The immense racial, ethnic, and cultural richness of the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area is unparalleled in the United States. Correspondingly, however, the social disparity between minority and majority populations is all too evident--leading, even, to overt civil unrest in recent years. It is within this context that the UCLA-King/Drew Regional Research Center for Minority Oral Health (RRCMOH), Phase I, was initiated on September 29, 1992. Its two-fold mission is to train minority researchers and to improve the oral health of racial and underrepresented minorities in the single largest population center in the Western United States. The present Phase II application seeks continuation funding to allow the Center to build upon the substantial accomplishments of the Phase I program and to achieve the Center's long- term objectives: (1) To study oral health problems uniquely relevant to the needs of minority populations. (2) To expand research and research training opportunities for minority scientists by encouraging their participation in oral health research. (3) To develop and strengthen the biomedical and behavioral oral health research capacity of the Charles R. Drew Medical University/Martin Luther King, Jr. Medical Center. The Phase II Center will continue to develop and conduct multidisciplinary research on three key aspects of oral health-related morbidity, disability, and mortality among minority populations. Each corresponds to a major subproject and each shares the common theme of orofacial injury. The Phase II Center is based on the unifying conception that minority populations in the United States suffer disproportionately the consequences of orofacial injury. They are the victims of violence and bear a disparate share of the short-term and the long-term consequences of acute and chronic orofacial injury. African-American and Hispanic minority populations, in particular, exhibit a familial predisposition toward abnormal soft tissue repair secondary to injury and they are disproportionately vulnerable to oral malignancy arising from long-term, low-grade traumatic injury to oral mucosa. The Phase II subprojects and pilot projects therefore address (a) the increased vulnerability of minority populations to serious orofacial trauma (Subproject 1 and Pilot Project 1), (b) the increased predisposition of such populations to abnormal healing after sustaining such injury (Subproject 2 and Pilot Project 2), and (c) the disproportionate vulnerability of such populations to overt malignant neoplastic disease consequent to chronic oral injury (Subproject 3 and Pilot Project 3). These are not classic dental diseases in the usual sense, but they are all identified, appropriately, in the NIH/NIDR Phase II Program Announcement as important areas relevant to minority oral health needs. More importantly, they reflect the pressing, practical, and real-life oral health research needs of minority populations in an urban setting.
| Spolsky, Vladimir W; Marcus, Marvin; Der-Martirosian, Claudia et al. (2012) Oral health status and the epidemiologic paradox within Latino immigrant groups. BMC Oral Health 12:39 |
| Glynn, Shirley M (2010) The psychosocial characteristics and needs of patients presenting with orofacial injury. Oral Maxillofac Surg Clin North Am 22:209-15 |
| Glynn, Shirley M; Shetty, Vivek (2010) The long-term psychological sequelae of orofacial injury. Oral Maxillofac Surg Clin North Am 22:217-24 |
| Lui, Anna; Glynn, Shirley; Shetty, Vivek (2009) The interplay of perceived social support and posttraumatic psychological distress following orofacial injury. J Nerv Ment Dis 197:639-45 |
| Shetty, Vivek; Atchison, Kathryn; Leathers, Richard et al. (2008) Do the benefits of rigid internal fixation of mandible fractures justify the added costs? Results from a randomized controlled trial. J Oral Maxillofac Surg 66:2203-12 |
| Marshall, Grant N; Schell, Terry L; Glynn, Shirley M et al. (2006) The role of hyperarousal in the manifestation of posttraumatic psychological distress following injury. J Abnorm Psychol 115:624-8 |
| Shetty, Vivek; Atchison, Kathryn; Der-Martirosian, Claudia et al. (2003) Determinants of surgical decisions about mandible fractures. J Oral Maxillofac Surg 61:808-13 |
| Shetty, Vivek; Dent, Dr Med; Glynn, Shirley et al. (2003) Psychosocial sequelae and correlates of orofacial injury. Dent Clin North Am 47:141-57, xi |
| Leathers, Richard; Le, Anh D; Black, Edward et al. (2003) Orofacial injury in underserved minority populations. Dent Clin North Am 47:127-39 |
| Atchison, Kathryn A; Dubin, Linda Fagan (2003) Understanding health behavior and perceptions. Dent Clin North Am 47:21-39 |
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