UC Davis Opens New Dentistry and Oral Surgery Center
The UC Davis veterinary hospital has opened the Meadowview Foundation Dentistry and Oral Surgery Center (video tour) as the new home of its Dentistry and Oral Surgery Service (DOSS). The new suite is nearly 150% larger than the service’s previous space, allows faculty, residents, and staff to maximize their expertise and interest, and makes patient care more personal and accessible.
Fine-tuning the Specialty
Watch this Minute with Mark episode featuring Toby, an abused doodle with a badly broken jaw.
DOSS faculty is comprised of Drs. Stephanie Goldschmidt, Maria Soltero-Rivera, and Service Chief Boaz Arzi. While all three faculty cover many aspects of the clinic, the advancement, research, and leadership of certain disease/injury areas are divided into three sub-specialties.
Goldschmidt focuses on surgical oncology aspects of the service; Soltero-Rivera concentrates on oral medicine, such as the group’s breakthroughs in stomatitis care; and Arzi leads temporomandibular joint (TMJ)/trauma and reconstructive surgeries.
In overall care, DOSS is already considered highly specialized—performing unique procedures not found at most other teaching hospitals—but the increased space allows the team to be even more sub-specialized in their disciplines.
“With the opening of this new space, it’s an exciting time to be part of this team,” said Soltero-Rivera. “I look forward to what this means for the advancement of our sub-specialty areas.”
All three faculty members are highly respected in their field and are working on some of the most important topics in veterinary dentistry and oral surgery. Soltero-Rivera recently published research on antimicrobial use and its safety in the practice of veterinary dentistry. Goldschmidt is optimizing oral cancer surgeries by improving surgical tools and techniques. Arzi is part of a group at UC Davis developing a TMJ replacement prosthesis, and in 2024, he became a member of the American Academy of Craniomaxillofacial Surgeons, an organization consisting of human medicine surgeons.
The trio’s recent paper on feline chronic gingivostomatitis (FCGS) was the most downloaded article of 2023 in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery.
Advantages of New Space
With three independent dental care/oral surgery operatory spaces, the new center provides more private clinical care. Each area resembles a human dentistry/oral surgery suite where personalized care is performed independently of other patients or administrative functions. The previous suite—one open area—limited their ability to perform routine recheck or receiving appointments while an oral surgery was taking place just arm’s length away. Additionally, a separate administrative area is incorporated into the new center.
“Physical separation of administrative duties and patient care was extremely limited in our previous space,” said Arzi. “The Meadowview Center is a relaxed setting to examine the patient and operate independently of other activities occurring simultaneously in the center.”
The Meadowview Foundation Dentistry and Oral Surgery Center is also designed to improve faculty, resident, and staff welfare and well-being. Their previous suite, with its combined patient care and workspace areas, restricted the use of drinking water and other personal care items. The new separate administrative area creates an available space for dedicated breaks or brief respites between patients.
Improved Resident and Student Training
A residency with DOSS has always been considered one of the premier advanced training opportunities in the country. Additionally, UC Davis DVM students are exposed to more dentistry and oral medicine/surgery cases than at any other veterinary school. Arzi, Goldschmidt, and Soltero-Rivera all completed their residencies at different universities, bringing three different training modules to their faculty responsibilities.
“Combining our three backgrounds brings a diverse and well-rounded education and training to our students and residents,” said Goldschmidt. “Those future veterinarians and specialists are now experiencing more patient care opportunities with this new center.”
Building on the Past to Shape the Future
DOSS has a storied history at UC Davis as well as in the worldwide veterinary dentistry and oral surgery community. In 1995, Professor Emeritus Dr. Frank Verstraete became only the 26th Diplomate of the American Veterinary Dental College (AVDC) and became a Founding Diplomate of the European Veterinary Dental College in 1998. He and Arzi became Founding Fellows of the AVDC in Oral Maxillofacial Surgery (OMFS) in 2018, and Goldschmidt became an AVDC-OMFS Fellow in 2024.
“We would not be where we are today without Dr. Verstraete’s pioneering work and vision for this service, and its ongoing success is dependent upon us advancing that foundation,” said Arzi. “This new center will help us make great strides toward that goal and uphold the standard of excellence that UC Davis has always represented. It is a testament to the groundwork that Dr. Verstraete laid many decades ago.”
The service is now widely recognized as a world leader in dentistry and oral/maxillofacial surgeries, as well as a pioneer of translational research that leads to cutting-edge treatments. Clients from around the country—and sometimes the world—seek DOSS’ care.
In 2010, Verstraete and Arzi worked with UC Davis biomedical engineers to create a novel treatment to regrow jawbones in dogs that lost bone to injuries or removal of cancerous tumors. Using bone morphogenetic protein (BMP), the team started regrowing bone in small areas of the jawbone. By 2014, the technique advanced to be able to regrow nearly the entire arch of the jaw. The use of BMP at UC Davis has moved to dog leg bones and may someday advance to other areas of the body.
The team took on a mighty task in 2012 – finding a novel solution to save Kabang, a dog from the Philippines who suffered devastating facial injuries after her snout was torn off by a passing motorcycle. The story of her successful treatment was told in more than 1,000 media outlets on six continents.
In 2022, the service opened the first Stomatitis Clinic of its kind anywhere in veterinary medicine to treat FCGS, a debilitating oral inflammatory condition that affects approximately 1 in 7 cats. DOSS has been pioneering treatments for FCGS for more than a decade, establishing a novel clinical trial utilizing stem cell therapy. As success of the trial grew (with 72% of the cats treated exhibiting positive results), clients from around the country flocked to UC Davis, and it eventually evolved into several national trials at multiple clinics and universities around the nation. The final product for an accepted protocol of FCGS treatment is inching closer to FDA approval.
“This new space allows us to continue spearheading the field,” said Arzi. “The Meadowview Foundation Dentistry and Oral Surgery Center will be the hub of new discoveries, as it is already increasing our level of patient care and helping to further advance our sub-specialties.”
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