The mission of the Graduate Program in Oral Health Sciences is to foster academic and creative research excellence in the field of Oral Health Sciences. Our program provides advanced interdisciplinary training for graduate students to enable them to become academic and research leaders in the dental and craniofacial sciences, and to contribute to improved understanding of human oral and systemic health and disease. Major areas of study include microbiology, biochemistry, immunology, developmental biology and genetics, functional morphology and biomechanics, neurobiology, bioengineering, biomaterials, stem cell biology, dental hygiene, oral pathology and dental public health.
To address this mission the Oral Health Sciences faculty participate in research and teaching in areas including the structure, function and development of oral tissues especially of the mucosal tissues and salivary glands; the oral microbiome, and how oral pathogens influence the etiology and pathogenesis of oral diseases; and also how oral diseases affect systemic human health. Investigators utilize a range of approaches including clinical studies using human subjects, in vitro tissue culture systems and animal models.
The Graduate Program in Oral Health Sciences offers the PhD program for the School of Dentistry and includes training faculty from most departments within the school. We are committed to the education of non-dentists as well as dentists and dental hygienists, who seek advanced research training and careers in Oral Health Sciences – a field closely aligned with the dental and craniofacial sciences.