Dr. Rutger Stache Received Thomas M. Graber Award of Special Merit
February 3, 2020, Chicago, IL -
Congratulations to UIC Orthodontic Alumni Dr. Rutger Stache for receiving the American Association of Orthodontics's (AAO) 2020 "Thomas M. Graber Award of Special Merit" for the paper titled “Oral appliance and pharmacological agents in the treatment of sleep apnea: a pilot clinical study”.
Dr. Stache first started working on this research project while in dental school under the supervision of Dr. Maria Therese Galang-Boquiren who was his mentor. Dr. Stache has been working with Dr. Galang-Boquiren on this research for the past five years. Much of his efforts were focused on subject recruitment and finding patients to participate in our pilot clinical study. He studied sleep disordered breathing over the years and how to better identify patients that may benefit from oral appliance therapy.
“I feel honored to have received this award, and I hope that it will inspire other dental professionals to continue research on sleep disordered breathing.” said Dr. Stache. He added, “I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to Dr. Therese Galang, Dr. Bharati Prasad, and Ms. Grace Viana. I could not have done this without the ongoing support and guidance from them.”
Dr. Stache plans to take continuing education courses in dental sleep medicine and use the knowledge he has gained from his research to help treat patients in private practice.
Dr. Stache is a lifelong Illinois resident and proud to call Chicago home. He feel extremely fortunate to be an orthodontist and he loves what he does. Running and triathlon are both passions of Dr. Stache. You can usually find him on the lakefront trail most mornings.
More information about the AAO "Thomas M. Graber Award of Special Merit" , please visit https://www1.aaoinfo.org/about-us/awards/