Department of Orthodontics

Standing Faculty

Robert L. Vanarsdall, Jr., DDS
Dr. Vanarsdall is Professor and Chair of the Department of Orthodontics. His clinical research has involved orthodontic patients' periodontal condition before, during, and after orthodontic therapy. Periodontal outcome following orthodontic treatment has been ongoing for the past 20 years, involving adverse effects of mechanotherapy, limitations of treatment, soft tissue response, skeletal relationships, frenum considerations, gingival hyperplasia, retention procedures, ectopically positioned teeth, ankylosis, and adult patients with advanced periodontal disease.

Chun-Hsi Chung, BDS, DMD, MS
Dr. Chung is Associate Professor of Orthodontics-Clinician Educator. His primary research interests include craniofacial growth and development, relationship between transverse dentofacial dimension and vertical facial morphology, and orthodontic miniscrew for anchorage. Dr. Chung teaches Orthodontics clinically and didactically for the pre-doctoral dental students and the post-doctoral orthodontic residents. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Orthodontics and a full member of the Angle Society of Orthodontists. Dr. Chung has numerous publications in the American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, European Journal of Orthodontics, Angle Orthodontist, Journal of Clinical Orthodontics, The International Journal of Adult Orthodontics and Orthognathic Surgery, Journal of Craniofacial Genetics and Developmental Biology, and Calcified Tissue International.

Solomon Katz, MA, PhD
Dr. Katz is Professor of Orthodontics. He serves as director for the W.M. Krogman Center for Research in Child Growth and Development, which is affiliated with Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the Hospital for Children in Wilmington. He has delivered presentations for the ID, the American Public Health Association, the U.S. Agency for Health Care Policy Research, the CPC National Immunization Conference, and many local and state agencies dealing with health care for children. Dr. Katz is an officer and fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a senior fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics and teaches biostatistics in the Division of Advanced Dental Education. He also teaches within with Department of Orthodontics courses on child somatic and craniofacial growth and development at both predoctoral and postdoctoral levels.

Antonino G. Secchi, DMD, MS
Dr. Secchi is Assistant Professor of Orthodontics-Clinician Educator. Dr. Secchi is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Los Andes, Chile. Dr. Secchi received his DDS from the University of Valparaiso, Chile, a Certificate in Advanced in Occlusion from the University of Chile, his DMD, Certificate in Orthodontics and a Master of Science in Oral Biology from the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a graduate of the AEO Roth/Williams Center and a Diplomate of the American Board of Orthodontics. At the University of Pennsylvania he has developed and implemented courses on Functional Occlusion in Orthodontics and Straight Wire Appliance System for post-doctoral orthodontic residents. He also provides didactic and clinical instruction for the pre-doctoral students and the Division of Advanced Dental Education. Dr. Secchi's research interests include the relationship between orthodontics and functional occlusion, self-ligating appliances and treatment mechanics, and the application of 3-D photography on facial analysis. He received the 2005 David C. Hamilton Orthodontic Research Award from the Pennsylvania Association of Orthodontists (PAO), a 2006 Orthodontic Faculty Development Fellowship Award from the American Association of Orthodontists Foundation (AAOF) and the Subtelny, Baker, Eastman Teaching Fellowship Award from the AAOF. In addition, he maintains an active orthodontic practice at the Dental Care Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

Academic Support Staff/Associated Faculty

Department of Orthodontics
Robert Schattner Center
University of Pennsylvania
School of Dental Medicine
240 South 40th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
215-898-5910