators and clinicians who have made significant contributions to implement and advance EBD. The winners will be recognized at a reception hosted by the ADA Science & Research Institute at SmileCon™ 2022, a joint meeting of the ADA, Texas Dental Association, and Greater Houston Dental Society.

Gregg H. Gilbert, D.D.S., M.B.A., will receive the 2022 EBD Accomplished Faculty Award. Dr. Gilbert is Distinguished Professor and chair of the department of clinical and community sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Dentistry. He also serves as founding director of the National Dental Practice-Based Research Network (NationalDentalPBRN.org). The National Dental PBRN connects clinical researchers with dental practitioners, creating partnerships that allow working dental offices with real-life patients to be used in the evaluation of existing and novel strategies for improving oral health. To date, the network has conducted more than 50 studies and published more than 190 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles that advance the scientific basis for clinical decision-making and foster the movement of scientific evidence into routine clinical practice. These studies have investigated a broad range of clinical topics using a wide variety of study designs. Of the studies that have completed enrollment, a total of 70,665 patients and 19,827 practitioners have been enrolled, and the electronic records of an additional 790,493 patients have been included in two data-only studies.

JoAnna M. Scott, Ph.D., will receive the 2022 EBD Mid-career Faculty Award. Dr. Scott is an associate professor in the Office of Research & Graduate Programs at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Dentistry. Dr. Scott is one of a few biostatisticians in the country with a primary appointment in a dental school, and she has used her position to support more than 100 faculty members, postdoctoral fellows, residents, and students in conducting high-quality oral health research that advances the evidence-base of dental professions. In the classroom, Dr. Scott teaches residents and graduate students the critical thinking skills needed to assess research articles (and their statistical analysis methods), thereby producing clinicians capable of providing evidence-based oral health care.

Martha Ann Keels, D.D.S., Ph.D., will receive the 2022 EBD Practice Award. Dr. Keels is a full-time practicing dentist at Duke Street Pediatric Dentistry in Durham, North Carolina, and a provider of general anesthesia services at nearby Duke Health. She also serves as an adjunct associate professor of pediatrics and an associate consulting professor of surgery at Duke University Medical Center; an adjunct professor of pediatric dentistry at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; and an adjunct associate professor of dentistry at the University of Rochester. During her tenure as a member of the ADA Council on Scientific Affairs, Dr. Keels chaired the subcommittee that oversaw the ADA’s EBD program. She currently serves on the expert panel developing the upcoming ADA guideline on restorative caries treatments, in addition to serving on the expert panel that is updating the ADA and Food & Drug Administration’s recommendations for dental radiographic examinations. Dr. Keels was a coauthor of the 2019 ADA book How to Use Evidence-Based Dental Practices to Improve Your Clinical Decision-Making.

For more information about evidence-based resources from ADASRI, visit EBD.ADA.org.

Editor’s Note: Reporters are invited to follow the ADA on Twitter @AmerDentalAssn and #SmileCon2022 for updates from SmileCon

About the American Dental Association
The not-for-profit ADA is the nation's largest dental association, representing 159,000 dentist members. The premier source of oral health information, the ADA has advocated for the public's health and promoted the art and science of dentistry since 1859. The ADA's state-of-the-art research facilities develop and test dental products and materials that have advanced the practice of dentistry and made the patient experience more positive. The ADA Seal of Acceptance long has been a valuable and respected guide to consumer dental care products. The Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA), published monthly, is the ADA's flagship publication and the best-read scientific journal in dentistry. For more information about the ADA, visit ADA.org. For more information on oral health, including prevention, care and treatment of dental disease, visit the ADA's consumer website MouthHealthy.org.

About the ADA Science & Research Institute, LLC
ADASRI was created in January 2020 as an LLC subsidiary of the American Dental Association to oversee and manage all ADA science and research programs. ADASRI includes three departments — Applied Research, Evidence Synthesis & Translation Research, and Innovation & Technology Research — whose collective mission is “improving lives through oral health, science, and research.” For more information, visit ADA.org/SRI.