Download Orthodontic Faculty Development Fellowship Awards Dr. Riyad Al

Orthodontic Faculty Development Fellowship Awards
Dr. Riyad Al-Qawasmi, BDS, MSD, PhD, University of Detroit Mercy
Synopsis
Dr. Al-Qawasmi is an Associate professor at the University of Detroit
Mercy since 2012. He is a board certified orthodontist and a researcher.
He received his dental degree from the Jordan University of Science and
Technology and his MSD, PhD and Certificate in Orthodontics from
Indiana University Dental School. He has published research papers in
refereed journals and has contributed to book chapters. Dr. Al-Qawasmi
continues to do research in the areas of tooth movement, physiology
and population genetics while serving as a research mentor to the
students at UDM Dental School. He also teaches clinical and theoretical
courses at both the graduate and post-graduate level in orthodontics
and related subjects. He practices privately in Canton, MI, where he lives
with his wife and two children.
The research project supported by the fellowship to Dr. Al-Qawasmi will evaluate the heritability of
smile genetic in non-treated siblings. While is it evident that genetic and environmental factors both
contribute to facial appearance smile dynamics, a gap of knowledge exists in separating the various
genetic and environmental effects contributing to smile esthetics. Lack of such knowledge is a major
problem for the dentist and orthodontist because it limits what they can do to alter smile esthetics with
the different dental and orthodontic procedures. The smile will be studied in 60 siblings recruited from
our clinic before treatment and then heritability estimates will be calculated to determine the
proportion of variation in smile parameters that is controlled by genetics.
The support from American Association of Orthodontists Foundation (AAOF) for this project is of
paramount importance in facilitating Dr. Al-Qawasmi recent return to academic life and research after a
gap of several years in which he started his private practice. He is very grateful for the tremendous
support that AAOF have made over the years in order to promote and advance the profession. The
support from AAOF will be helpful in establishing the research lab at the University of Detroit Mercy
where he will carry on his project. The AAOF support is a corner stone in launching new research
projects with new directions that will lead ultimately to obtain preliminary data necessary to pursue
more funding from other institutes.