Sejal R. Thacker, DDS, MDSc, is a board-certified periodontist and the director of the Post-Graduate Periodontics Program at UConn Health in Farmington. She maintains a private clinical practice as a periodontist and implant surgeon in Connecticut. Thacker is an educator, clinician, researcher, and leader. She was named a “LEAD Graduate” by the American Academy of Periodontology (AAP) in 2018, and received the AAP Award for Outstanding Teaching and Mentoring in Periodontics in both 2015 and 2019.
Periodontal diseases have long been defined as bacterial infections involving dental plaque made of polymicrobial communities. Current knowledge, however, suggests they are complex, multifactorial diseases whose signs and symptoms are…