Lasting Impressions | Winter 2014

was going on in the grocery lines and in the theater lines. He was, and still is, an inspiration for me.” Terry’s mission to help the underserved is a steadfast com- mitment in the Health Professions Divisions and is also a corner- stone of NSU’s College of Dental Medicine. When the dental col- lege was founded, its goal was not only to educate future prac- ticing and research-oriented dentists, but to offer free or low- cost service to area residents who could not afford dental care. At the time, Melnick told the Sun-Sentinel : “I don’t know if we will make a huge dent in that, but we will have our students work- ing in campus clinics and com- munity clinics.” The College of Dental Medi- cine has made more than “a dent”; it has created an impact in South Florida in helping the underserved. Niessen, whose aca- demic specialties are in public health and geriatric dentistry, believes training future doctors to work with special needs patients is crucial in developing the 21st-century practitioner. “We have a federal grant right now to research and work with treating children with autism,’’ Niessen said. “What we are work- ing on is compiling some of the best practices and how to provide care to children and even adults with autism.” Keeping the inter- disciplinary focus that Nova Southeastern University so stead- fastly encourages is instrumental in using the College of Dental Medicine’s autism grant, since it works so closely with the univer- sity’s Mailman Segal Center for Human Development. “The College of Dental Medi- cine has a special commitment to educate students and residents to provide culturally sensitive care to the underserved and special needs populations. Our educational program includes rotations to community facilities, with faculty members who have expertise in caring for these unique populations,” said Niessen. Technology is also an area where the College of Dental Medicine is helping to graduate clinicians trained for the rapidly expanding and demanding future of dentistry. “We teach students how to become contemporary dentists,” said Robert Uchin, D.D.S., a Broward County endodontist, who was dean of the dental col- lege from 2001 until 2013. When Uchin took over the helm, there were 520 students in the college’s graduate and postgraduate pro- grams, just four years after the school began. A MEDICAL SCIENCE “Dentistry has gone from being a remove-and-replace profession to a prevent-and-retain profession. We have become much more of a medical science than a mechan- ical service. Our undergraduate students are learning stem cell replacement and implantology and are gaining a totally different understanding of anatomy be- cause of the changes in diagnos- ing,” said Uchin, who is now a professor in the College of Dental Medicine. The concept for NSU’s Academical Village is a planned community of scholars, professionals, and students. 14 x LASTING IMPRESSIONS