A dental student at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) College of Dentistry was awarded first place in the clinical research/public health category in the American Dental Association/Dentsply Student Clinician Research Program at the recent ADA annual meeting in New Orleans.
Paul Johnson, a fourth-year dental student, won for his presentation entitled "Alveolar Bone Loss in Subjects with Rheumatoid Arthritis and Osteoarthritis." The study found that patients with rheumatoid arthritis were at a greater risk for more severe alveolar bone loss in comparison to the control group of osteoarthritis patients.
Johnson's study team included Jeffrey Payne, DDS; Shawneen Gonzalez, DDS; and Marian Schmid from the UNMC dental school; Fang Yu, PhD, and Harlan Sayles from the UNMC College of Public Health; and Ted Mikuls, MD, from the UNMC College of Medicine.
The competition included submissions from 56 U.S. dental schools, according to UNMC.
Johnson received an engraved glass trophy, $750, and a travel award to attend the Thomas P. Hinman Dental Meeting in Atlanta in March 2014.
Johnson will graduate in May and then enter UNMC's postgraduate program in periodontics.