[Editor’s Note: This story ran as part of our Top Dentists package in the June 2022 issue. View all of the area’s Top Dentists, here.]

When title worker Jim McCormick took his 6-year-old son, Christopher, to get his first teeth cleaning, he never expected the procedure to save his life. The child was sitting on his lap, as is often recommended for a child’s first appointment, when local dentist Gary Barker stopped in his tracks.

“He looked at me and asked, ‘When was the last time that you went to see a dentist?’” McCormick says. “It had been like 15 years. I wasn’t keen on getting my teeth cleaned when I was younger.”

He wasn’t really keen on routine doctor visits either. In 1991, the then-37-year-old Pasadena dad and husband, who grew up without a dentist as a “military brat,” would smoke “a couple packs a day.” Otherwise, he was in decent shape. “I think I’d only had one headache my entire life,” he says. Still, Barker said McCormick was in rather dire need of a teeth cleaning, so in January 1992, McCormick came back—this time without Christopher in tow.

“Jim’s teeth had such bad calculus [plaque] accumulation, that the first thing that I did was clean his whole mouth,” Barker says, referring to a full mouth debridement, which is needed when plaque build-up or deposits on the teeth make it impossible to spot decay or gum disease. “His gums bled pretty heavily at first, which was something I expected.”

But when Barker called to check on him that evening, McCormick said his bleeding hadn’t stopped. When Barker found out that McCormick was still bleeding two days after the appointment, he sent him to an internist for several different blood tests—none of which could narrow down a diagnostic culprit. Within weeks, his doctors recommended that he see a cancer specialist at MedStar Harbor Hospital.

According to McCormick, “I walked into the room, and the doctor said, ‘There’s one thing I can tell you that I can’t tell the majority of my patients: You’re going to live. I think you have a thyroid problem.’”

Although very treatable, McCormick’s case was grave. Tests determined that a virus caused his thyroid to shut down almost completely, leaving him with insufficient means for blood to clot (hence the excess of oral bleeding.)

“I took a bleeding time test, where they give you a small cut using a razor blade to see how long it takes for you to clot. It’s supposed to take between two and three minutes. I was bleeding 30 minutes later,” he says. “They told me I was lucky to be alive. If I had been cut badly or had been in a car accident, I would have bled to death.”

Suffice it to say, if McCormick hadn’t gone to see Barker, he would not have known that he had this bleeding disorder until it was possibly too late. He thought he wouldn’t live to see his forties. But McCormick, now in his middle sixties, who still lives in Pasadena with his wife of 39 years, went on to see their only son grow up. He says Christopher, now married, learned a valuable lesson from his dad’s mistake: “He goes to see the dentist twice a year.”

So does his father. On top of ditching cigarettes for good, every six months, McCormick visits Dr. Barker’s office to “say ‘hi’ to everybody. And if there’s someone new on staff, I’ll tell them, ‘You’re working for a great guy. He saved my life.’ I probably wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him.”

DON’T FEAR THE DENTIST
Dentophobia (or fear of the dentist) is a real thing that should not be exacerbated by a concern that your practitioner is going to find some scary disease in your mouth. Such findings, while an important component of your overall health screenings, remain relatively rare, our experts assure us. So, how often should the average person go to see their dentist? In most cases, the recommended practice is every six months to a year for routine cleanings and exams—and as needed for procedures such as root canals and fillings. According to a 2020 study by the National Center for Health Statistics, 63 percent of American adults (and 85.9 percent of kids) had seen their dentist once within the last year. But what about the rest of us?

In addition to factors like staggering costs, “Fear does keep a lot of people away from the dentist,” admits Dr. George Shepley, president-elect of the American Dental Association (ADA). “But by ignoring things, they’re just going to get worse. It’s always best to practice prevention.”

Shepley says that routine dental hygiene checkups can be helpful when it comes to spotting things like gingivitis, a mild inflammation of the gums, or periodontal disease, an infection of the so tissue and bones that hold one’s teeth in place. Luckily, he says these issues tend to be quite treatable.

