Focus on Academics

The University of Oklahoma College of Dentistry Postgraduate Program in Orthodontics

What is the mission?

1. To educate the best clinical orthodontists possible.
2. To create and expand our knowledge base so we may better understand the health care service to our patients and the community at large.
3. To interact with our colleagues at all levels of their education.
4. To foster an environment that is conducive to the best welfare of our students, staff, faculty, and patients.

Program History
The University of Oklahoma College of Dentistry opened its doors to the first classes in 1972 with the first class in dentistry graduating in the Revolutionary Bicentennial Year of 1976. The Graduate Orthodontics Program initiated its first class in 1981 with the first individual graduating in 1983. After the first two years of the program, the class size increased from 2 to 4 persons per class. In time an occasional fifth person has been added as an international student.

The program started as a 26-month program for its first 25 classes, but changed to a 30-month program for the class entering in 2006. It was the first graduate program in the College. The program starts July 1 and now completes in December. 

A founding member of the dental faculty of the College and the first Chair of the Department of Orthodontics was Ram S. Nanda, who stepped down as Program Director in 2002 and Chair in 2004. His tenure spanned four decades at OU, and he had been in orthodontic education for 50 years. He retired from OU in 2006 as a Professor Emeritus.

The Founding Graduate Faculty in the Department included Drs. Jack Austerman, Steve McCullough, Vincent Kelly, and Fräns Currier. Jack became a Professor Emeritus while Steve and Fräns are still in the Department.

Fräns Currier has been a full-time faculty member since 1980 and has been with the graduate program since its inception. He became Program Director in 2002 and Chair in 2005.

The Graduate Program is housed in the College of Dentistry as one of the two graduate programs in the College with the other being Graduate Periodontics. The faculty and students are in the Graduate College, one of seven colleges at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. The program is administered from within the Department. The graduates receive a Certificate in Orthodontics and a Master of Science Degree with a thesis requirement.

In 2006, the Department celebrated the 25th anniversary of starting the Program, while in 2007 the Alumni will welcome the 25th graduating class.  Also in 2007, the State of Oklahoma celebrates the Centennial of Statehood. It is also 100 years ago that Edward H. Angle wrote his latest and best orthodontic text in 1907, his 7th edition. There will be 100 alumni this year. In 2008, we celebrate the Silver Anniversary of the first graduate from the program.

There are currently two full-time faculty members, two half-time members, 18 part-time faculty members, two secretaries, one clinic manager, and four dental assistants.

What is unique about OU?
It is the only dental college in the state of Oklahoma and the only orthodontic specialty program in the state. Its faculty and students come from many different backgrounds and areas of the state, country, and the world. Its primary focus is to produce excellent clinical scientists who can move smoothly into private practice, education, research, and/or public service.

The difficulty in a graduate program is to have a proper balance among the clinic, the didactic/seminar and research/creative activities. The change to 30 months should allow completion of more Board qualified cases as well as decompression of the research and thesis defense in the summer. It should be better for both students and faculty. At OU, we have attempted to create independent, critical thinking clinical scientists who are becoming experts in orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedics.

The opportunity to teach in the predoctoral orthodontic clinic and give didactic presentations to third year dental students has been found to be beneficial to our graduate students and the students they teach.

The overall cost of an OU orthodontic education is reasonable, especially compared to most programs in the United States. The graduate students receive a modest stipend as research assistants, which allows for out-of-state students to receive in-state tuition.

The office spaces for full-time and half-time faculty, seminar room (William N. Flesher Orthodontic Seminar Room), library (Harry H. Sorrels Orthodontic Library), consultation room, and research rooms (Centennial Room, Denver Growth Study, and Sooner Research Room) are excellent, new, and with current technologies. These were accomplished through private endowed accounts. There is a digital pan/ceph in the Department and a Cone Beam CT in the building on the second floor.

There are combined seminars with the oral surgery residents on a monthly basis. There is a combined perio/ortho course given to both sets of graduate students. There is also a four-part series of presentations, including AEGD, periodontics, oral surgery, and orthodontics that is given during the spring semester. There is a monthly conference with the cleft lip and palate/craniofacial team throughout the year.  

There are approximately 40 to 45 new patient starts per graduate student in the Program.  The objective is to have all new patients started before Thanksgiving of the first year of the Program. There are three periods of patient transfer: retention patients from prior graduates (about 200-250 patients with about 15 to 30 patients getting 1, 5, or 10 year records) in the middle of the program; active transfers from the graduating class (average 50% completion of starts and 75% completion of transfers in the 26-month program); and, active retention patients (30-40 patients), who were debonded/debanded within the last one year.

