NSU CDM Lasting Impressions Spring 2019

NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY | 41 This led Antonson to become curious about other issues in the dental products business, such as the validity of claims manufacturers make about their products. “As a dentist, you intuitively know things; however, I have learned there are so many intricacies in the chemistry of materials and tissue interactions that make a big difference in their final performance,” she explained. She came to NSU’s CDM in 2001 and stayed until the end of 2007. “I had the amazing opportunity to do the M.B.A. program here, and I jumped in,” Anton- son said. She completed her M.B.A. in 2007 with a concentration in entrepreneurship at NSU’s H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship and returned to the CDM in 2016. ASKING QUESTIONS Antonson’s desire to study business fueled her interest in product development. In her work today, however, she strives to go further. It creates the opportunity to dig deeper in her research studies and provide “a better edge in terms of understand- ing,” she said. “What is the background of making product deci- sions and launch decisions?” she said. “How do you order, how do you produce, and how do you make the decision to put the product on the market or not?” She now understands when approaching companies to ask, “What kind of an impact will the results of this study have in our daily practices?” When beginning a research project, Antonson now asks, “What is the claim? What is the new product or new technology promising? What makes it better?” Here is where the discoveries start to surface. “We test their claims, and the questions are: Are they effec- tive? Are they durable? What are the effects long-term? How can we make them better?” she said. Looking at products from multiple perspectives as a researcher, a clinician, and as someone who has been involved on the business side of dental products also affects her teaching and what she hopes her students will use in their research. “It has totally changed the way I teach,” Antonson admitted. “Knowing the background of a product, what to ask, and what to question has made me a healthy skeptic, for sure.” u FAST FACTS SIBEL ANTONSON, D.D.S., PH.D., M.B.A. Hometown Ankara, Turkey Education M.B.A. (entrepreneurship concentration), NSU H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship (2007) Ph.D. (prosthodontics with dental biomaterials concentration), University of Hacettepe College of Dentistry, Ankara, Turkey (1999) D.D.S., University of Hacettepe College of Dentistry (1992) Professional NSU CDM Department of Cariology and Restorative Dentistry (professor) Personal married to Donald E. Antonson son, Aaron, a sophomore at the University of Miami Business School and a graduate of NSU University School Hobbies enjoys experimental cooking continued from page 38