{"id":146216,"date":"2019-02-19T09:13:02","date_gmt":"2019-02-19T14:13:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?post_type=school-college-post&p=146216"},"modified":"2019-02-19T09:41:21","modified_gmt":"2019-02-19T14:41:21","slug":"honors-uconn-yankee-dental-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2019\/02\/honors-uconn-yankee-dental-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"Honors for UConn at Yankee Dental Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine being a young dentist and having a patient say this about you:<\/p>\n

\u201cHis consideration and real concern of every detail \u2013 down to the graduated color of the crowns, his respect for the resident oral surgeon who placed the posts, and the creators of the crowns \u2013 illustrates his professionalism beautifully.\u201d<\/p>\n

Except this patient is talking not about a dentist, but about a student \u2013 Basem Gayed, member of the UConn School of Dental Medicine Class of 2019, who had assisted with the placement of two new implants.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Basem Gayed, UConn School of Dental Medicine Class of 2019 (Photo by Janine Gelineau)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHis love of learning is evident in the great deference he shows to the faculty who have guided him,\u201d the patient\u2019s letter went on to say. \u201cHe has every reason to take pride in his work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The American College of Dentists has a similar point of view, presenting Gayed with its Outstanding Student Leader award at the 2019 Yankee Dental Congress in Boston. It\u2019s one of the highest student honors a dental student can earn.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasem was representative of the ACOD principles of high achievement, strong leadership, and high ethical standards,\u201d says Dr. Sarita Arteaga<\/a>, UConn School of Dental Medicine associate dean for students. \u201cThat letter from the patient is an example of why he was chosen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gayed\u2019s family emigrated from native Egypt during his childhood. He took a liking to science and majored in biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Massachusetts, where he made the dean\u2019s list every semester. But the path to dentistry had yet to reveal itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecoming a dentist was never on Basem\u2019s radar until he had a dental emergency at the age of 18, which required him to see a dentist for the first time,\u201d says Dr. Sharon Gordon, dean of the UConn School of Dental Medicine. \u201cBasem\u2019s first experience at the dentist was the spark that led him to pursue dentistry as a profession.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gayed, who\u2019s been class president since his first year, is preparing for his next chapter: residency training in pediatric dentistry with the Children\u2019s National Health System in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasem and all three of his brothers all came to this country and each is on a professional trajectory,\u201d Gordon says. \u201cIt really is the American dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional Accolade<\/h3>\n

UConn dental students also brought home honors as winners of the American Student Dental Association District 1 Dental School Challenge, earning UConn\u2019s ASDA chapter a $1,000 prize.<\/p>\n

\"First-year
From left: First-year UConn dental students Jay Kim, Alex McKenna, Sara Feltz and Kathryn Forth attended the Yankee Dental Conference in Boston Feb. 2. (Photo provided by Dr. Sharon Gordon)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt involved a scavenger hunt at the Yankee Dental Congress, as well as a picture contest,\u201d says student Alex McKenna.<\/p>\n

McKenna also paired up with classmate Jay Kim to take part in a debate with Tufts University counterparts over licensure exams. They argued in favor of post-graduate-year residencies, known also as \u201cPGY-1,\u201d as an optional pathway toward obtaining an initial dental license.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur primary argument in favor of the PGY-1 was that our current patient-based exam raises ethical concerns, particularly with respect to the process of finding a patient who would fulfill the criteria for the procedures being evaluated,\u201d McKenna says.<\/p>\n

The students knew the topic in advance, but did not learn which side they would have to argue until the debate started.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of our argument was, if implemented effectively, it can prove to be a great opportunity to give back to the community by improving access to care,\u201d Kim says. \u201cPlus, practitioners can further develop their clinical competencies while having the opportunity to incorporate new technologies and research into their practice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Debate team success, plus, who took home one of the most prestigious student awards?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":146207,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2166],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2010],"class_list":["post-146216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sdm"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 07:24:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146216"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146256,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146216\/revisions\/146256"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/146207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146216"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=146216"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=146216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}