TCDM Student Presents Research at AADOCR/ CADR Conference

Touro College of Dental Medicine D3 Rachel Sebastian Presents on “Early Implant Failure” as Part of the Student Competition for Advancing Dental Research and Its Application (SCADA)

May 01, 2023
A woman sits on a welcome center sign at a convention center.
Rachel Sebastian delivered an oral poster presentation at this year's American Association for Dental, Oral and Craniofacial Research/Canadian Association of Dental Research meeting.

Third-year Touro College of Dental Medicine (TCDM) student Rachel Sebastian delivered an oral poster presentation at this year’s American Association for Dental, Oral and Craniofacial Research/Canadian Association of Dental Research (AADOCR/CADR) Annual Meeting on March 15-18 in Portland, Oregon. Rachel presented on “Factors Affecting Early Implant Failure Following a Fully Guided Surgical Protocol,” as part of the conference’s Student Competition for Advancing Dental Research and Its Application (SCADA).

Students are only eligible to present their research at SCADA if they had won a prior research competition. Rachel was awarded first place at the 2022 TCDM’s Research Day Student Poster Competition. Under the mentorship of Director of Research Dr. Jaffer A. Shariff, Rachel had the opportunity to represent TCDM in the prestigious event. “I am grateful for my mentors and their help, and I am really proud of the work I put into the presentations, and it was an honor to represent TCDM,” said Rachel. “Delivering the presentation forced me to dive deeper and attain a greater understanding about our results and what kind of clinical applications we can derive from the work.”

Rachel joined Dr. Shariff’s research project starting her D3 year under his and Dr. Daniela Gurpegui Abud’s mentorship. The results of this study indicate that there is an association between early implant failure and allergy to penicillin. “In our results, Dr. Shariff’s analysis showed that penicillin allergy and length of the implant, specifically if the implant is shorter than 10 millimeters, were factors that were significantly associated with higher risk for implant failure,” Rachel explained.