Heritage Snapshot: Part 237

LOMA LINDA>> In addition to the short-term visits to Loma Linda University School of Dentistry by Dr. Wu and Dr. Sheng, many other dentists from the Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital dental clinic, as well as one of the clinic managers, have spent time at Loma Linda University improving their skills. This is an ongoing project that is to a large extent facilitated by the assistance of the Loma Linda University Global Health Institute (GHI) which handles all the details necessary for successful visits to Loma Linda. The history of the Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital Dental Clinic would not be complete without mentioning the important role played by U.S. dentists traveling to SRRSH to share their skills and knowledge. The long list of School of Dentistry alumni and faculty, includes those who in some cases worked and taught in the clinic for many months. Dr. Lloyd Baum was instrumental in recruiting many United States colleagues to serve in Hangzhou, China. The visits to SRRSH also included, in addition to working and teaching in the clinic, the presentation of continuing education (CE) programs to the staff and community dentists. These CE programs have covered the spectrum of dentistry and began in 1997, with Baum setting up various lecture courses. The first CE course was on porcelain crown and bridges. Later, because of the growing interest in endodontics (root canal treatment), Sheng invited Dr. Leif K. Bakland, Chair of the Department of Endodontics at Loma Linda University School of Dentistry, to come to SRRSH to give a three-night course in 2001. By word of mouth, the information about the course spread so that the final evening the course had to be moved to the Hospital’s largest conference hall, which filled up with dentists from the community wanting to hear about this relatively unknown procedure. The interest among Chinese dentists in root canal treatment continued and Bakland arranged several more courses over the years. When Bakland presented a CE course on endodontics in 2010, many of the dentists at SRRSH dental clinic obtained a copy of the Chinese translation of a textbook on endodontics that Bakland co-edited. After working with Sheng and Wu in setting up and running subsequent continuing education courses it became obvious to Bakland that it was necessary to ask someone who could devote the necessary time to such a project, to take on the task. Dr. Thor Bakland, newly retired from the School of Dentistry and already quite familiar with the Dental Clinic after having helped Dr. Baum design it in the early ‘90s, accepted the invitation from SRRSH to serve as the coordinator of CE courses for the Dental Department in 2004. For the next eight years he played an important role in many of the continuing education activities of the Department. During the past decade CE programs have taken place on an annual basis and in recent years have coincided with the Hospital’s Educational Week. Broadening the scope of CE has led to innovative efforts such as the dental trauma conference held in May 2013 in Hangzhou, a program cosponsored by the SRRSH Dental Department, Zhejiang University, and the International Association of Dental Traumatology. Another highlight in the Dental Department’s CE activities took place in 2004, during the Hospital’s 10th anniversary: a “Lloyd Baum Symposium,” was held featuring continuing dental education for local dentists with lectures by Baum and several invited speakers. In addition to coordinating CE activities for the Dental Department, Bakland became involved in designing a larger dental clinic to be located in Tower 3, a new 22-story addition to SRRSH. The new 27-chair International Dental Clinic is located next to the new International Medical Clinic and was opened on May 19, 2009 with the Hospital president, Dr. He presiding. Subsequently one of the operatories was remodeled to become a state-of-the art surgical suite that is now identified as the Lloyd Baum Dental Implant Center. This state-of-the-art operatory has become so well-known and recognized that patients travel there from all parts of China.