Digital Dentistry Leader Receives Award to Mentor Women in Field and Pursue Research
Dr. Heba Elkassaby
There are few women shaping the field of digital dentistry. Dr. Heba Elkassaby, who is one of them, wants to change that.
She came closer to her goal when she received a $15,000 American Dental Association Education Association (ADEA) fellowship for women faculty to pursue research and leadership opportunities.
“I would like to mentor other women faculty from other institutions to play this role,’’ said Dr. Elkassaby, Director of Digital Dentistry at the Department of Restorative Dentistry. “I heard a saying that made a big impression on me: Sometimes you’ll go into a room where you’ll be the only woman in the room. You want to be the one who opens the door for other women.’’
Dr. Elkassaby’s award, called the Enid A. Neidle Scholar-in-Residence Program, encompasses opportunities to learn more about issues facing women faculty, including childcare, entry and re-entry into the workforce, and promotion and tenure policies. Typically, the fellowship includes time in Washington, DC, but that might be replaced by virtual meetings due to the pandemic, said Elkassaby.
In addition to gaining a perspective on the obstacles that can face women in academia, Elkassaby will also be testing a digital dentistry protocol that could reduce the time it takes to make dentures.
Her research would replace the conventional process of preliminary and definitive impressions with intraoral scanning and 3D printing. It would also substitute the use of a conventional facebow with a digital version.
At RSDM, Dr. Elkassaby has worked to integrate the technology of digital complete dentures into preclinical education and helped establish RSDM's digital dentistry center.
She is passionate about the potential of digital dentistry to improve, not only patientcare, but revolutionize education because of its precision and absence of bias. “Self- assessment computer software is objective and calibrated. It eliminates the subjectivity of humans.’’
It also inspires creativity and the desire to keep learning. “The power of digital dentistry is that there are no limitations to what you can do, your imagination is the only limitation,’’ said Dr. Elkassaby. “It’s always evolving. The technology is moving so fast, you have to keep up with it.''
