Dr. Marci Levine
NYU Langone Medical Center/Bellevue Hospital Center
1. What drew you to dental education (or dentistry)?
After graduating from oral and maxillofacial surgery residency training, I moved back to New York. I completed a fellowship and worked in a private practice with an oral surgeon who was an academic oral surgeon and the former residency program director at Bellevue Hospital. He strongly encouraged me to volunteer at the NYU College of Dentistry and spend time with the students. I quickly discovered that I greatly enjoyed teaching, and I ultimately decided to switch from private practice to a full-time position at the school. This year marks my 18th year at NYU.
2. What’s the one piece of advice you would give to anyone in dental school?
3. In 10 years, the biggest change about dental education (or dentistry) will be …
The use of innovative technology to train students. As students continue to readily embrace the use of technology in their everyday lives, we too, as faculty must learn how to use advanced technology to best teach and train our students. I created a virtual reality simulation for local anesthesia training, and this is the fifth year that every NYU second-year student practices skills related to the delivery of local anesthesia using VR and gives their first inferior alveolar nerve block virtually. All our third-year students check out the VR equipment and practice the same simulation skills at home before their first patient encounters in the oral surgery clinic. Students tell me that they feel more confident after practicing this way and are less nervous when they inject patients.
4. What’s one thing people would be surprised to learn about you?
I was an animal sciences major at Cornell University. When I started college, I thought I would become a veterinarian. After spending time in a veterinarian’s office and tending to the animals on Cornell’s farm, I decided I would prefer treating patients who are more verbal and less hairy.