North Texas Dentistry Volume 7 Issue 3 NTD 2017 ISSUE 3 DE | Page 5

Texas A&M College of Dentistry
A Day of Firsts
The graduation of the oral and maxillofacial
radiology program’s first resident marks a
new milestone for the college
by Carolyn Cox
It was Dr. Regina Casian’s first postdoc-
toral degree in prosthodontics that in-
spired her to pursue a second specialty.
Now Casian, who became the first graduate
of Texas A&M College of Dentistry’s oral
and maxillofacial radiology residency pro-
gram on May 23, holds a certificate in the
newest American Dental Association-rec-
ognized specialty.
“This is a useful dental specialty because it
helps all of the others,” Casian says. “With
implant planning, for example, cone beam
computed tomography is important, but
CBCT is also useful in other areas. It’s im-
portant to know all these maxillofacial
structures and know pathology because it’s
not only teeth related. Oral and maxillofa-
cial radiology is a growing field.”
Only nine such graduate programs in the
country are far enough along to graduate
residents this year. In fact, the College of
Dentistry is one of only two dental schools
in the nation to offer advanced training in
all nine dental specialties. When Casian
joined the restorative sciences clinical fac-
ulty in 2014, this residency program was
sti ll in the planning phase; she enrolled in
2015.
Dr. Diane Flint, associate professor in di-
agnostic sciences and residency program
Dr. Regina Casian, center, the first graduate of the college’s oral and
maxillofacial radiology residency, with Dr. Diane Flint, associate profes-
sor and residency program director, and Dr. Byron Benson, Regents
professor in diagnostic sciences and imaging center director.
director, explains dentists’ increasing use
of cone beam computed tomography as
one indicator of the specialty’s importance.
“More providers are utilizing CBCT scans,
but they may not feel comfortable looking
at the entire scan because they’re viewing
things they weren’t trained to interpret in
dental school,” Flint says. “It’s simple for
the dentist to upload the files digitally to a
secure server, which a specialist can then
access to interpret and write a radi-
ographic report.”
Flint credits Casian’s enthusiasm with
helping overcome the challenges of estab-
lishing a new graduate program from the
ground up, particularly the details of the
program’s medical radiology rotation at
Baylor University Medical Center.
“Our residents need exposure to nuclear
medicine, magnetic resonance imaging,
ultrasound, and that was the question:
How are we going to make this work with
us not on faculty in radiology at the hospi-
tal?” Flint says. “We had good communi-
cation with Dr. Michael J. Opatowsky, a
neuroradiologist at BUMC, and the med-
ical radiology department was very willing
to accommodate. Dr. Casian’s enthusiasm
really opened doors for us. She was an
ideal first resident.”
After taking the radiology board exam,
Casian intends to return to Mexico for pri-
vate practice with her husband next year
after he completes his periodontics resi-
dency in Dallas. Academia is likely also
part of her future. “My experience teach-
ing made me want to continue to work
with students,” Casian says.
She is one of 41 postgraduate students rec-
ognized at the college’s 2017 commence-
ment ceremonies for completing dental
specialty certificates and master’s and doc-
toral degrees.
Texas A&M College of Dentistry (formerly Baylor Col-
lege of Dentistry) in Dallas is a part of Texas A&M
University and the Texas A&M Health Science Cen-
ter. Founded in 1905, the College of Dentistry is a
nationally recognized center for oral health sciences
education, research, specialized patient care and
continuing dental education.
www.northtexasdentistry.com
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