Recent Posts
Recruiting future dentists
It's recruitment season, and faculty and alumni are on the road, encouraging students to apply to Texas A&M College of Dentistry. As part of what's called Texas Southern Swing Week, Texas universities last week hosted pre-health fairs for their undergraduates. Alicia Spence, director of recruitment and admissions at A&M Dentistry, traveled Feb. 17 to Texas A&M University's main campus in College Station and Feb. 18 to The University of Texas at Austin. She visited with more than 200 students.
Plemons named inaugural executive director of external affairs
Texas A&M College of Dentistry in Dallas recently named Dr. Jacqueline Plemons as the inaugural executive director of external affairs. In her role, Plemons, a longtime clinical professor and director of Stomatology, will identify and cultivate collaborative opportunities between the 120-year-old dental college and the broader community, including other institutions, businesses, community care organizations and practicing dentists across the state. She will ensure each opportunity aligns with the dental college’s mission to provide academic excellence, trailblazing research and community-centered care and service. Plemons will develop operational guidelines when reviewing affiliation agreements in support of the dental school’s programs.
College of Dentistry to receive more than $2.87 million to study TMD pain
Texas A&M College of Dentistry’s professor and head of biomedical sciences and his researchers will receive more than $2.87 million over the next five years to study temporomandibular disorders. Dr. John Neubert is A&M Dentistry’s principal investigator in the world’s most extensive collaborative study of patients with TMDs. TMDs are 30-plus painful conditions that affect the jaw muscles, nerves and joints in the face. The $17 million Collaborative for REsearch to Advance TMD Evidence, nicknamed CREATE, project will collect data on patients’ chronic pain to identify ways to eventually manage TMDs more effectively.
AGD president and alum visits College of Dentistry
It was a welcome-home event for Dr. Marc J. Worob, president of the Academy of General Dentistry, when he visited Texas A&M College of Dentistry Feb. 12. Worob, a 1979 alumnus of what was then Baylor College of Dentistry, met with Dr. Lily T. Garcia, the dean, and students.
$40,000 granted to study orthodontic expanders
Dr. Shivam Mehta, clinical assistant professor and program director in orthodontics at Texas A&M College of Dentistry, recently received a $40,000 grant to study jaw expander types and techniques in teens and young adults undergoing orthodontic treatment. The American Association of Orthodontists Foundation grant will enable Mehta to evaluate two standard mini-screw-assisted rapid palatal expander protocols for reshaping narrow jaws to determine which treatment design is most effective. Studying patients ages 15 to 25 in both A&M Dentistry’s clinic and in private practices in Dallas-Fort Worth, he will research bone-anchored MARPE against hybrid MARPE that anchor expanders to bone and teeth.
Scholarships and more for dental hygiene student
Second-year dental hygiene student Megan Fletcher at Texas A&M College of Dentistry has multiple reasons to smile. She recently received scholarships and a travel grant, including the Brian & Jerri Schooley Dental Scholarship for academic achievement and extracurricular activities, the George & Barbara Bush Foundation Undergraduate Travel Grant, the Carolyn Ware Bartlett Dental Hygiene Scholarship and the Texas A&M University College of Dentistry Scholarship.
College of Dentistry now validates patient parking passes at the main clinic
Effective immediately, Texas A&M College of Dentistry in Dallas now validates parking tickets at the clinic education building at 3000 Gaston Ave., east of downtown Dallas. Validation is provided at checkout at the end of each patient’s appointment. “To show our appreciation for choosing the dental college for oral health care, we provide patients with one validation parking pass per day,” said Dr. Jennifer J. Barrington, associate dean of clinical affairs. “Validation is reserved for patients only.” Information about parking is available at Directions and Parking.
College of Dentistry accepting applications for BIBS summer research program
Planning a career in dentistry, Christine Tran searched for a research program at a dental college to fill the summer lull between her junior and senior years while a student at the University of Houston in 2024. She wanted to learn ways dentistry impacts the broader health care system. “With a growing interest in dentistry, I was eager to find a program where I could contribute to oral health research that translates into tangible progress for the field,” she said. “I felt a strong inclination to look into research that could give back to (low-income) populations.” Tran found that in the Biomedical Informatics and Behavioral Sciences Summer Research Program at Texas A&M College of Dentistry in Dallas. She’s now a first-year dental student at A&M Dentistry, in part, thanks to what she learned at the nine-week program nicknamed BIBS.
Student tour cements dental dreams for educator
Texas A&M College of Dentistry's mission is to educate those pursuing dental, dental hygiene, graduate and dental specialty degrees and serve the community by providing quality oral health care. Sometimes there's someone in the community who so inspires us that we are compelled to share. Simone Chandler, a teacher at Young Women's STEAM Academy at Balch Springs in the Dallas Independent School District, toured A&M Dentistry when she was in eighth grade, and knew she wanted to become a dentist. "It's science, and it's art," she shared in an interview published yesterday by the DISD. "I get to make people happy and bring them out of discomfort. It's my ultimate STEM dream."
Tahmasbi receives 40 Under 40 nod from Incisal Edge
Better reading of dental radiographic images leads to healthier patients, according to Dr. Mehrnaz Tahmasbi, clinical associate professor and radiology predoctoral program director at Texas A&M University College of Dentistry in Dallas. She’s working to ensure tomorrow’s dentists see ailments more clearly. A&M Dentistry’s dental students, like many of their counterparts worldwide, traditionally learn about head and neck anatomy primarily using two-dimensional images. A&M Dentistry’s fourth-year students also have the privilege to observe cone beam computed tomography three-dimensional imaging during their clinical rotations, and Tahmasbi is working to add formal CBCT education to the predoctoral curriculum. “I want to enhance students’ understanding of three-dimensional anatomy and imaging concepts relevant to procedures such as implant placement, endodontic surgery and extractions,” said Tahmasbi, a dentist and maxillofacial radiologist, of the CBCT technology now used in many dental practices. Her teaching endeavors, work at A&M Dentistry’s Imaging Center and research in diagnostic sciences, as well as her dental imaging reading services for BeamReaders, were recognized by editors and peers when she was named to Incisal Edge magazine’s 2025 Top 40 Under 40 dental specialists.
2018 dental grad honored with young alumnus award
Texas A&M College of Dentistry in Dallas recently named Dr. Heather Koroma the 2025 Texas A&M University College of Dentistry Outstanding Young Alumnus Award recipient. The award celebrates alumni who are 10 years or less out of dental college and making an impact on the profession, the community and A&M Dentistry. Koroma, a 2018 dental alumna practicing in Lake Charles, Louisiana, works as a certified correctional health professional and a National Commission on Correctional Health Care surveyor, where she helps uphold and advance standards in correctional health care. Koroma said she’s driven by a sense of purpose and responsibility.
College of Dentistry professor’s skull research shared on History Channel’s ‘Ancient Aliens’
Dr. Qian Wang, professor in biomedical sciences at Texas A&M College of Dentistry, is featured on the 22nd season premiere of History Channel’s popular Ancient Aliens series, now streaming on various platforms. “Skulls of the Gods” showcases the phenomena of artificial cranial deformations found worldwide.