“Most of the time, when patients come in regularly, we see that their gums and their tissue start healing. They regain their health,” he says.

READ THE WARNING SIGNS
“But sometimes, we see patients who will still have inflammation when they start brushing and flossing. If they chronically don’t get better, we recommend they go see their physician for a physical and screening,” says Shepley. “We’re learning more and more about how inflammation affects the body systemically,” he adds, citing its correlations to conditions such as coronary artery disease, Alzheimer’s, and prostate cancer. It possibly correlates to rheumatoid arthritis as well, as research has shown that the same bacteria and inflammatory factors in gum disease can be found in the joints.

Shepley notes that inflammation, marked by swelling, irritation, bleeding, and redness in the areas where gums connect to teeth, is most prevalent in patients who show signs of diabetes. But even if you don’t have diabetes, “It’s not good for anything in terms of your health,” he says, adding, that in general, systemic inflammation “can cause heart vessels to weaken and the kidneys to become damaged.”

Another often-ignored symptom is pain. If left untreated too long, Shepley warns that even minor pain or irritation in the gums could mean infection.

“Infections are never good. In fact, serious infections in your mouth can often travel to the brain or lead to swelling in the throat, like with Ludwig’s angina, which some patients can die from,” he explains. Ludwig’s angina is a life-threatening cellulitis on the floor of the mouth that leads to difficulty swallowing.

Overall, he says the biggest indicator of infection—aside from excess warmth in local areas and symptoms of a fever—is bleeding gums, something many patients like McCormick tend to downplay.

“Some people think that when your gums bleed, it’s normal. Healthy gums should never bleed,” he stresses.

THE IMPORTANCE OF ROUTINE SCREENINGS
As far as preventable ailments that dentists can screen for, Shepley says that inflammation and bleeding are just the tip of the iceberg. “One condition I’ve been seeing in my patients all the time is sleep apnea,” he says. The disorder, which occurs when one’s breathing stops and starts throughout their sleep cycle, is dangerous, placing excess stressors on the heart.

Over the last decade, Shepley says that newer ways of spotting the condition have emerged. Symptoms he refers to as “The Holy Triad” include acid reflux—which is known to cause erosion of enamel on the molars—wheezing, snoring, and teeth grinding (which he lumps together), and narrowed airways, which are often signaled by an oddly placed or elevated tongue.

“When we become aware of those signals, we recommend that patients get checked out and undergo a sleep study,” Shepley says. However, for those facing more serious issues such as tumors, human papillomavirus (HPV), or oral cancers, key warning factors tend to be less obvious than snoring.

“Oral cancer is something very prevalent in dentistry. We’re often some of the first to diagnose it,” Shepley says of the disease, which can target lips, jaws, teeth, palates, cheeks, and several other regions near the mouth. Based on the most recent findings from The American Cancer Society, oral cancers are responsible for upward of 11,000 deaths and more than 50,000 new cases each year. According to the Oral Cancer Foundation, when left unaddressed, it poses the risk of metastasis, the spreading of a cancer from one organ to another, primarily in regions like the lymph nodes, brain, and lungs.

With cancer screenings, wherein dentists look for patches, sores, and bumps inside the mouth, Shepley says, “It’s better to be safe than sorry. I’m a big prevention guy, and oral health is crucial to your overall health. By going to the dentist regularly and practicing good preventive health dentistry, you’re going to feel empowered,” he says. “You’re going to feel better knowing that you’re doing what you can to take care of yourself.”

Baltimore-based dentist Dr. Neena Joshi echoes this, urging dental skeptics to forego the doomsday mindset when it comes to the upkeeping of their teeth and mouths.

“I’d tell any patients who are scared of the dentist, which is common, to just go for it,” she says. “It doesn’t have to be a scary visit. We can do a routine checkup, take an X-ray, check your gums, and take things one tooth at a time.”

