The Legacy of Jonathan A. Ship

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JONATHAN A . SHIP – A REMEMBRANCE The recent death of Jonathan Ship, DMD was a great loss for us all in that we lost a friend, colleague, and researcher. Jonathan received a BA in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1980 and a DMD in 1984. He completed his General Practice Residency at Montefiore Medical Center and in 1989 was a Fellow in Oral Medicine and Clinical Dental Research at the National Institutes of Dental Research under the guidance of Dr. Bruce Baum. He then went on to become a faculty member at the University of Michigan in 1992. In 2000 he moved to New York University as Professor of Basic Science and Craniofacial Biology. The focus of his research was to gain a better understanding of the influence of aging, systemic diseases, and medications on oral health and function. His research investigations began with a systematic approach to assessing oral conditions in healthy populations of different-aged adults. Evaluations of olfaction, gustation, periodontal and mucosal diseases, dental caries, salivary function, and oral motor function were conducted in several large populations of healthy adults across the entire age spectrum. In general, his findings suggested that age per se, in the absence of major medical problems and their treatments, had little influence on the incidence or prevalence of oral diseases. Specifically, his research findings demonstrated that specific systemic conditions, medications, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy had greater adverse affects on the health and function of the oral cavity than the simple chronological passing of time in healthy adults. Many of his studies focused on salivary physiology because of the role saliva plays in the protection and preservation of oral and pharyngeal health. Oral and systemic conditions traditionally associated with salivary dysfunction were examined in several population-based studies, taking into consideration multiple sociodemographic and biological factors: menopause, dehydration, diabetes, hypothyroidism, Sjogren's syndrome, menopause, periodontal diseases, medications, and head and neck radiotherapy. Diabetes has multiple deleterious influences on oral health, but evaluation in the elderly has been limited. He initiated a prospective and longitudinal investigation assessing the role of age, glycemic control, and other sociodemographic and oral factors on the prevalence and incidence of dental caries, periodontopathogens, periodontal disease progression, and salivary function. His findings to date demonstrate that older adults with poor glycemic control are more likely to develop caries, periodontal attachment loss, and salivary hypofunction compared to well-controlled diabetics or age-, gender-, and race-matched non-diabetic controls. Another area of his research was in salivary function in aging adults. The loss of physiological reserve has been a well-accepted phenomenon in the aging of most organ systems of the body. While most clinicians and scientists have assumed that this process occurs in the oral cavity as well, it has never been proven in an objective fashion. Using saliva as his test oral system, he initiated a double-blind placebo-controlled crossover designed clinical investigation using healthy young and older adults to assess objective and subjective measures of salivary function after administration of a potent antisialogogue (glycopyrrolate). The results demonstrated that there were markedly greater drug-induced salivary impairment and salivary inhibition in older adults compared to younger adults. Jon was the principal investigator on a grant from the NIH for $26.7 million. This was the largest grant received by any school at NYU. Jon clearly was a talented researcher as can be seen from his multiple publications and the fact that he was honoured by IADR as a Distinguished Scientist in Geriatric Oral Research which is only awarded to one person each year. However, Jon’s greatest strength was his concern for others which made him an excellent teacher and mentor. The following is a memory written by one of his fellows. (Introduction written by Ronald Ettinger.) “Who is Dr. Jon Ship?” my 8-year-old asked me.