Amaechi, Bennett Tochukwu

Dental School
Comprehensive Dentistry
(210) 567-3185
amaechi@uthscsa.edu

Dr. Ben Amaechi, a Professor and Director of Cariology in the Department of Comprehensive Dentistry at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, received his dental degree at the College of Health sciences of the University of Ife. Dr. Amaechi began his career as a dentist with specialist training in prosthetic dentistry and dental implantology at Guys Hospital, London in United Kingdom, where he obtained a Masters degree, and later a PhD degree in Cariology at the University of Liverpool School of Dentistry in United Kingdom. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Dentistry International, and a member of the American Dental Association Technical Advisory Group (TAG 106- Dentistry) on dental equipment (TAG 6) and Oral hygiene products (TAG 7), and therefore serves as US expert representative on these two areas at the International Standard Organization (ISO). He directs the Cariology course, Caries detection clinic, and caries management module of second year pre-doctoral clinic. He teaches clinical preventive dentistry, caries risk management, and caries diagnostics to the dental students, dental residents, and graduate students of biomedical engineering. He has been invited as guest speaker/lecturer in Caries Management at local, national and international levels. His research expertise is on dental caries, with particular interest in development, evaluation and clinical trials of anticaries agents and caries diagnostics. Dr. Amaechi has mentored students, faculty and fellows, both in US and overseas, in these areas of research. Through his collaboration with foreign institutions, to promote international interaction, he has mentored students and faculty members in countries such as Egypt, China, India, Iran, Malaysia, Korea, Slovenia,Uganda, Singapore and Nigeria. He has authored/co-authored several journal articles, book chapters, conference proceedings and abstracts in studies of Caries and caries diagnostics. He is a frequent presenter in national and international scientific conferences. As an active member of various professional and scientific organizations, Dr. Amaechi serves in several professional and scientific committees/task forces at institutional, national and international level. At local level, he has served as the chair of the Faculty Senate of the University of Texas Health Science Center, and a Health Science Center representative at the University of Texas System Faculty Advisory Council. He served as an elected member of the Advisory Board of the European Organization for Caries Research (2005-2008), and in this organization, he is a member of both the international working group for development of a core Cariology curriculum targeted for global adoption, and the working group for stimulation and promotion of research into caries in developing countries. In American Dental Education Association, Dr. Amaechi is a member of both the Cariology Section and the CAMBRA coalition (Caries management by risk Assessment), where he serves as the liaison between the American and the European groups on the development of a core cariology curriculum. He has served as the president of the Local Chapter of the American Association of Dental Research and the chair of the Fellowship Committee of the national body of this organization. As a member of the International Association for Dental Research (IADR), he served as the President, President-elect, and Secretary/Treasurer, and current Group Program Chair of the Cariology Research group, member of the IADR Recruitment & Membership committee, and current member of the IADR constitution committee. Dr. Amaechi completed a service in a task force (Global Challenge) charged with developing research agenda to combat Global Oral Heath Inequalities - Dental Caries. Dr. Amaechi is a reviewer to several scientific journals and grant funding bodies including NIH. He is a pioneer member of the Commonwealth Dental Association, and a former member of the British Dental Association.