Joshi stresses that there’s no shame in the process, and that it’s never too late to take care of one’s neglected oral hygiene.

“As clinicians, we don’t judge our patients by their oral health. We just do our part and hope they come to visit us more often.”

For his part, McCormick says he wishes that he’d learned these life-impacting lessons sooner.

“Things with my health could have been worse than what they were. After Dr. Barker cleaned my teeth, if that problem hadn’t surfaced, who knows where I would be today? Back then, I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

Thank goodness Dr. Barker was. “I’m glad that I was smart enough to follow up with Jim and say, ‘Uh-uh. This isn’t normal.’”

Here’s a question for you: For how long do you brush your teeth? The Academy of General Dentistry reports that the average person brushes for 45 to 70 seconds a day, though the recommendation is to brush for two minutes.

This is just one of many ways we tend to ignore our oral health. We keep our toothbrushes too long even though they are magnets for bacteria, and we’re pretty poor at flossing.

It’s no wonder the American Dental Hygienists’ Association says 78 percent of Americans have had at least one cavity by age 17, while 80 percent of the U.S. population has some form of periodontal gum disease.

Clearly, it is time to visit the dentist.

Luckily, we have compiled our annual list of some of the best dental practitioners in the Baltimore region, based on peer-to-peer nominations. If you need a little more incentive to return to the dentist’s chair, consider that your dentist can screen for everything from heart disease to cancer. Check out our feature story where we reveal the many ways a trip to the dentist might just save your life—or at the very least, give your smile a Zoom-worthy sparkle.

OUR ADVISER: DR. MORGAN BARKER HURWITZ

After earning a Bachelor of Science degree in biology in 2011 from the University of Maryland, College Park Honors Program, Hurwitz received her Doctorate of Dental Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry in 2015, graduating magna cum laude. From 2015 to 2016 she completed an Oral Surgery Internship at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she received hospital-based training at Ronald Reagan Medical Center and focused on impacted wisdom teeth and sedation.

Following her internship, she continued her specialty training, earning a certificate in periodontics and a Master of Science degree in Biomedical Sciences, both from the University of Maryland School of Dentistry in 2019. The following year, Hurwitz graduated from the Implant and Periodontal Prosthesis Fellowship at the University of Maryland, where she focused on dental implant prosthetics. Hurwitz became a Diplomate in periodontics in 2021, where she was board- certified by the American Board of Periodontology.

Hurwitz is a member of the American Academy of Periodontology and the American Dental Association. Dr. Hurwitz grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, where she currently resides with her husband, while practicing at Feldman, Slevin, Hurwitz & Choe, D.D.S., P.A. in Towson, Maryland.

MEET SOME OF THIS YEAR’S TOP DENTISTS

ROXANNE CLARKE

Pediatric Dentistry

DEVON CONKLIN

General Dentistry

DOV ELMAN

Endontist

EDWARD LAZER

General Dentistry

ASRA SALEEM

General Dentistry

MARSHALL STRICKLAND

General Dentistry

Browse the full list of this year’s Top Dentists, here. 

he phrase “the new normal” has been thrown around since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and as America struggles to define—and design—what that is exactly, colleges are paving the way for what it might look like.

After the chaos and uncertainty of 2020, colleges and universities throughout the Baltimore region began to find their groove as they moved into the 2021-2022 school year. Coronavirus safety committees had been erected, new mandates put in place, safety protocols implemented—everything from vaccine requirements to temperature checks to quarantine procedures and wastewater testing that can pinpoint a COVID infection before anyone is symptomatic.

By some counts, colleges may very well be the safest places to live and work.

“Just following simple rules of wearing face masks and social distancing, using wastewater management and testing when we need to, we have, in many ways, been able to return to normal life,” says Goucher College President Kent Devereaux. “Full athletics, student clubs, dining in the dining hall, use of the library—everything that you’d normally have, we’ve been able to return to.”

Despite the challenges and anxieties faced by students, staff, and faculty alike, some unexpected silver linings have emerged.

