STOHN intern awarded 3rd place at the 2020 Community Engagement Symposium

The South Texas Oral Health Network (STOHN), a Dental Pratice-Based Research Network funded by the UT Health San Antonio's Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA), is pleased to announce that their intern Karla Garcia was awarded third place by The Institute for Integration Science and Medicine (IIMS) for her poster presentation titled “Silver Diamine Fluoride: A Suit of Armor for Children” at the 2020 Virtual Community Engagement (CE) Symposium held November 7, 2020. Karla is an intern for the STOHN/The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) internship program and a senior student at UTSA. Her poster presentation displayed the work of Rahma Mungia, BDS, MSc, DDPHRCS, associate professor in the Department of Periodontics and director of STOHN, Melanie Taverna, RDH, MSDH, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Periodontics and assistant director, and STOHN’s members’ perceptions of the use of silver diamine fluoride (SDF) as an alternative form of caries management in children. In this mixed-method study, it was found that this form of treatment was demonstrated to have strong support from dental practitioners. Among practitioners who have not used SDF prior to this study, they are now strongly considering adding it to their practices. The intent of the SDF study was to bring awareness and knowledge to practitioners and inform the community of a cost-effective solution that provides a less stressful dental experience for children. STOHN would also like to recognize UTSA interns Vivian Hernandez and Kaela Maldonado for their poster presentations at the CE symposium on the topics of vaping and probiotics for oral health, respectively. Their poster presentations highlighted the importance of dental practitioner and community interaction. Interaction encourages practitioners and patients to combat the epidemic of e-cigarette use among Texas’ young people and promote probiotics for oral health to their patients in the most effective way. The STOHN/UTSA internship program is vital in providing public health students with research experience in developing, conducting, managing and reporting data. The collaboration of STOHN/UTSA with IIMS/CTSA and the CE Symposium supports the student learning experience with opportunities to present their work back to the communities.