PITT PROFESSOR NAMED NATIONAL DENTAL POLICY SCHOLAR Will promote cooperative programs for medical and oral health

PITTSBURGH, April 4 -- Three prominent dental associations have named University of Pittsburgh researcher Paul A. Moore their Harald Löe Scholar for 2000.

Moore, a professor of dental public health at Pitt's School of Dental Medicine, will use the scholarship to explore ways to promote collaborative clinical and epidemiological studies in medicine and oral health.

"The high correlation between heart disease and gum disease is just one example of why more study is needed on the relationship between oral health and other medical problems," said Moore. "We don't know if there is a cause-and-effect relationship between them, or whether there is a common cause to each. There is a lot of data available from other medical research programs, and sharing that information with dental and medical researchers could provide insight into the nature of these diseases."

In addition to assessing common biomedical mechanisms between medical and oral diseases, Moore said he hopes greater collaboration will help determine risk factors for oral health promotion strategies and outline the role of oral health care in the management of medical diseases.

Moore will spend three months at the professional associations that sponsor the Löe Program: the American Association of Dental Schools (AADS), the International/American Association of Dental Research (IADR), and the National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) in Washington, D.C. The program, sponsored by Proctor & Gamble, is designed to immerse the scholar in national policy and administrative issues on dental education, research, and industry.

Program coordinator Patricia J. Reynolds called the program "a unique opportunity for a dental educator or researcher to concentrate on issues of national importance affecting health care policy, and, in particular, oral health."

After graduating from dental school, Moore, of Jefferson Hills, Pa., earned his Ph.D. in pharmacology and his master's of public health degree from Pitt's Graduate School of Public Health. His research has been in the area of clinical drug trials of analgesics and anesthetics, as well as the safety of pediatric and adult sedation in dentistry. Most recently, Moore has been investigating oral health complications commonly seen in patients with Type 1 diabetes.

Moore was honored at the IADR's General Session on Wednesday,

April 5, in Washington, D.C.

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