“It’s just incredible to watch how it’s grown into the vision that we, as a group of students, had.”

The widespread adoption of technology across college campuses has proven to provide more flexibility, efficiency, and innovation—and even accessibility, in some cases. Counseling sessions, for example, began to be conducted remotely during the pandemic and many students found that they preferred it to in-person sessions. Students who cannot, for whatever reason, make it to an in-person class can now study from anywhere.

Challenging times, combined with advances in technology and the general acceptance of it, have also brought more cooperation and collaboration among schools. It’s becoming more common, for example, for schools that offer complementary programs to partner with one another to offer students an educational pathway to continue studies in their chosen areas. That may mean a discounted tuition rate, a transfer of class credits, or an internship through a partner school.

Maybe most importantly though, schools, at their best, foster an environment where students are supported, expand who they are, and connect with like-minded people. At a time when gathering together is not always safe, being in a community has become even more precious, and students have found new ways to connect.

OCA Mocha, a coffeehouse in Arbutus founded by University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) students, is one example of how effective a gathering place can be at a time when people are craving human connection. What started as a class assignment—to design a community center of some sort—has become a gathering place not just for UMBC students and alumni, but the Arbutus community at large.

“We’ve heard a lot of stories from people who are extremely grateful to have this space,” says Michael Berardi, UMBC class of 2019 and co-founder and general manager of OCA Mocha, which stands for Opportunities for Community Alliances. The coffee shop includes a stage, a community room, and an art gallery, employs UMBC students and alumni, and provides internship opportunities for current UMBC students.

“We have local groups and organizations that meet regularly in our community space and are grateful to not have to meet in someone’s living room or church basement,” says Berardi. “We see a lot of connections being made. It’s just incredible to watch how it’s grown into the vision that we, as a group of students, had.”

We checked in with colleges and universities throughout the region to find out what’s new and what campus life and classes look like, two years into the pandemic.

COPPIN STATE UNIVERSITY
A historically Black institution founded in 1900, Coppin State University is situated in the heart of Baltimore City in the Mondawmin neighborhood. Part of the University System of Maryland in Baltimore, the school offers 32 undergraduate and 11 graduate degrees, along with nine certificate programs and one doctorate degree. It’s been rated No. 4 Best HBCU in the Nation (College Consensus), the Top 5 Best Value Online Program (Online School Center), and No. 17 Best Value in the Nation (College Consensus).

In the summer of 2021, CSU announced its Student Debt Relief Initiative, which clears roughly $1 million in student balances and provided a $1,200 credit to every student enrolled in the fall 2021 semester. CSU also created the Freddie Gray Student Success Scholarship, which is available to graduates of Carver Vocational-Technical High School, where Gray was a student.

Coppin also takes esports (competitive video gaming) seriously. In the fall of 2021, Coppin became the first HBCU to open a building on campus exclusively devoted to esports. The Premier Esports Lab opened in September with a guest appearance from Grammy-nominated artist Cordae.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 2,383 undergraduates, 341 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 13:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $6,809 in-state, $13,334 out-of-state
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 40%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Nursing, Business, Biology, Education, and Criminal Justice, Rehabilitation Counseling

DICKINSON COLLEGE
Founded in 1783, Dickinson College is a liberal arts college in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with a suburban campus that spans 144 acres. The school offers 41 undergraduate degrees within 17 fields of study.

It’s been rated as one of the best schools in the country for its sustainability efforts, which include an 80-acre, USDA-certified organic farm. Princeton Review rated it No. 2 in the Top 50 Green Colleges, and it was rated No. 2 in Overall Top Performers among baccalaureate institutions in the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s “Sustainable Campus Index” in 2019 and 2020.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 2,345
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 9:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $58,708
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 52%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: International Business, Economics, Political Science & Government, International Relations & National Security, General Psychology

GETTYSBURG COLLEGE
Gettysburg College, a private, liberal arts school, sits on 225 acres adjacent to the historical Gettysburg Battlefield in Pennsylvania. Many of the buildings on campus are historically significant, so it’s no wonder that it draws students interested in studying history.

