They say don’t bite off more than you can chew, but challenging yourself often helps you grow. So bite off a bit more than you can chew and conduct research.

Author: Duru Erkan | Majors: Biology and French

My name is Duru Erkan, and I am an honors fellow majoring in Biology and French and minoring in Psychology on a pre-med track. I conduct research in Dr. Peter Ungar’s Dental Topographic Analysis and Microwear Lab. I have been involved in a couple projects during my time in the lab, but the one I am writing my thesis on is about creating a new method for quantifying dental fissures to monitor cavity susceptibility. I have been doing research with Dr. Ungar since my freshman year, and I will be defending in the spring. After graduation, I will be taking a gap year to teach abroad and later return to the U.S. for medical school.

Dentists widely believe that the deeper and the more complex teeth are, the more likely it is for bacteria to get stuck and cause cavities. It seems like this is common sense; cariogenic (cavity-causing) bacteria will choose the hardest-to-clean places on tooth surfaces to thrive and reproduce. For this reason, dentists usually recommend sealants to fill in the deepest parts of tooth surfaces to prevent cavities. But there is actually no empirical data showing that this is the case, and no objective method to determine which fissures really need sealants. This in turn can cause unnecessary expenses for dental patients.

In order to see if the deepness and complexity of the grooves on teeth— called fissures—truly affect cavity development, there must be an objective fissure classification system. For my senior thesis, I developed three, fast, non-invasive, and reliable methods to quantify fissure pattern using 3D analytic software and intraoral scanners newly common in dental clinics. The first method looks at the steepness of angles created by occlusal groove-fossa systems (in other words, angles created by the cusps and fissures). The second focuses on the percent of fissure pixels that make up a tooth’s surface. The third quantifies fissures by their raw surface area. I found that these three methods combined provide a robust description of fissures than previously achieved by other methods. However, unlike popular belief, I ended up not seeing any association between fissure complexity and cavity development!

I picked this research topic for my thesis because I wanted to study something that could have a clinical benefit. I hope to pursue medicine after college, and I wanted my project to be applicable to more than just the research community. Dr. Ungar’s lab allowed me to do just that. I was introduced to Dr. Ungar after his guest lecture in our Biology for Majors course as a freshman. I was captivated by his research, and I asked if he had an open seat in his lab after his lecture.

I feel that my research experience has been different than most students because my project was to come up with a protocol rather than using protocols that already exist to do other research. This was challenging because I had to do a lot of self-teaching and trial-and-error testing. I had a lot more questions than answers most of the time, and a lot of hours in the lab were spent watching YouTube videos and browsing Reddit for tips on coding or Adobe. I learned to not be discouraged by the bumps in the road after a while, and that it is okay to not know everything.

Dr. Ungar was particularly helpful in guiding me. When I had questions, he would answer them happily; and if he could not, he would get his expert colleagues from other universities involved. He also encouraged the “Ungargrads” (Dr. Ungar’s undergrad researchers) to help one another as well. I found the lab to be a very enriching environment.

Now, I am working on writing up my thesis, and I am excited for the chance to defend my hard work next semester. The writing process has been challenging in a different way than the rest of my study. I have written many lab reports and read my fair share of scientific papers but producing a thesis and putting everything I have done into words seems to be more difficult than I expected. But nevertheless, my draft is coming along slowly. It feels surreal that the project I have been working on since sophomore year is now complete.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to write a thesis and contribute to the scientific community. This experience has allowed me to learn so much about research methods, lab etiquette, and accountability. I have grown as a student researcher over the past couple years, and I am beyond thankful for the support the honors college and Dr. Ungar has provided me with to complete my biggest project to date. I look forward to applying what I have learned through my research experience to my future career.