Dr. Arwa Owais, Department of Pediatric Dentistry, has received a $4,000 grant from the Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation for her research, “Bedsharing and Nighttime Oral Health Habits among WIC-Enrolled Children Study.” The purpose of the one year grant is to determine if there is a relationship between a child’s habit of bedsharing with its mother and the child’s nighttime oral health habits and subsequent risk for early childhood caries (ECC).

Data from 1500 charts will be collected from records of patients seen at the University of Iowa’s Infant Oral Health Program (IOHP) at the Johnson County Department of Public Health WIC Clinic. Owais will be principal investigator; Dr. Karin Weber Gasparoni, head of Pediatric Dentistry, Dr. Vanessa Axelson, Pediatric Dentistry resident, and Dr. Fang Qian, Biostatistics Unit, will be co-investigators.

Owais also received a second Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation grant for her research, “Medical Management of Caries in the Primary Dentition Using Silver Nitrate: a Pilot Study.” 

The one-year $25,000 grant will be used to study children having at least one primary tooth where caries extend into dentine. Children will be randomized and treated according to one of two treatment approaches: conventional caries management with best practice prevention or medical management of caries using silver nitrate with best practice prevention. Owais will be principal investigator on this project.

Co-investigators will include Drs. Michael Kanellis, Deborah Dawson, Matthew Geneser, and Karin Weber-Gasparoni, Department of Pediatric Dentistry; Gayle Gilbaugh and Cathy Skotowski, Pediatric Dentistry; Dr. David Drake, Dows Dental Research; Dr. Alberto Gasparoni, Oral Pathology, Radiology & Medicine; Wei Liu, Biostatistics Unit; Dr. Reem Oweis, dentistry fellow associate, and Dr. John Warren, both Preventive & Community Dentistry; and Dr. George Wehby, Colleges of Public Health and Dentistry (joint-appointed).