The school offers 65 academic programs, more than 120 campus clubs and organizations, and 800 events on campus each year, plus more than 100 study-abroad opportunities open to students.

Its Majestic Theater serves as a venue for the greater Gettysburg community, hosting national acts as well as performances by the school’s Sunderman Conservatory of Music students.

It’s ranked No. 12 for “students who study the most” by the Princeton Review, which also ranked Gettysburg College’s dining hall No. 9 in the country for best campus food.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 2,600
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 10:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $59,960
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 56%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Political Science, Economics, Health Sciences, Organization and Management Studies, History, Psychology

GOUCHER COLLEGE
A private, liberal arts college in Towson, Goucher College prides itself on its close-knit community.

Goucher was extremely proactive when it came to COVID-19 precautions, being the first in the state to implement wastewater testing, which is able to isolate COVID infections by dorm.

Also of note: The college recently opened two new residence halls as part of the school’s First-Year Village. One hundred percent of Goucher students study abroad, and the school is committed to sustainability.

Most recently, Goucher has begun exciting partnerships with other schools, such as Johns Hopkins University, Loyola University, and more to come, to provide a pathway for students to continue their education beyond Goucher. For instance, their 4+1 MBA Program allows students to earn an advanced business degree through Loyola via a “Fast Track” admission process, and at a 15% discount on tuition.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 1,100
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 9:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $48,000
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 79%
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Psychology, International Relations, Economics, Political Science, Business Administration

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Johns Hopkins University (JHU) offers nine academic divisions and hundreds of courses of study, with campuses spread throughout Baltimore, including the Peabody Institute, a music and dance conservatory in Mount Vernon. Its main Homewood campus is located on North Charles Street.

The prestigious, world-renowned university has a strong reputation for its public health and medical studies and has been compared to Ivy League schools.

One of its points of pride is its financial aid program, which covers 100% of calculated need for every admitted student, without loans. This means JHU works with families to calculate what they can afford to contribute toward the total cost of attendance—including meals, books, travel, and other expenses—and JHU covers the rest with grants that don’t need to be repaid.

This school year, JHU added two new minors: Latin American Studies and Writing Seminars.

It also announced new efforts this year to move toward a broader, more flexible undergraduate educational experience that will include a required first-year seminar and the streamlining of major requirements to allow for greater intellectual exploration.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 6,333 undergraduates, 22,559 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 6:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $56,313 for Peabody Institute, $58,720 for the School of Engineering and the School of Arts and Sciences
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 9%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Computer Science, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Neuroscience, Economics, Public Health Studies, International Studies

LOYOLA UNIVERSITY
This private, Jesuit institution offers undergraduate and graduate programs on a beautiful urban campus in northern Baltimore City. Education at Loyola is based in the Jesuit tradition of scholarship cura personalis, or care for the whole person. Loyola is known for its academic rigor while helping students lead purposeful lives. Seventy percent of students study abroad. It currently ranks fourth in best universities in the North region according to U.S. News & World Report.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 3,787 undergraduates, 1,353 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 12:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $53,430
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 80%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Business, Management, Marketing, Journalism, Social Sciences, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Psychology, English Language and Literature, Engineering and Education.

McDANIEL COLLEGE
McDaniel College sits in a bucolic setting near Westminster in Carroll County. The private, four-year liberal arts college offers more than 70 undergraduate programs of study and more than 20 graduate programs. McDaniel’s most recent addition to its curriculum is a National Security Fellows Program that provides students with knowledge, skills, and experience in national security as well as the ability to specialize in an area of interest, such as interstate conflict, intrastate political violence, cybersecurity, ethics, and human rights.

Also new this year, McDaniel appointed an inaugural associate provost for equity and belonging who provides vision and leadership to the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and works in collaboration with the provost to co-lead the college’s diversity, equity, and inclusion administrative committee, and guides the Bias Education Response Support Team.