What would you like to say about your faculty/staff?
The staff in the Department of Orthodontics is excellent. Our secretaries here in the office state that they are “incredibly intelligent, beautiful, and quirky.” The application, entrance, grades, progress evaluations, and graduating process are all handled within the Department. The Secretary to the Department is also the Secretary for the Division, which includes predoctoral and graduate orthodontics as well as predoctoral pediatric dentistry. Dr. Currier is also chair of this Division of Developmental Dentistry.

Our clinical staff members have varied duties besides chair-side assistance. They include Ortho II computer skills, purchasing supplies, predoctoral computer assignment and follow-up, infection control, taking digital pans/cephs, and keeping the environment organized and clean.

The clinical part-time faculty members are essential to the life of the graduate program. They offer varied insights in treatment approaches that are invaluable to the graduate students. These approaches include traditional edgewise, standard edgewise, modified edgewise, self-ligation (passive and active) systems with varied fixed and removable functional orthopedic auxiliaries. 

Are there any plans for renovations, moves, new collaborations on-campus, etc?
The major changes in the infrastructure of the Department were accomplished in the 2005 and 2006 period. We are in the middle of converting slide material that is both didactic and clinical to electronic format. Photographic and cephalometric/ panoramic documentation is already digital using the Dolphin 10 format. Limited use of digital models is present. We have not converted to a paperless clinic system. The Denver Growth Data (1927-1967) is a longitudinal growth study of about 300 persons. The study includes models, cephalometric radiographs, hand wrist radiographs, facial photographs, full-body drawings with scaled height information and full-body photographs from anterior, posterior, and lateral positions. There is new housing for this material adjacent to our Library. Multiple papers have already been written from this data. However, further integration and correlation is needed as well as conversion to an electronic format that could be used as an untreated, comparison sample for the orthodontic educational community and its research endeavors.

The Department hopes to integrate certain activities with Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Community Dentistry to establish a Center of Dentofacial Growth and Development.  Much needs to be done in a short period of time for this to occur.

We have established an endowed faculty position via a contract with the President of the University, David Boren. The process in Oklahoma is that if one can raise $250,000 in private funding, the state of Oklahoma will match it as an Endowed Professorship. If one can raise $500,000 or more in private funds, then the state will match it for an Endowed Chair. We are asking our alumni and friends to consider a commitment of $5,000 per year (a case for the future model) for 3 years for a total of $15,000. Of course we accept varied amounts over time. Slowly but surely we are approaching these individuals personally about the endowment. This is one way to support and help the future of our specialty especially here at OU. We have already committed over $280,000 after only 15 months in this venture. We have yet to address this issue with the orthodontic companies that serve the profession.

The commitment of the State of Oklahoma to higher education, dentistry, and orthodontics needs to be stronger. We are now a state-assisted school as compared to a state-supported one. The private sector is doing its job. Now, the state needs to step forward.

What are your biggest needs and plans for future development?

1. Continue to update and improve the infrastructure from facilities and equipment so that the graduate students, faculty, and staff may flourish in an enlightened environment.
2. Diversify various resources so that the financial rewards as well as the educational needs are met to plan for future faculty and staff growth and development.  We are going to need to grow our own faculty, as the orthodontic educational cupboard nationwide is rather barren.
3. Continue to integrate the Department in affairs of the Health Sciences Center, the Campus, and the University to allow us to be the academic leaders that we are now and in the future.
4. Strive for balance in the mission of the Department, the College, and Health Sciences Center so that we may meet our obligations in education, service, and research/creative activities in an environment that is centered around individuals with a proactive, positive view of the human experience.

About the Chair and Program Director, Dr. Currier
Fräns Currier came to OU in 1980 as an Associate Professor. The Graduate Program started in 1981. His milestones at OU include Master of Educational Psychology from the Norman Campus (M.Ed., 1984), Tenure (1986), Professor (1992), ABO certified (2002), Program Director (2002), Department Chair (2006), and Division Chair (2006).

Dr. Currier did his pre-dentistry and dentistry training at the University of Michigan from 1960 to 1967 (D.D.S., 1967). He served in the United States Navy in the Philippine Islands during the Vietnam War (1967-1969). He completed a double program in Seattle, Washington with an internship/residency in Pediatric Dentistry at Children’s Orthopedic Hospital and Medical Center, and also a master’s degree at the University of Washington (M.S.D., 1971). He taught full-time at the Medical College of Virginia with a day of faculty practice from 1971 to 1975. He received his first teaching award there from the graduating senior class of 1973. He moved to the Philadelphia area to attend the University of Pennsylvania and its graduating orthodontic program (Certificate, 1977).

