College of Dentistry: News

Dr. Caswell Evans, Associate Dean for Prevention and Public Health Sciences Administration at the UIC College of Dentistry, led a delegation of 18 oral health professionals from around the United States, including Dr. Christine Wu, Professor of Pediatric Dentistry and Director of Cariology Research at the College, to China recently.

The group traveled to China through the People to People Ambassadors program, an initiative begun in the 1950s by the U.S. Government that sends American students and professionals to other countries for cultural and knowledge exchange purposes.

The group visited the Peking University School of Stomatology and the Guangan Men Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Hospital in Beijing, the Fourth Military Medical University and Hospital in the city of Xian, the Shanghai Dental Association, and the Shi Sizhen Dental Center (a university affiliated dental hospital) in Beijing, and also visited rural healthcare centers including the Yuxia Health Service Center, which serves 23 villages.

In 2007, Dr. Wu hosted a delegation consisting of dental school Deans and officials from organized dentistry in China, which visited the College and the American Dental Association.

“They were very impressed with the clinical education and research at the College, and we kept up correspondence with them, so this trip gave us a chance to rekindle the relationships we had established,” Dr. Wu said.

In China, Drs. Evans and Wu began to explore development of a formal relationship between the UIC College of Dentistry and the Peking University School of Stomatology.

“Deans at both the School of Stomatology in Beijing and the Fourth Military Medical School and Hospital in Xi’an were very interested in establishing collaborative ties with our College and to enable faculty and student exchange in clinical training, research, and clinical education,” Dr. Wu said. “Currently, many of the U.S. dental schools are anxious to establish formal international ties with the Chinese dental institutions. So for them to recognize UIC and want to collaborate with us is something significant!”

At the TCM hospital, Dr. Evans said, “we saw how Chinese medicine, herbal medications, acupuncture, and acupressure are used in a medical and oral health context as a complement to Western medicine. They’ll look at traditional, acupuncture, herbal, and Western approaches and ask, ‘OK, for this individual’s condition, what one approach or combination of approaches is going to be most useful?’

“You look at that philosophy and it makes a lot of sense,” Dr. Evans said.

Concerning the military hospital, Dr. Evans noted, “Since about half of the Chinese population is affiliated with the military in some way, military hospitals in China are huge operations and state-of-the-art.”

In China, “most dentistry is in the public domain, supported by the government,” Dr. Evans explained. “All Chinese have health coverage, part of which they can use for dental care. Any expenses that accrue beyond their government supplied healthcare have to come out of pocket.”

For that, they can go to a private practice. “The number of such private practices is very limited,” Dr. Evans said. “The dentist we visited is associated with one of the universities in Shanghai and she was doing a great deal of research out of this private practice, which was a research center in and of itself. Her research was very sophisticated.”

In Beijing, the group met with an inner city population in a very old neighborhood with narrow streets, a communal square, and a communal bathroom.

“The area just recently got running water, and was controversial during the recent Olympics because the government wanted to raze the community and put up a stadium,” Dr. Evans said, noting that the neighbors were able to stop stadium construction and save their homes.

The rural visit was the most unusual part of the trip, since few such delegations reach the countryside. The farm families in the area prepared a lunch for the group and talked about their perceptions of oral health.

By talking to the general public in both the urban and rural areas, the group learned about their perceptions about oral health, “which is not nearly the priority among the general public as it is here,” Dr. Evans said. “Basically, they don’t think anything in the mouth is a problem until it hurts, swells, or bleeds.”

Some of the dentists and officials at the dental facilities the group toured had visited the College in 2007. “I knew them, so we were really given some special treatment,” Dr. Wu said.

Dr. Wu was the only Chinese-speaking member of the group, “so I also acted as the default translator. This was helpful because I was able to translate many technical terms and facilitated communications between the host and the group. A typical translator wouldn’t have been able to do that. Because I was translating, I had to pay attention to everything that was happening! It was a tremendous educational experience for me.”

The group also did some sightseeing, visiting the Forbidden City in Peking, the seat of power in the old days of the Chinese emperors; Tiananmen Square, where people fought for democracy in 1989; and the Great Wall of China.

“I think people on the trip were really impressed with the progress in China and will have more of an appreciation of the Chinese professionals they work with in the United States,” Dr. Wu said.

“America is tops in research and technological development,” Dr. Evans said. “With the knowledge we have gained, we have much to teach the world, but we can also learn in the process. We must have that balance, the ‘yin’ and ‘yang’ of teaching and learning. I don’t think any of the delegates were prepared for the medical sophistication, advancements, and progress we witnessed in China.

“China is a unique blend of socialism and capitalism, Western and Eastern medicine, and ancient traditions and modern innovations—China encompasses the balance of ‘yin’ and ‘yang’ in every aspect of its existence,” he continued.

“Though our Chinese professional counterparts were eager to meet and learn from us, we learned a great deal from them as well. We hope to have future exchanges and build on what we gained,” Dr. Evans concluded.