School of Dentistry

Established as the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery in 1840, the School of Dentistry is the world's first dental college. The school is an exciting place to be, an institution with a unique history and tradition that honors our profession yet eagerly embraces the future.

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Man-Kyo Chung, DMD, PhD

Pain and Neuroscience

Pain

Dr. Chung received his DMD and PhD degrees from Kyung Hee University in Seoul, South Korea. After completing postdoctoral training at Johns Hopkins University, he joined the School of Dentistry in 2008. Since then, he has studied the neurobiological mechanisms of craniofacial muscle and neuropathic pain focused on the roles of trigeminal nociceptive afferents. Dr. Chung is an expert in the electrophysiological, biophysical, and genetic analysis of nociceptors and nociceptive ion channels including transient receptor potential vanilloid 1, a receptor for capsaicin. He studies the molecular mechanisms of how the capsaicin receptor produces and alleviates craniofacial pain. Dr. Chung also is interested in how pain-sensing nerves modulate the remodeling of bone surrounding teeth. His research has been supported by federal, state, and industry entities. In particular, the innovation and merit of his projects was recognized by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), and Dr. Chung received an NIDCR Award for Sustaining Outstanding Achievement in Research. Through his role as co-director of the Center to Advance Chronic Pain Research, he works to promote multidisciplinary research and education about chronic pain.

Vineet Dhar, BDS, MDS, PhD

Pediatric Dentistry

Early Childhood Caries, Nutrition

Equity in Access to Dentistry for Children

Dr. Dhar is a board-certified pediatric dentist who serves on the councils on Scientific Affairs and Post-Doctoral Education at the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) and the Council of Scientific Affairs of the American Dental Association (ADA). He also serves on the ADA guideline panels on restorative care and caries prevention and has served on the pit and fissure sealants panel. He is on the AAPD guideline panel on vital pulp therapies in primary and immature permanent teeth and behavior guidance and has served on the AAPD panel to produce clinical practice guidelines on non-vital pulp and vital pulp therapies in primary teeth. He received the 2018 ADA Evidence Based Dentistry Mid-Career Faculty Award and the 2017 AAPD Jerome B. Miller/Crest-Oral-B/For The Kids Award. He also co-authored manuscripts that received the AAPD Paul Taylor Award in 2016, 2017, and 2020. Dr. Dhar has been involved in multiple research projects and has directed thesis work for master's degree candidates as an advisor or co-advisor.

Robert K. Ernst, PhD

Bacterial and Fungal Pathogens

Sepsis

The Ernst laboratory been at the forefront of innovative research studying the molecular basis and adaptive significance of modifications to the structure of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Its focus is on the elucidation of the molecular basis by which Gram-negative bacteria modify the lipid A component of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and how these alterations affect or circumvent normal host innate immune system responses. LPS is the major surface molecule and pathogenic factor of Gram-negative bacteria. Host immune detection of LPS is extremely sensitive -- such that bloodstream infections can cause a severe complication called endotoxic shock, a major clinical problem leading to about 200,000 deaths in the United States per year. The lab also developed a practical method, bacterial enzymatic combinatorial chemistry (BECC) that can be used to engineer functionally diverse lipid A molecules for use as vaccine adjuvant. This project is supported through a $6.2M NIH NIAID contract to bring one of our BECC molecules to pre-investigational drug status. The work is important given the urgent need for new and more effective vaccines against infectious diseases worldwide. Finally, the Ernst laboratory focuses on the development of new antimicrobials that enhance innate immunity or inhibit bacterial resistance and the establishment of a clinical diagnostic platform for the rapid identification of bacterial and fungal pathogens directly from complex biological fluids. Our diagnostic work led to the establishment in 2016 of Pataigin LLC, which is developing a low-cost, rapid identification platform (BACLIB) that can identify a wide range of bacteria and fungi directly from clinically relevant samples, including blood and urine. In total, since moving his lab from the University of Washington in 2008, he has received more than $20 million in research funding. This work has resulted in over 190 peer-reviewed manuscripts with 17,000 citations. In recognition of his work, Dr. Ernst was named UMB’s 2017 Founders Week Researcher of the Year, as well as UMB’s 2019 Founders Week Entrepreneur of the Year. He was the recipient 2017 UMB Researcher of the Year, 2018 Dr. Mark E. Shirtliff PhD Student Mentor Award (UMB Graduate Program) winner, and 2019 UMB Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2020, he was awarded the inaugural Dr. Paul and Mrs. Jean Corcoran Professorship, and, in 2021, he earned a University System of Maryland Board of Regents Faculty Award for Excellence in Research, the highest honor presented by the board to exemplary faculty members. Additionally, in 2014, he won the Maryland-John Hopkins Alliance Ventures award for his lipid-based bacterial diagnostic platform and 2016 he again won the Maryland-John Hopkins Alliance Ventures award for his anti-sepsis therapeutic platform and Pataigin won the Maryland Department of Commerce Life at the same competition for their advancements in the development of a lipid-based microbial diagnostic platform.