Dr. Currier was a Robert Wood Johnson Fellow as the Clinical Consultant while at Penn.  He completed his Board Certification in Pediatric Dentistry while in Philadelphia (1976).  After teaching at Penn for another year, he went to Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit to start a graduate program. During this period of 1978 to 1980, the economic conditions in Detroit did not allow this to come to fruition. In 1980, he came to OU and the rest is history. 

Dr. Currier is certified in two specialties and is a member of both their College of Diplomates and their national organizations, including the American Association of Orthodontists, the Southwestern Society of Orthodontists, and the Oklahoma Orthodontic Society. He is a member of the Omicron Kappa Upsilon, the American College of Dentists, International College of Dentists, and the Pierre Fauchard Academy. He is a member of the ADA, ODA, and Cleveland County Dental Society. He is a member of the American Academy of History of Dentistry, the American Association for Dental Research, and the American Dental Education Association. He has received 2 outstanding teaching awards from graduating dental classes of 1984 and 1996 here at OU and has been Chair of the Faculty Senate at the Health Sciences Center and Chair of the Athletic Council of the University. He has been Chair of the OUHSC Campus Tenure Committee for over 10 years. He has been elected Chair to the Dental Faculty (Faculty Council) for 15 consecutive years.  He is faculty advisor to the Student Council of the College.  He has been Faculty Chair of the Campus Campaign for the Health Sciences Center for over 10 years.

He has received the Outstanding Contributions to Faculty Governance Award from the Faculty Senate and the Regents Award for Superior Accomplishment in Professorial and University Service. Dr. Currier has just been named The Ram S. Nanda Chair in Orthodontics.

Dr. Currier has served for a variety of years as a consultant for the ADA Commission on Dental Accreditation. He has also been an ADA committee member for the Part II National Board Dental Examination Test Construction for 5 years. He has been a reviewer for JADA, the Angle Orthodontist, and the AJODO.

Dr. Currier has served on over 70 thesis committees in the department and published over 50 articles, 20 abstracts, and 5 book chapters. His background and experience is multifaceted including dentofacial growth and development, behavior modification, anchorage considerations, and multiple clinical approaches to orthodontic therapy.

The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center Postgraduate Program in Orthodontics:  Faculty, Staff, and Graduate Students

Full-time
G. Fräns Currier, D.D.S., M.S.D., M.Ed., Professor, Program Director, and Chair
Tarisai C. Dandajena, D.D.S., M.S., Ph.D., Assistant Professor

Half-time
John C. Clayton, D.D.S., Clinical Assistant Professor
J. Mark Felton, D.D.S., M.S.D., M.Ed., Clinical Associate Professor

Part-time Graduate
Kent Hall, D.D.S., Clinical Assistant Professor
Larson Keso, D.D.S., M.S., Clinical Associate Professor
Peter Kierl, D.D.S., M.S., Clinical Associate Professor
Herbert Klontz, D.D.S., M.S., Clinical Associate Professor
John Lockard, D.D.S., M.S., Clinical Assistant Professor
Stephen McCullough, D.D.S., M.S., Clinical Associate Professor
Dale McCune, D.D.S., Clinical Associate Professor
Van Nowlin, D.D.S., M.S.D., Clinical Assistant Professor
Michael Steffen, D.D.S., M.S., Clinical Associate Professor
Tony Stretesky, D.D.S., Clinical Associate Professor
Thomas Weirich, D.D.S., M.S.D., Clinical Associate Professor

Part-time Predoctoral
Johanna Britton, D.D.S., Clinical Assistant Professor
Jeff Cohlmia, D.D.S., M.S., Clinical Assistant Professor
Matt Heim, D.D.S., M.S., Clinical Assistant Professor
Michael Kierl, D.D.S., M.S., Clinical Assistant Professor
Marlo Miller, D.D.S., M.S., Clinical Assistant Professor
Justin Power, D.D.S., M.S., Clinical Assistant Professor
Geoffrey Sparks, D.D.S., M.S., Clinical Assistant Professor

Full-time Administrative Staff
Terrie Birdsong
Angel Miller

Full-time Clinical Staff
Tracy Demarco, Dental Assistant III
Heather Gibson, Dental Assistant IV
Donna Mead, Clinic Coordinator
Jo Solinski, Dental Assistant III

Graduate Students (M.S.)
Class of 2007
Wes Chladny, D.D.S.
Christopher Fogarty, D.M.D.
Anaita Mullasseril, B.D.S.
Dustin Tipton, D.D.S.

Class of 2008
Bradley Hall, D.D.S.
Scott Hubbard, D.D.S.
Onur Kadioglu, D.D.S.
Anthony Paventy, D.M.D.
Paul Rallis, D.D.S.