SAA Quart Meet 10202011

SAA Quarterly Meeting, October 20, 2011

Subject::Revolutionizing Dentistry: NBS/NIST's Partnership with the American Dental Association

Speaker: Dr. Clifton Carey,Director of Independent Research and Grants Administration at the ADA Foundation's Paffenbarger Research Center

The Paffenbarger Research Center (PRC), previously known as the American Dental Association Health Foundation Research Unit, has a distinguished 83-year history, which began as a collaborative effort between the ADA and the National Bureau of Standards to develop purchasing specifications for dental materials used by the U.S. War Department (now the Department of Defense). This collaboration became the birthplace for dental standards including the ADA Seal of Acceptance. The research that provided the science behind the standards also led to many insights on materials, procedures and therapies used in the dental profession. These insights led to improvements that revolutionized the daily practice of dentistry and continue to have an unparalleled impact in the improvement in oral care.

The dental standards movement continues today through the collaboration between NIST and the PRC under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA). PRC is a leading example of NIST's goal to include private organizations in research of mutual interest. A historical perspective of the ADA/NIST collaboration in standards development, the impact of those standards and what 83 years of research does today will be highlighted in this presentation. A lab tour will be available after lunch.

Dr. Clifton M. Carey is the Director of Independent Research and Grants Administration at the Paffenbarger Research Center, and a lecturer at Johns Hopkins University. He holds a BA from St. Andrews Presbyterian College, Laurinburg, NC, an MS from East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, and a PhD from American University, Washington, DC. He has been employed by the ADA Foundation Paffenbarger Research Center since 1980.

Dr. Carey divides his time between administration, research, and standards development. He strives to get needed resources to the scientists so that they can do what they were hired to do. But in addition to being an administrator, he carries out research, too. He is the principal investigator on two current NIH grants, studying how to increase the useable time of dental restorations, and why they fail. His philosophy is that to do research one has to be a complete optimist as 95 % of all experiments fail.

Part of Dr. Carey's time is devoted to developing standards. He is the U.S. expert in four ISO working groups (Dentifrice, Oral Rinses, Fluoride Releasing Varnishes and Denture Adhesives), and Vice chair of the ANSI for dental products. His philosophy is that science-based standards set the basis for improvement of products to the benefit of the users.

His research interests include dental erosion, de- and re-mineralization of teeth, calcium, phosphate, and fluoride chemistry—and the etiology of caries, with the goal of developing therapies to prevent them from occurring.

If you have teeth or know someone who does, don't miss Dr. Carey's talk. Not only will you hear about advances in dental care, you will undoubtedly come away with yet another reason to be proud to be affiliated with NIST.

The Schedule for October 20 is:

11 a.m.  Lecture Room F (Lower level, Bldg. 101)

Topic: Revolutionizing Dentistry: NBS/NIST's Partnership with the American Dental Association

Speaker: Dr. Clifton Carey,Director of Independent Research and Grants Administration at the ADA Foundation's Paffenbarger Research Center

12:15 p.m.       Lunch in the NIST Cafeteria

 1:15 p.m.        Meet in rear of the Cafeteria for lab tour