Meet the Speakers
Dr. Michael Brennan
Michael T. Brennan, DDS, MHS, FDS RCSEd (OM) is currently Chairman with the Department of Oral Medicine/Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center. He is also Professor, Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He has extensive research experience with over 175 peer reviewed articles and book chapters and currently is the co-PI on an NIH U01 grant examining the oral sequela in head and neck cancer patients treated with radiation therapy, the lead coordinating investigator for a phase IIb study pharmaceutical funded study assessing a first in human treatment for oral lichen planus and the site PI of a phase I study to assess gene therapy treatment (via adeno-associated viral vector) in subjects with radiation-induced parotid gland hypofunction and xerostomia.
Dr. Eric Stoopler
Dr. Stoopler is a Professor of Oral Medicine at Penn Dental Medicine. He completed his undergraduate studies at S.U.N.Y Binghamton in 1994 and earned his D.M.D. from Penn in 1999. Dr. Stoopler completed a General Practice Residency at the Brooklyn VA Hospital in 2000 and a Fellowship in Oral Medicine at Penn in 2002. Dr. Stoopler is a Diplomate of The American Board of Oral Medicine and The American Board of Special Care Dentistry. Currently, he maintains an active clinical oral medicine practice at Penn Medicine and is a Consultant to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Stoopler is an Editor of Little and Falace’s Dental Management of the Medically Compromised Patient and a contributing author to Burket’s Oral Medicine.
Dr. David Dean
David Dean is the director of Oral Medicine at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and an associate clinical professor at the University of Washington School of Dentistry (where he also served as Oral Medicine graduate program director from 2016 to 2022). A lifelong Husky, he completed his BS, DDS, and MSD at UW.
He is a diplomat of the American Board of Oral Medicine and a fellow in the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh and the American College of Dentists. Academic honors include the Bruce R. Rothwell distinguished teaching award and the UWSOD Dental Alumni Faculty award.
Scholarship includes an NIDCR-funded R01 assessing the oral impacts of chronic GVHD and co-editing a recent international special edition of Frontiers in Oral Medicine ("Oral Complications in Cancer Patients").
Dr. Robert Convissar
Dr. Convissar is a pioneer in the field of laser dentistry. One of the first dentists to incorporate lasers into general practice, Dr. Convissar has over 28 years of experience with CO2, Nd.YAG, Diode and Erbium wavelengths. The author of over 15 peer reviewed papers and author/coauthor of 6 textbooks on laser dentistry, Dr. Convissar has presented over 300 laser seminars on all 5 continents. He practices cosmetic, restorative, and laser dentistry in New York City, where he also serves as Director of Laser Dentistry at New York Presbyterian Hospital Queens. His textbook, "Principles and Practice of Laser Dentistry," now in its 2nd edition, has been the #1 selling laser dentistry textbook in the world for the past 8 years.
Dr. Praveen Arany
Dr. Arany is an Associate Professor of Oral Biology at the University of Buffalo School of Dental Medicine. He has adjunct appointments in Surgery, Biomedical Engineering, Nursing, and Physical Therapy. He completed a joint PhD-Residency program as a Harvard Presidential Scholar and holds certificates in clinical translational research from Harvard Medical School and the National Institute of Health. He pursued additional fellowships at the Indian Institute of Sciences, the National Cancer Institute and Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences & Wyss Institute. He has published over 125 peer-reviewed articles, recipient of numerous awards, and active member of organizations promoting lasers and photobiomodulation (WALT, NAALT, Optica, SPIE). Dr. Arany’s work has been featured in mainstream media such as Fox news, CNN, BBC, and Reuters.