School of Dental Medicine

A comprehensive dental visit includes more than a cleaning and X-rays; well-trained dentists know they must also take a thorough look inside the oral cavity to spot any potentially unusual lesions that could signal oral cancer.

By Erica AndersenDentists and physicians practice health care from different perspectives, however, the oral and general health of their patients are of primary importance to both types of providers. A new online course taught by University of Pennsylvania faculty seeks to highlight the inextricable connections between the two professions.

In his office at the University of Pennsylvania, oral and maxillofacial surgeon Rabie Shanti sits at his computer, clicking through photos of patients he’s operated on.He pulls up an image of a mouth open wide, tongue extended.

Bone marrow contains hematopoetic stem cells, the precursors to every blood cell type. These cells spring into action following bone marrow transplants, bone marrow injury and during systemic infection, creating new blood cells, including immune cells, in a process known as hematopoiesis.

A new study led by University of Pennsylvania researchers has found that the oral microbiome is affected by diabetes, causing a shift to increase its pathogenicity.

On launching the Penn Wharton China Center in Beijing, in March of 2015, University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann said, “We are building on Penn's history of broad, deep eng

 

Though most tooth decay can be blamed on bacteria, such as Streptococcus mutans, the fungus Candida albicans may be a joint culprit in an alarmingly common form of severe tooth decay affecting toddlers known as early childhood caries.

On May 2, 2017, the University of Pennsylvania will celebrate the launch of the Penn Center for Health, Devices and Technology, or Penn Health-Tech, a University-wide effort to advance Penn’s world-class breakthroughs into new devices and health technologies to meet the world’s most pressing health care needs.

Named for Friedrich Best, who characterized the disease in 1905, Best disease, also known as vitelliform macular dystrophy, affects children and young adults and can cause severe declines in central vision as patients age. The disease is one in a group of conditions known as bestrophinopathies, all linked to mutations in the BEST1 gene.