The school also launched a new STEM Center to serve as a physical hub to support students studying the sciences. It hosts workshops and other events while also supplying online and hybrid support.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 1,757 undergraduates, 1,324 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 13:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $46,336
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 81%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Kinesiology, Business Administration, Psychology, Biology, Political Science, International Studies

MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
The largest of Maryland’s HBCU’s (Historically Black Colleges and Universities), Morgan is a public institution founded in 1867. It is situated in northeast Baltimore. As a Carnegie-classified high research (R2) institution, Morgan provides instruction to a multiethnic, multiracial, multinational student body and offers more than 140 academic programs at undergraduate and graduate levels. As Maryland’s Preeminent Public Urban Research University, Morgan fulfills its mission to address the needs and challenges of the modern urban environment through intense community level study and pioneering solutions.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 6,270 undergraduates, 1,364 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 15:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $8,008 for in-state and $18,480 for out-of-state
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 73%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Civil Engineering, Communications Engineering, Business Administration and Management, Social Work, Biology/Biological Sciences, Architecture, Finance, Psychology, Sociology

NOTRE DAME OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY
A private, Catholic liberal arts university in northern Baltimore, Notre Dame of Maryland University offers programs from undergraduate through PhD, as well as Maryland’s only women’s college. It recently launched the first master’s of art degree in Art Therapy program in the state.
The beautiful, wooded campus is just steps from the bustling downtown Baltimore culture. With values rooted in Catholicism, the school focuses on service to others and social responsibility.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 783
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 7:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $39,675
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 88%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Nursing, Education, Biology, Art Therapy, Pharmacy

TOWSON UNIVERSITY
One of the largest public universities in the state, Towson University offers more than 60 undergraduate majors and continues to draw students from other states, though it remains part of the University System of Maryland.

Its campus continues to expand, with a huge new dining hall, a 23,000-foot recreation and fitness facility with an indoor swimming pool, and its 5,200-seat arena for sporting events and concerts. In 2021, it opened its new Science Complex, the largest academic building on campus at 320,000 square feet.

In September, Towson opened its StarTUp at the Armory, a space for startups and new businesses to engage with the broader community and larger businesses. It serves as a home to Towson’s entrepreneurship programs, as well as student competitions and events.

While Towson remains the largest supplier of medical professionals and educators in the state, the university has also built a strong reputation for its College of Fine Arts and Communication, as well as its Asian Arts & Culture Center, both of which bring students into the wider community and the Baltimore community to Towson for enriching performing arts, music, and visual art programs.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 17,907 undergraduates, 2,949 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 16:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $7,100 in-state, $22,152 out-of-state
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Business Administration, Education, Nursing, Exercise Science, Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology, Biology, Computer Science, Information Technology

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, BALTIMORE
University of Maryland, Baltimore is Maryland’s only public health, law, and human services university. Located in downtown Baltimore, it offers 86 degree and certificate programs through its six nationally ranked professional schools—dentistry, law, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and social work—and an interdisciplinary graduate school.

The school’s 14-acre BioPark is Baltimore’s biggest biotechnology cluster, employing 1,000 people, and remains on the cutting edge of new drugs, treatments, and medical devices.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 7,244
• ANNUAL TUITION: Varies by school
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Medicine, Law, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing, Social Work

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, BALTIMORE COUNTY
University of Maryland, Baltimore County educates a campus of more than 10,000 students in programs spanning the arts, engineering, information technology, humanities, sciences, preprofessional studies, and social sciences. Located on the edge of Baltimore County, it allows easy access into the city and all the conveniences of suburban life and housing. It also offers plenty of opportunities for study abroad.