Eleanor Fleming, DDS, PhD, MPH, FICD

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

Dr. Eleanor Fleming, PhD, DDS, MPH, FICD, is a Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Public Health. She earned her dental degree from Meharry Medical College, completed her dental public health residency at Boston University, and earned her PhD from Vanderbilt University. She completed additional post-graduate training as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer where she investigated disease outbreaks and conducted studies to promote health equity. Over the course of her career, she has developed subject matter expertise on infectious and chronic disease epidemiology, and previously served as the dental epidemiologist overseeing the Oral Health Component of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. She has been the principal investigator on a number of studies and has informed public health surveillance at state, national, and international levels. She holds leadership positions in the American Association of Public Health Dentistry and the American Public Health Association, where she completed a term on the APHA Science Board; she was also actively involved in the National Dental Association serving on its Coronavirus Task Force. Dr. Fleming currently serves as ex-officio member of the UMB Diversity Advisory Council.

David L. George, DDS, MBA, MS, FAGD

Business Ventures - Institutional Planning

Dr. George earned his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from the Medical College of Virginia in 1988, a certificate in advanced general dentistry from the University of Maryland School of Dentistry in 1989, and a fellowship certificate from the Academy of General Dentistry in 2000. He also earned a Master of Business Administration with concentrations in finance and management consulting from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park in 2002, and a Master of Science in data analytics from University of Maryland University College in 2017.

Richard J. Manski, DDS, MBA, PhD

Socioeconomic Inequities in Health Care

Dental Public Health - Medicare, Elderly

Dr. Manski manages and provides oversight for a team of faculty, staff, educators, and researchers at the School of Dentistry. His disciplines of interest and areas of responsibility include public health, research methods, statistics, education, practice management, the school’s externship program, and the Samuel D. Harris National Museum of Dentistry (NMD). Dr. Manski also manages a multi-institutional and multidisciplinary team of researchers that studies the effects of dental utilization patterns associated with changes in dental coverage and changes in retirement status among older Americans. As executive director of NMD, Dr. Manski is responsible for all operations of the museum, a Smithsonian Affiliate organization that has one of the most comprehensive dental collections in the world; is the national collection for the social, cultural, economic, scientific, and technological history of dentistry; and represents the origins and development of dentistry in the United States and beyond. The museum received congressional designation as the official U.S. museum of the dental profession in 2003. Dr. Manski also serves as a senior scholar for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) within the Department of Health and Human Services. As a senior scholar, he provides advice to AHRQ staff on the editing and imputation of Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data related to use, source, expenditures, and health insurance benefits for oral health care. He also provides technical assistance and advice to the oral health community on issues related to dental policy, expenditures, dental benefit, and dental utilization data.

Radi Masri, DDS, MS, PhD

Prosthodontics

Oral Health Technologies

Advanced Education - Prosthodontics

Dr. Masri received his first dental degree from the University of Jordan Dental School in 1997 and completed a prosthodontic residency at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry in 2001. He also holds a master's degree in oral biology and a PhD in biomedical sciences/pain. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Prosthodontics, a fellow of the American College of Prosthodontists, and a member of the American Academy of Fixed Prosthodontics. In addition to expertise in fixed, removable, and implant dentistry, Dr. Masri is a dedicated academician and researcher. He is a professor at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry and University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Masri lectures nationally and internationally and serves as an external examiner for international dental schools in the field of prosthodontics. He is the editor in chief of the Journal of Prosthodontics, a past president of the American Board of Prosthodontics, and a past president of the American Academy of Fixed Prosthodontics. Dr. Masri currently supervises a federally funded research laboratory that studies the etiology and treatment of chronic pain.

