NSU Horizons Spring 2012

19 HORIZONS Funding, named for a child born with hemophilia, who contracted HIV from the treatment he was given to help his blood coagulate. White became a symbol of the discrimination against people with the virus when he was expelled from his Indiana middle school. He died in 1990, before the advent of the drug cocktails that keep patients alive today. “When we rst opened the clinic, I think some of the students faced this rotation with trepidation. Now, it is a sought-after rotation,” Layman said. “It’s exciting, because the students are getting an important public health experience before they go out into their own practices,” she said. “Most of these young people have never known anybody with HIV or seen a friend die from it.” She said the patients are pleased with the comprehensive care they get at the clinic from the students and their faculty supervisors, along with dental specialists. Another rotation for the dental students involves treating patients who require a unique set of skills. Children with craniofacial abnormalities are treated at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, part of Memorial Regional Hospital, in a close collaboration with the pediatricians there. Eric Cameron, medical director for the craniofacial program at the hospital, said there are only four teams of medical professionals in the state who treat these children, “so the NSU dental students are fortunate to be getting hands-on experience in learning to care for them.” The most common craniofacial problem is cleft palate and lip, which affects 1 child in about 700 births. NSU dentists begin treating some children within the rst two weeks of their birth, Cameron said. Pediatric dentists create a custom t retainer, called a nasoalveolar molding appliance, and that, along with taping on the baby’s face, helps to align the gum pads inside the baby’s mouth during the rst weeks of life. The appliance helps to reduce the cleft lip deformity, making the initial surgery easier and yielding better cosmetic and functional results for the child, Cameron said. The NSU students may also see children with a condition called cranio- synostosis, a premature fusing of the bones in the skull, which occurs in 1 in 2,000 to 2,500 births. Without surgery to correct the anomaly, the brain doesn’t have room to properly develop. The newest rotation for students considering pediatric dentistry involves treating children with autism spectrum disorders who attend the Baudhuin Preschool on the NSU main campus. Oscar Padilla, D.D.S., a special-needs pediatric dentist at NSU, guides the students in how to provide oral health care to children two to ve years old, some of whom are verbal, and some who are not. The work is funded by a $2.5-million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration. The grant is for ve years and, beginning in the third year, the program will branch out to provide dental care to underserved children at Found Care Community Health in Palm Beach County. “We’re doing something different [at Baudhuin] from what’s done at any other dental site at the college,” Padilla said. “We are using the same applied behavior analysis they use in the classroom to assess where these kids are and how they relate to people, whether they are verbal or not.” “The collaboration between the dental college and the Mailman Segal Center for Human Development’s Baudhuin Preschool highlights the innova- tive work with children and families that our university is committed to,” said Roni Cohen Leiderman, Ph.D., dean of the Mailman Segal Center for Human Development. Each child’s care will be individualized, Padilla said, and parents will be involved in the process, helping to reinforce the importance of good oral health. “Even if they can’t speak, we will have them try to understand visually, using pictures to explain what we will be doing,” Padilla said. Padilla, who has been a pediatric dentist for almost 15 years, has treated children with autism and other special- needs kids since he became a dental fellow for United Cerebral Palsy early in his career. “We use the approach of tell, show, do, plus positive reinforcement,” he said. “We always show and try to explain according to their capabilities. There will be more pictures, and we’ll use techniques such as social stories. We will take a bit more time with each child.” Another technique involves distracting the child’s attention away from a step in the treatment they may not like, he said. Visiting the dentist no longer has to be a dreaded, scary adventure. “We don’t want to upset them,” Padilla said. “One of our goals is to make it an enjoyable, positive experience, part of their life.” “The students are getting an important public health experience before they go out into their own practices,” said Lisa Layman of NSU.