October 21, 2020
Buffalo, N.Y. — Sebastian G. Ciancio, D.D.S., a number one researcher in periodontology and pharmacology and recipient of the ADA’s 2014 Norton M. Ross Award for Excellence in Clinical Research, died Oct. 17 on the age of 83.
![]() Dr. Ciancio |
“Sir Isaac Newton wrote in a 1675 letter to Robert Hooke, ‘If I’ve seen additional, it’s by standing on the shoulders of giants,’” stated Mia Geisinger, D.D.S., quick previous chair of the ADA Council on Scientific Affairs and professor on the College of Alabama Faculty of Dentistry. “Dr. Sebastian Ciancio was really a large in our area. All through his over-50-year profession, Dr. Ciancio modified the way in which that all of us apply dentistry and gave mentorship and inspiration to so many dentists and dental scientists. Along with his good work as a researcher, he was a passionate educator and touched so a lot of his college students, residents and fellows, a lot of whom have gone on to soar to heights, launched from his shoulders.”
‘Without end grateful’
Marcelo Araujo, D.D.S., Ph.D., ADA chief science officer and ADA Science & Analysis Institute CEO, stated Dr. Ciancio was a mentor to many within the dental career.
“Dr. Ciancio was not only a chief in dentistry, he was concerned within the improvement of many therapeutic brokers and gadgets at the moment utilized by many members of the ADA,” Dr. Araujo stated. “His newest work with the ADA Council on Scientific Affairs led to the publication of the ADA Dental Drug Handbook: A Quick Reference. Throughout my fellowship in scientific analysis and instructing in periodontics, I discovered loads of the talents that allowed me to get to my present place on the ADA. I will probably be eternally grateful to Dr. Ciancio.”
Except for the Norton M. Ross Award honor, Dr. Ciancio’s curriculum vitae is replete with different awards. A few of these embrace the Gold Medal Award offered by the American Academy of Periodontology; the Distinguished Service Award by america Pharmacopeia; the Hirschfeld Award in Periodontics from the Northeastern Society of Periodontists; and the Distinguished Scientist Award in Pharmacology from the Worldwide Affiliation for Dental Analysis.
Dr. Ciancio was the creator or coauthor of greater than 150 articles pertaining to periodontal illness and dental therapeutics in main dental journals, serving as editor of Organic Therapies in Dentistry, a publication for dental professionals, and advisor for the Journal of Periodontology.
In line with his school website, his analysis pursuits included the consequences of systemic treatment on oral well being; native supply of treatment for the prevention/therapy of periodontal illness; supply techniques for oral medicines; and the impact of medicines on collagen metabolism.
Analysis leads the way in which
On prime of analysis, Dr. Ciancio was an energetic chief inside the ADA and different skilled organizations.
“Dr. Ciancio was additionally an advocate of organized dentistry and an avid volunteer,” Dr. Geisinger stated. “He served because the co-chair of the ADA Council on Scientific Affairs and because the president of each the American Academy of Periodontology and the American Academy of Periodontology Basis. As somebody who has stood in his outsized sneakers in two of these roles, I used to be reminded of his beneficiant spirit and his dedication to our career and our sufferers and tried to reside as much as his instance.”
Dr. Ciancio additionally served as a Fee on Dental Accreditation overview committee member twice, on two totally different committees: dental hygiene schooling and postdoctoral normal dentistry schooling.
Dr. Ciancio was most lately the distinguished service professor and quick previous chair within the Division of Periodontics and Endodontics and director of the Heart for Dental Research at State College of New York at Buffalo. He additionally was a scientific professor within the Division of Pharmacology at SUNY and a advisor for the Veterans Administration Medical Heart and the Erie County Medical Heart.
Lasting legacy
Born June 21, 1937, Dr. Ciancio earned his dental diploma from the State College of New York at Buffalo Faculty of Dental Drugs, the place he additionally accomplished a Nationwide Institutes of Well being analysis fellowship within the division of physiology and fellowships in pharmacology and periodontology. His postdoctoral work included research in biostatistics on the College of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; periodontology at SUNY; radio-isotope methods at Western New York Nuclear Heart; and scientific pharmacology at Vanderbilt College.
In 2014, Dr. Ciancio was the recipient of one of many ADA’s biggest honors, the Norton M. Ross Award for Excellence in Medical Analysis. In an ADA Information interview the place the consideration was introduced, Dr. Ciancio credited Dr. Ross himself as a mentor.
“[Dr. Ross] is among the first who launched me to the essential rules of scientific analysis,” Dr. Ciancio stated on the time. “He pioneered the idea of evidence-based dentistry, which was remarkable 40 years in the past after I started my scientific analysis. We would labored collectively over time. As a matter of truth, the primary monograph I ever revealed was with him. It was on pharmacology.”
Lorne M. Golub, D.M.D., distinguished professor of oral biology at pathology at Stony Brook College’s Faculty of Dental Drugs, who, together with Michael Glick, D.M.D, nominated Dr. Ciancio for the Norton M. Ross Award for Excellence in Medical Analysis, stated that Dr. Ciancio “was well known as a world professional within the pharmacological administration of oral and associated systemic illnesses … I miss him deeply.”
Dr. Glick, former editor of The Journal of the American Dental Affiliation and professor in oral diagnostic sciences on the College at Buffalo Faculty of Dental Drugs, stated Dr. Ciancio was a “mentor, buddy and colleague … He has a legacy that may endure for an extended, very long time.”
Joseph J. Zambon, D.D.S., Ph.D., dean of the College at Buffalo Faculty of Dental Drugs, stated in an e mail to the tutorial neighborhood that Dr. Ciancio was “one of many world’s main figures in periodontology, and he was the longest-serving division chair in all of SUNY.”
Dr. Zambon stated that the varsity plans on celebrating Dr. Ciancio’s profession and life at an upcoming symposium in his honor – “The Slicing Fringe of Medical Analysis in Oral Well being” — to be held at a future date in 2021.
Dr. Ciancio is survived by his spouse, Marilyn Ciancio, kids Michele Bessinger and Sebastian J. Ciancio, and 4 grandchildren, in response to his obituary.
Memorials could also be made in Dr. Ciancio’s reminiscence to the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine Scholarship Fund.