Dr. Pacheco-Pereira honored twice over at the 2020 AAOMR annual session

Kristen Zapata

October 30, 2020

The American Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology (AAOMR) has presented third-year oral and maxillofacial radiology resident, Camila Pacheco-Pereira, DDS, MBA, MSc, with the 2020 William H. Rollins Award for Research in Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology and the 2020 Howard R. Raper Graduate Student Award.

The awards were presented at the 71st annual session of the AAOMR on Thursday, October 29, 2020, which featured a presentation by Dr. Pereira as the Rollins awardee.

Named after “dentistry’s forgotten man”, the William H. Rollins Award for Research in Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology recognizes an individual with an outstanding body of research. Dr. William H. Rollins was among the first to warn about the adverse effects of radiation.

Dr. Pereira has published more than 50 articles, most in evidence-based dentistry journals, on a variety of topics from oral and maxillofacial radiology to orthodontics. She has a keen interest in survey-based research, such as patient satisfaction rankings.

Her most recent focus in research, as well as her Rollins presentation topic, is on dento-osseous alterations and trabecular bone patterns of Familial Adenomatous Polyposis (FAP) patients, or those with Gardner’s syndrome.

The Howard R. Raper Graduate Student Award recognizes a promising graduate student who demonstrates an interest in oral and maxillofacial radiology and intends to pursue a career in academia.

Dr. Pereira sees an academic career in her future. She hopes to work with oral and maxillofacial radiology students to develop innovative, multispecialty research projects with them, once she returns to her faculty post at the University of Alberta, Canada.

“I’m overwhelmed with all this good news,” shares Dr. Pereira. “What a blessing for me and for our program! The UTHSA oral and maxillofacial radiology program is showing how solid it is.”

Dr. Pereira credits much of her success to Hassem Geha, DDS, MDS, professor and director of the advanced oral and maxillofacial radiology program.

“Our program is so proud of Dr. Pereira’s outstanding achievement in obtaining the AAOMR awards for outstanding research by a graduate student and outstanding graduate student with potential for an academic career in OMR,” Dr. Geha exclaims. “Having worked with her for the last two years, we were not surprised by this milestone achievement at the start of her career. We commend her on this well-deserved success and we wish her more success in the future.”