In the fall of 2021, UMBC opened the Center for Well-Being, a new two-story complex that houses Retriever Integrated Health, Student Conduct and Community Standards, and i3b’s Gathering Space for Spiritual Well-Being. UMBC’s already significant NASA partnerships have continued to grow. In October, NASA announced a major award of $72 million over three years for the new Goddard Earth Sciences Technology and Research II center. UMBC is leading the national consortium and will receive over $38 million. The GESTAR II consortium will support over 120 researchers, creating extensive opportunities for breakthroughs in Earth and atmospheric science research, and providing major opportunities for students to conduct research and be mentored by NASA scientists and engineers.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 13,638
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 17:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $12,280 in-state, $28,470 out-of-state
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 81%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Social Sciences, Psychology, Visual and Performing Arts

 

Cited tuition costs exclude room and board and books.

[Editor’s Note: The following pieces were published as part of the Top Dentists package from our June 2021 issue. View more, and browse the list of winners, here.]

Early last May, roughly two months after the start of Maryland’s stay- at-home order, Governor Larry Hogan announced that elective dental procedures could begin to resume. Days later, the orthodontic offices of Issacs, Nawy, Stern and Isaacs would reopen. But patients returning for routine checkups would find that a few things had changed since their last visits.

“A lot of orthodontic practices are set up as an open-bay-type area,” says Dr. Jessie Isaacs, who treats patients at the Baltimore County-based practice’s Bel Air, Timonium, and Perry Hall locations. “Most of our offices are laid out like that, but with COVID, this posed a really big set of challenges for us. We had to figure out a way to maintain social distancing, and to keep patients safe.”

Luckily, her father, Dr. Robert Isaacs—affectionately referred to as the “office carpenter”—spent several years working in construction before switching career paths to become an orthodontist. Together, a month before the practice reopened, he and Isaacs installed a series of hanging partitions in each of its office’s clinics. Constructed using plexiglass roofing panels, the partitions span from floor to ceiling to divide patient chairs, which Isaacs says each have “their own kind of cubicle-type feel.”

The patient chairs receive multiple cleanings throughout each day in accordance with CDC guidelines, and laundry machines were installed in the offices to wash and dry reusable lab coats. These are worn by the dentists—all twice vaccinated—in addition to extra layers of personal protective equipment (PPE).

“We’re still doing double masks. We do an N95 mask with a surgical mask overtop of that,” says Isaacs. “Depending on what we’re doing, a lot of times, we’ll either wear face shields, or just big eyewear. And we do a surgeon cap, so our hair is pulled back. It’s definitely a lot of stuff.”

Across Maryland, more than a year since COVID-19 flipped life on its axis indefinitely, dental practitioners are more vigilant than ever when it comes to preventing transmission of the virus.

In office reception areas, plexiglass barriers separate front desk staff and patients, who are required to undergo screening for COVID-19 symptoms outside before entering. There are no longer magazines to occupy masked patients waiting in socially distanced seating areas, but plenty of ultra-violet air purifiers (which cost around $400 a pop) and even, in some cases, fogging machines, with chemicals that trap and inactivate viruses.

“Putting these things into place probably cost $10-20,000 for a lot of offices,” says Dr. Eric Morse, regional director of The American Academy of General Dentistry.

The Perryville-based dentist estimates that items such as N95 masks, gloves, and gowns “cost anywhere from three to six times more than what they did prior to the pandemic. It adds up very quickly.”

However costly and wasteful—most, if not all, PPE is tossed after patient contact—research shows that investments in virus prevention have more than paid off for dentists. A study published by the American Dental Association (ADA) found that fewer than one percent of dentists nationwide tested positive for COVID-19 last year. Based on data compiled in June 2020, in which nearly 22,000 dentists were surveyed, the study also found that 99 percent of offices were taking increased disinfection measures.

So, is it finally safe to start scheduling fillings and routine teeth cleanings again?

“I would say it’s very safe,” says Dr. George Shepley, Fourth District Trustee for the ADA. “The good news is this: Between the ADA and CDC research, there haven’t been any real known transmissions of corona between patients and staff in a dental office,” Shepley adds. “We’re all getting busier and people feel way more comfortable coming in.”

