Third-year Penn Dental Medicine student Kazuma Kitagaito, D’17, MSE’17, was recognized for his clinical research with an award presented in November at the 21st annual Hinman Student Research Symposium in Memphis, Tennessee, sponsored by the University of Tennessee College of Dentistry and the Hinman Dental Society. Mr. Kitagaito received one of four clinical research awards for outstanding presentations from among the 94 participating students.

Mr. Kitagaito’s project evaluated the pre-treatment of composite resin restorations with the antimicrobial agent chlorhexidine gluconate (CHX) as an intermediate step in inhibiting the matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) to preserve resin/dentin bond durability. The project was directed by Fusun Ozer, associate professor of restorative dentistry at Penn Dental Medicine.