The American Dental Association (ADA) recently installed its 156th president. The position was awarded to Dr. Chad P. Gehani of Queens, New York. Dr. Gehani and the new and returning officers were installed in their offices before proceedings of the ADA House of Delegates at the ADA FDI World Dental Congress in San Francisco. The meeting was the 160th annual meeting of the ADA.

During his first address to the House of Delegates, Dr. Gehani told members it is his “responsibility to ensure that the ADA remains the guardian of your lifetime commitment to the profession — and I am not just talking about your dues dollars. The ADA must be a responsible custodian of your time as volunteers and of your talents as clinicians, researchers and educators. The ADA must be relevant to all of us,” he concluded.

Get to Know Dr. Gehani

Dr. Gehani received his dental degree from Columbia University College of Dental Medicine. He is the recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, which recognizes Americans who dedicate their lives to the community and is bestowed by the Ellis Island Honor Society.

When 24-year-old Dr. Chad P. Gehani arrived at the airport in Mumbai, India, in 1975, he had never even seen an airplane before, let alone flown on one. Dr. Gehani held a one-way ticket to New York City. He had a dental degree from the Government Dental College and Hospital Mumbai, but no guarantee of any job in the United States — especially one in dentistry — and was leaving behind all his family and friends.

Within days of arriving on American soil, Dr. Gehani found a job on Fifth Avenue and 28th Street as a janitor. He was paid $3.75 an hour to unload trucks and clean the streets, warehouse and toilets.

Three months later, Dr. Gehani secured a job in a hospital working as a dental assistant and began taking the national board of dental examinations, which started him down the path that would allow him to be recognized as a dentist in the United States.

Nine months later, he was allowed to begin practicing dentistry. Dr. Gehani joined the American Dental Association in 1977, and five years after he arrived in New York, he became an American citizen.

Watch for a full account of Dr. Gehani’s House of Delegates address on ADA.org and in the ADA News.

What if, with one marching order, a swarm of micro-robots (directed by magnets!) could break apart and remove dental plaque from a tooth? A cross-disciplinary partnership among dentists, biologists and engineers agree that it’s possible in the very near future.

A team of scientists from the three fields at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a microscopic robotic cleaning crew. With two types of robotic systems — one designed to work on surfaces and the other to operate inside confined spaces — the scientists showed that robots could ably destroy biofilms, the sticky amalgamations of bacteria enmeshed in a protective scaffolding.

Robotic biofilm-removal systems like the one they developed could be valuable in a wide range of potential applications, from keeping dental tools clean to reducing the risk of tooth decay, endodontic infections and implant contamination.

The work, published in Science Robotics, was led by Hyun (Michel) Koo of the School of Dental Medicine and Edward Steager of the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

“This was a truly synergistic and multidisciplinary interaction,” said Koo. “We’re leveraging the expertise of microbiologists and clinician-scientists as well as engineers to design the best microbial eradication system possible. This is important to other biomedical fields facing drug-resistant biofilms as we approach a post-antibiotic era.”

Addressing plaque that occurs on teeth requires a great deal of manual labor, both on the part of the consumer and the dentist. This project was birthed with the hope of improving treatment options as well as reducing the difficulty of care.

To advance the project along its journey to clinical use, the researchers are receiving support from the Penn Center for Health, Devices, and Technology, an initiative supported by Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, Penn Engineering, and the Office of the Vice Provost for Research.

Penn Health-Tech, as it’s known, awards select interdisciplinary groups with support to create new health technologies, and the robotic platforms project was one of those awarded support in 2018.

“The team has a great clinical background on the dental side and a great technical background on the engineering side,” says Victoria Berenholz, executive director of Penn Health-Tech. “We’re here to round them out on the business side. They have really done a fantastic job on the project.”