He says that attendance saw a momentary dip during last year’s winter COVID spike. However, last summer, Shepley notes that most dentists had begun to treat 85 percent of their patients. According to the North American Dental Group, a case study published around this time found that 65 percent of respondents had plans to visit their dentist before the end of 2021.

“I think because of the nature of dentistry, where you tend to see patients every six months, you kind of develop a rapport with them,” Morse says. “Once they’re comfortable with your office, they know that you do take their safety and their health into consideration.”

Nonetheless, despite the emergence of vaccines, which have mostly proven to be effective, many still err on the side of caution when it comes to re-entering public spaces.

“For some patients, we’re the first place that they’ve really gone to outside of their houses,” says Dr. Morgan Barker Hurwitz, a periodontist at Feldman, Slevin, Hurwitz & Choe in Towson (and Baltimore’s advisor on its 2021 Top Dentist survey). “A lot of these people haven’t gone to the store. And we’re asking them not only to leave their houses and go somewhere, but to open their mouths and noses and uncover themselves so that they’re vulnerable.”

But to reassure patients, Hurwitz tells them that dentists have always been cautious—and now more so with COVID. “We always treat everyone as if they could be a potential source of transmission of something. We’re going through every precaution that we’ve always taken, but now we’ve ramped it up even more.”

According to Shepley, these measures show no signs of loosening up in the near future. “COVID is not going to go away. Even if we get some herd immunity at this point, I think the feeling is that there will be other variants that come out,” the dentist says.

For now, this means that at Isaacs’ practice, the pandemic partitions will be staying put. So will the double layers of PPE, which make things hot—and fog up her glasses.

“But at this point, I’m so used to it,” she says. “I feel like I’d be naked if I didn’t have it all on, you know? It was weird for a while, but now it’s just kind of a way of life.”

Tooth Pain? You Can Blame COVID for That, Too.

Survey finds stress-related dental conditions continue to increase.

By Rebecca Kirkman

For most of us, an ongoing side effect of the coronavirus pandemic has been added stress—from genuine health concerns to the near impossibility of maintaining a work-life balance to the anxiety that comes with frontline jobs. That additional stress can show up in our bodies in many ways—especially in our mouths.

In a March study by the American Dental Association (ADA), more than 70 percent of dentists reported seeing an increase of patients experiencing teeth grinding and clenching, conditions often associated with stress. That’s an increase of 10 percent from a survey conducted last September.

“The increase over time suggests stress-related conditions have become substantially more prevalent since the onset of COVID-19,” says Marko Vujicic, Ph.D., chief economist and vice president of the ADA Health Policy Institute.

Board-certified periodontist Dr. Kyong Choe has witnessed the increase in symptoms with patients at his combined-specialty practice in Towson.

“Some patients are coming in saying the whole side of my face hurts,” Choe says.

The sudden onset of headaches or generalized pain in certain areas of the mouth can be symptoms of clenching, he explains. It’s one of several effects of parafunction—i.e., any habits outside of the normal chewing and swallowing, including stress-induced jaw clenching, tooth grinding, or nail biting.

“Looking at the group of patients who historically wouldn’t have a night guard or didn’t need one, we started to prescribe more of them than usual,” Choe says.

While appliances like mouth guards can help address the habit at night, they don’t modify behaviors during the day. “A lot of it is behavior management,” Choe says. “If you’re clenching and grinding at work, or at home dealing with the kids and trying not to fight with your spouse, you have to realize your teeth shouldn’t be touching, period. There are muscle exercises we tell people to do when they have the symptoms. It’s like physical therapy.”

While the pandemic has compounded the existing dental anxiety for some patients, Choe urges those with any pain or concerns not to wait to contact their dentist. Many practices, including Choe’s, now offer teledentistry appointments to triage the issue over the phone to determine if and when an in-person appointment is necessary.

“Don’t let it sit,” Choe adds. “Dentistry is not one of those things where an issue will resolve itself. It will stay the same or get worse.”