Probe 2022: Issue #4

probe DECEMBER

UDSS

a final farewell from your media reps

Welcome to the final instalment of Probe for 2022! It has been our absolute honour being trusted with the media duties for UDSS this year, and we're incredibly grateful for your ongoing engagement with our content! We hope you noticed our revamped Instagram theme, short-form videos and theposterdesigngraphics!

Please join us in reminiscing and enjoying the memorable moments documentedhereastheyeardrawstoa close. We're also so excited to be handing over to two extremely capable Media reps for 2023: Jewel Ajimon and Kavindi Thilakarathne! Can't wait to seewhattheycanproduce!

Yourmediarepssigningout, Peter & Sarah

SARAH PHANG PETER NGUYEN

this issue'scover artists

Season's greetings! It's one last surprise from Edmund Wong and Pauline Wong who are proud to present their collaborative efforts on this issue's cover, "Slay the Decay"!

This time, the Dental Defender and his companion, Pikstie, set off to "slay the Decay"!

The Dental Defender and Pikstie are by Edmund, while the Decay and teeth are by Pauline (Edmund had the initial idea for the scenario but could not come up with a design for the Decay, so he asked Pauline to do it). Please enjoy this latest issue of Probe as we recap our final events of 2022. We wish you all the best for the future, and remember to "Slay the Decay"!

Edmund and Pauline, signing off for the last time in 2022!

president's farewell

What a year it has been! And celebrated well at the UDSS Dental Dinner held at the Westin on the 3rd of December. A huge congratulations to the Class of 2022 on their accomplishments, especially given the challenges COVID-19 has thrown them over the last three years. I wish you all the best of luck for next year as you become real dentists.

Thomas Mahoney

For those who are still yet to escape the confines of OHCWA, I hope that you all enjoy your holidays and come back refreshed and ready to tackle another big year filled with lots of UDSS events.

Edmund Wong & Pauline Wong

lovely address by Professor Ngo and an honorary address by Winthrop Professor Abbott for the last time at the dental dinner before his retirement next year. We also heard from the three musketeers of the 2022 cohort, Ethan, Bede and Ebony, who reflected on the cohort’s four years of dental school and thanked everyone on behalf of the cohort.

Three raffle prizes were donated by a few of our generous sponsors. Here were our lucky winners!

Envision Medical ($500 Amazon gift card and the Atlas of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology) – Bede van Schaijik, DMD4 Allwest Uniforms (personalised tunic) – Rachael Wu, DMD4 Byron Medical (4x or 5x magnification loupes) – Ethan Lloyd, DMD4

The traditional DMD4 end-of-year video, directed and edited by Yasmine Mishani, also had its premiere and was a big hit amongst the staff and students. Huge shout out to Yasmine for all her hard work!

A big thank you to our DJ Bad Habits (Chantelle D’Souza), Flowers of Leeming for the stunning floral arrangements, Tristen Kow and Darren Wong for the photography, and to Thomas Le for the ever-popular photobooth.

Thank you also to Peter Nguyen for helping us with all our media and to the staff at Westin for helping us put the event together!

We hope everyone had an amazing night and enjoy the summer break!

Yours truly, Lady Whistledown (aka Sarah Boon and Anh Nguyen)

awards

The ball was also an opportunity to present a few awards to recognise the efforts of the supporting staff of the dental school.

• Best Clinical Tutor – Dr Emma Perry

• Best Specialist Tutor – Dr Sheema Pham

• Best Dental Clinical Assistant – Jenny Zhao

• Best Laboratory Technician – Shaun Brown

This year, the UDSS Honorary Life Membership was presented to Dr Khodayar Yeganegi. Dr Khody is the sole tutor in charge of Bunbury OHCWA. All the DMD4s who spend time at the Bunbury clinic try their best to soak up all his wisdom and always have a blast with him and the lovely nurses!