Valli Meeks, DDS, MS, RDH

Oral Health - HIV AIDS

Community Engagement - Oral Health or Education

UMB’s 2018 Public Servant of the Year, Dr. Meeks is director of the School of Dentistry’s PLUS Clinic, which focuses on treating people who are living with HIV disease and in need of oral health services. Halfway around the world, Dr. Meeks supports a second vulnerable population by collaborating in an effort that formed the first school of dentistry in Rwanda. She also has taught at, helped form the curriculum, and assisted an orphanage in becoming a dental education outreach center. Additionally, Dr. Meeks works with students in Baltimore to donate dental equipment that she delivers to Rwanda. The project involves teaming with two Rwanda nonprofits, the Urukundo Learning Center (ULC) and the Rwanda Village Concept Project (RVCP). ULC began as an orphanage for children displaced by the genocide of 1994 and now serves as a primary and secondary school for children in the area. RVCP is an organization run by the students at the University of Rwanda College of Medicine and Health Sciences that works to advance the health of Rwandans living in rural areas.

Mark A. Reynolds, DDS, PhD, MA

Dentistry

Dental Education

Dental Health Equity

A distinguished academic dentist, Dr. Reynolds has been a professor at the School of Dentistry (SOD) since 2009 and served for one year as interim dean before being named dean in 2014 after a national search. He has published nearly 200 peer-reviewed articles with more than 11,000 citations and serves on the editorial boards of journals including Biomaterials, Clinical Advances in Periodontics, the International Journal of Periodontics and Restorative Dentistry, and the Journal of Periodontal Research. Dr. Reynolds is a diplomate and past director and co-chair of the American Board of Periodontology. He has served on the board of organizations such as the American Academy of Periodontology and LifeNet Health. He is past president of the National Dental Honor Society, Omicron Kappa Upsilon, Supreme Chapter, and a fellow of the American College of Dentists, International College of Dentists, and Pierre Fauchard Academy. Dr. Reynolds has participated in more than 40 National Institutes of Health (NIH) study sections, serving as a regular member of the Skeletal Biology Development and Disease Study Section from 2006 to 2010. He was a consultant to the Commission on Dental Accreditation and Naval Postgraduate School and served two four-year terms as a voting member of the Food and Drug Administration’s Medical Devices Advisory Committee, Dental Products Panel, including as chair during the second term. He began his NIH funding in 1992, when he earned a competitive five-year NIH Individual Dentist Scientist Award to support his residency and PhD studies. His research focuses on bone and periodontal regeneration. In 2004 and 2016, Dr. Reynolds received the American Academy of Periodontology R. Earl Robinson Periodontal Regeneration Award. Most recently, he serves as co-chair of the Task Force on Oral Health in Maryland. In 1999, Dr. Reynolds earned his PhD in oral and experimental pathology from the University of Maryland Graduate School. In 1995, he earned a certificate in periodontics from SOD, where he had earned his DDS in 1986. Dr. Reynolds also earned a master’s degree in community-clinical psychology in 1982 and a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1978, both from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Gary Warburton, DDS, MD, FACS

Dental Implantology

Maxillofacial Trauma

surgical management of temporomandibular joint disease

Dr. Warburton earned his dental surgery and medical degrees at Manchester University in the United Kingdom and completed his training at the University of Maryland Medical Center and the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and the American Academy of Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgeons; and is a member of the American Association of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons, Maryland Society of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons, and American Society of Temporomandibular Joint Surgeons. He holds a faculty appointment at the University of Maryland Medical Center, and he is the chief of Maxillofacial Trauma at Sinai Hospital. Dr. Warburton's clinical interests include dental implantology, orthognathic surgery, maxillofacial trauma, and the surgical management of temporomandibular joint disease.