GSDM Research Project Takes Nathan Ng to ADA in San Francisco

Nathan A. Ng DMD 14 represented Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine in the ADA/DENTSPLY Student Clinician Research Program at the 2012 ADA Annual Session in San Francisco on Saturday, October 20, 2012.

Ng presented Coffee Consumption and Periodontal Disease in Men in the category Clinical Science/Public Health Research. Ng received the ADA/DENTSPLY Award for this poster at GSDM Science Day 2012. His mentors are Drs. Elizabeth Krall Kaye and Raul Garcia from the Department of Health Policy & Health Services Research.

Researchers examined 394 dentate, non-Hispanic white males in the VA Dental Longitudinal Study who attended three oral examinations between 1987 and 1998. The men recorded their average coffee intake and were divided based on if they drank less than or more than one cup of coffee per day.

Researchers found drinking more than one cup of coffee per day was associated with having fewer teeth with moderate-to-severe alveolar bone loss compared to those who drank less than or one cup per day. The same group also had fewer teeth with bleeding on probing.

Researchers concluded that caffeine may have anti-inflammatory effects and reduce periodontal bone loss in humans.

“On behalf of all the students, staff, and faculty at the Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine, I wish to congratulate Nathan Ng on representing GSDM so well at the ADA Annual Session,” said Dean Jeffrey W. Hutter. “I commend him for the quality of his research, which also serves as an example of the high caliber of research being conducted throughout GSDM.”