Dr. Christine Hong Receives Orthodontic Faculty Development Award

Dr. Christine Hong is an assistant professor and serves as the director of the Pre-Doctoral Orthodontics program and the co-director of research in the Section of Orthodontics at UCLA School of Dentistry. She joined the UCLA Section of Orthodontics as a full-time faculty member immediately after the completion of her orthodontic residency at UCLA, where she also received her M.S. in Oral Biology. Her master's thesis was focused on assessing the stability of different mini implant design variables currently available to orthodontic treatment and inventing a novel design to minimize root damage during insertion.

Dr. Hong obtained her dental education from Harvard School of Dental Medicine. Prior to attending dental school, she completed a two-year research fellowship at the J. David Gladstone Institutes. Since her undergraduate years at Cornell University, she has researched various topics ranging from molecular biology, neuroscience and biomedical engineering to psychosocial and clinical medicine. To further enrich her professional development as an orthodontic educator, she participated in AAO's Academy of Academic Leadership Sponsorship Program, which was designed to refine skills for teaching and academic leadership.

The Orthodontic Faculty Development Fellowship Award from the American Association of Orthodontists Foundation will greatly support Dr. Hong's academic development in teaching and research. Dr. Hong maintains her own laboratory and is involved in numerous research projects ranging from clinical and translational to basic science research. Her current translational research involves elucidating the failure of bone graft procedure and the relapse of palatal expansion, significant clinical problems in craniofacial orthodontics, using animal models for the stability of expansion and secondary bone graft in alveolar defect. With the AAOF Award, Dr. Hong will be able to advance her ongoing translational research projects to answer important orthodontic clinical questions leveraging accumulated basic scientific and biomedical engineering knowledge.

The Orthodontic Faculty Development Award will provide Dr. Hong the opportunity to continue to develop her academic career as a full-time tenure-track faculty member at the UCLA School of Dentistry. It will significantly further Dr. Hong's potential to strengthen orthodontic education for both pre-doctoral and post-doctoral students at UCLA. She plans to establish herself as a scientist in clinical orthodontics and translational research, as a mentor to dental students and orthodontic residents, and as a practicing orthodontist. Dr. Hong will be mentored by renowned molecular bone biologists Dr. Kang Ting, the Chair of the Section of Orthodontics; and Dr. Cun-Yu Wang, the Chair of Oral Biology and Medicine, and an Associate Dean for Graduate Studies at the UCLA School of Dentistry. Under the faculty mentorship, Dr. Hong will follow a well-structured plan of research, teaching and clinical practice designed to nurture her academic career in orthodontics.

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