Dr Khodayar Yeganegi

Jenny Zhao

Shaun Brown

Dr Sheema Pham

photobooth

decor atmosphere

research report

International Association for Dental Research Australia & New Zealand (IADR ANZ)

61st scientific meeting

Congratulations to Scott Santarossa on winning 1st place at the IADR Colgate Awards. I’ve asked Scott to describe his experience: “Each year, one member of the winning research group from UWA Dental School Research Day goes to compete in the Colgate poster competition at the IADR ANZ conference – this year it was in Melbourne. I was lucky to represent UWA talking about the research done by my group (including myself, Anooshree Katwe, Associate Professors Agnieszka Frydrych & Omar Kujan) into dental anxiety within the Australian Deaf community, a topic close to my heart. We surveyed and interviewed Deaf people around Australia about their dental anxiety and experiences at the dentist, and surveyed dental students on their knowledge about the Deaf community.

The poster competition involved presenting this research to three distinguished judges in a closed session. Later that evening, the prize was awarded at a function in the triceratops exhibition at Melbourne Museum. I was so excited to have won! The prize involves me travelling to Bogotá, Colombia, in June 2023 to compete in the Hatton Award Competition, which is similar to the poster presentation in Melbourne. I am very much looking forward to sharing this research around the world! We are waiting on approval from a journal for one of our manuscripts to be published, and we are just finalising our second manuscript to send off soon as well. Overall, it was a great experience and a fantastic incentive to work hard on research!”

Dr Alex Park (UWA senior lecturer) presented as part of the symposium “Metagenomics to medication: antibiotics in dental practice”. His special topic was “Australian dental students’ pharmacotherapeutics knowledge in antibiotic prophylaxis and a bit more…”

I (Pauline Wong), with Shane Soo, Edmund Wong and supervisor Dr Victor Matsubara did a research project titled “Synthesis of antimicrobial hydrogels for the management of periodontal diseases”. Our abstract was selected, and I presented our research as one of the rapid oral presentations at the IADR conference.

Pauline Wong, Research Rep

Dr Alex Park & colleagues

Anooshree Katwe

Pauline Wong

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UWA Postgraduate Students Association research week

Research from all UWA disciplines (including business, humanities, design, botany, agriculture, economics, engineering, computer science, physics, Ocean Graduate School, and biomedical sciences) was brought together as a series of oral presentations or posters. Anooshree Katwe did a poster presentation on her research project (as described above by co-author Scott Santarossa), titled “Dental anxiety in the Australian signing Deaf community”.

Congratulations Shane Soo on presenting our research and winning best oral (10-minute) presentation in the biomedical sciences session!

Students in Health and Medical Research Conference

I won best 3-minute oral presentation at SHMRC this year. This conference was open to all health and medical students across Western Australia, again as a series of oral and poster presentations.

Australian Society of Endodontology

essay competition

My essay was selected as the finalist to represent UWA. Results of the competition are pending. The competition is open to dentistry students in their final 2 years of study at an Australian, New Zealand or Fijian university. The topic this year was "Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) has experienced rapid adoption within dentistry. Discuss the use of CBCT in contemporary endodontics”.

Congratulations also to the following students who have their research published

Seerat Aneja, Michael Kassar, Ryan Leung, Anh Nguyen and Susan Tran: “Silver-loaded mesoporous silica nanoparticles enhanced the mechanical and antimicrobial properties of 3D printed denture base resin” –Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials Chandrama Banerjee and Khadija Mansoor: “Factors influencing the cariogenic potential of oral nutritional supplements indicated for use inadultswithoratriskofmalnutrition” – Special Care in Dentistry

Annabelle Wellham, Claire Kim and Selina Kwok: “Sleep-disordered breathing in children seeking orthodontic care – an Australian perspective” – Australian Dental Journal

Pauline Wong, Research

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yearthe review in

March

May

Grad Day

Hello class of 2022! First off, I would like to congratulate all of you for your outstanding efforts throughout these past 4 years together. It has been super fun being in such a tight-knit cohort and I for sure have many memories to look back on.

Graduation day weather had us all sweating heaps but was it worth it after all the blood, sweat and tears I’m sure all of us have been through! :D Some of you have already started working, but I wish everyone a relaxing Christmas and New Year’s break at least. And for those who have returned home whether it be far or near, I hope we will cross paths again soon!!

Sarah Phang

sponsors

Thanks to our 2022 talk to udss!

UDSS - University Dental Students' Society @udssuwa

UWA Dental Student's Society (UDSS) udss.media.officer@gmail.com http://www.udss.online

University Dental Students' Society 17 Monash Ave Nedlands, Western Australia

All photo credits to their respective owners.