CU Dental 2018 - 15

Nick Arlas dons a chefs' hat and presents one
his healthy creations.

The Frontier Center 4 Health program
was established in 2005 through a
donation from the Delta Dental of Colorado
Foundation. The new culinary class, which
launched in January 2017, is the first of its
kind in the country to integrate medical
and dental students in culinary and dietary
classes.
"We want them to learn together and
from one another," said Megan Wilson,
senior program officer for the Delta Dental
of Colorado Foundation. "This really helps
facilitate improved communication for reallife scenarios where different specialties
will work together."
The central focus of the Frontier
program is getting all kinds of health
profession students understanding the
connection between oral health and
overall health.
"So it teaches medical students how
to do oral exams and the importance of
oral health as part of overall health, and
vice versa; it helps the dental students
make the connection between oral health
and medical health," Wilson said. "Our

This class is great
"
because they give really
specific examples of
how we can advise our
patients to make small
changes."

Matt Torres, Danielle Loo and Jessica Sargeson
learn cooking skills and how to communicate
nutrition tips to their patients.

mouths are the entry for so much that
happens in our bodies - there are over
125 different medical conditions that can
be affected by or caused by conditions in
your mouth."
In 12 years, more than 3,500
medical, pharmacy, nursing and other
health profession students, residents
and practitioners have gone through the
Frontier Center 4 Health, completing
classes alongside each other.
"These future medical and dental
practitioners will be taught now to talk to
each other and think about these things
now so that when they have their own
patients it's already second nature," said
Dr. Tamanna Tiwari, assistant professor at
the University of Colorado School of Dental
Medicine. "In the past, that communication
has not always been present in real world
situations."
The healthy cooking classes are the
new way to get the students working
together toward that common goal of
overall health and medical coordination.
The eight-week culinary crash course
begins with CU students learning basics
about diet and portion control. Then they
move to the kitchen to cook a healthy
meal together.
"We started the first class with
knife basics," said Marleen Swanson,
department chair of culinary nutrition at
Johnson & Wales. "It's so much fun to
watch them because you see that they
have become very skilled."
Swanson has been a registered

Dental student, Gabriela Andrade, and medical
student, Nick Stephanus, display the healthy
meals they prepared.

dietitian for more than 30 years. During
the CU cooking class, she taught students
recipes and easy cooking tricks to teach
to anyone - things like baking brownies
with tofu or black bean puree or yogurt
to cut the fat content in half without
compromising flavor.
"Doctors need to know about heart
disease and hypertension and diabetes,"
Swanson said. "I can't tell you how many
times I've received a diabetic patient
referral from a doctor who told them to
cut back their sugar. That was all they
could say. Well, indeed, sugar needs to
be watched, but you truly need to look
at a whole lifestyle plan. We want these
students to be able to advise patients on
those things."
Just as second-year dental student
Matt Torres's broccoli puffs popped out
of the oven, a medical student brought
over a tray of black bean burger patties to
cool off.
"Our patient is suffering from
constipation, and so we prepared the
broccoli and vegetable-loaded burgers to
get them the fiber that they're lacking,"
Torres, 28, said.
"This class is great because they give
really specific examples of how we can
advise our patients to make small changes.
We don't want them to go from eating
McDonald's every day to cooking gourmet
meals at home every day, but it's the little
changes, and understanding them, that
make the difference in the long run."

DENTAL. INTEGRATED FOR HEALTH.

15



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CU Dental 2018

Tablet of Contents
CU Dental 2018 - Cover1
CU Dental 2018 - Cover2
CU Dental 2018 - Tablet of Contents
CU Dental 2018 - 2
CU Dental 2018 - 3
CU Dental 2018 - 4
CU Dental 2018 - 5
CU Dental 2018 - 6
CU Dental 2018 - 7
CU Dental 2018 - 8
CU Dental 2018 - 9
CU Dental 2018 - 10
CU Dental 2018 - 11
CU Dental 2018 - 12
CU Dental 2018 - 13
CU Dental 2018 - 14
CU Dental 2018 - 15
CU Dental 2018 - 16
CU Dental 2018 - 17
CU Dental 2018 - 18
CU Dental 2018 - 19
CU Dental 2018 - 20
CU Dental 2018 - 21
CU Dental 2018 - 22
CU Dental 2018 - 23
CU Dental 2018 - 24
CU Dental 2018 - 25
CU Dental 2018 - 26
CU Dental 2018 - 27
CU Dental 2018 - 28
CU Dental 2018 - 29
CU Dental 2018 - 30
CU Dental 2018 - 31
CU Dental 2018 - 32
CU Dental 2018 - Cover3
CU Dental 2018 - Cover4
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