Teaching Activities: Dr. Wefel's primary teaching responsibilities include the areas of graduate and undergraduate cariology, preventive therapies, and undergraduate seminars in selective courses.
Research Activities: Dr. Wefel's areas of research include early caries detection, mechanisms of action of fluoride, topical fluorides, remineralization, kinetics of calcium phosphate crystal growth, laser and tooth interactions, secondary caries, oral fluoride kinetics, antimicrobials, and F-releasing materials. Specific research in the Dows Institute for Dental Research includes early caries detection, root surface caries, laser prevention of tooth demineralization, and F-releasing biomaterials and secondary caries. Activities include promotion of research from the laboratory to the clinical in the Center for Clinical Studies.
National or International Professional Appointments or Activities:
Current reviewer for The Journal of Clinical Dentistry; Journal of Dental Research; Caries Research; Calcified Tissue Research; Archives of Oral Biology; American Journal of Dentistry; Journal of Oral Pathology and Gerodontology; reviewer
for the National Institute of Dental
and Craniofacial Research; outside reviewer for the National Science Foundation and American Fund for Dental Health; ad hoc
reviewer for the Board of Scientific Counselors, NIDCR; former president of the Cariology Research Group, IADR (1990-1991); current consultant for the American Dental Association Council on
Scientific Affairs; recipient of the IADR Distinguished Scientists Award; current member of the American Association
for Dental Research; the International Association of Dental Research; the American Dental Education Association;
and the European Association for Caries Research; and member of several College of Dentistry
committees.
James S. Wefel