BDS | University of Nigeria School of Dentistry, College of Medicine, Enugu, Nigeria
DMD | Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, Boston, Mass.
Dr. Ezinne Ogbureke is a full-time professor at The University of Texas School of Dentistry at Houston in the Department of General Practice and Dental Public Health. She earned a Bachelor in Dental Surgery (BDS) degree from The University of Nigeria School of Dentistry in Enugu Nigeria in 1991 and a Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD) degree from Tufts University School of Dental Medicine in Boston, Mass.
Her experience ranges from private practice to community dental practice, including mobile dental van practice in Maryland. She began her academic career as an instructor at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston before entering private practice. She returned to teaching at the Dental College of Georgia before moving to Houston in 2013.
Dr. Ogbureke is passionate about medical considerations in management of dental patients; oral cancer screening; and oral manifestation of systemic diseases as standard of care in dental practice, and she strives to pass this on to the dental and dental hygiene students she teaches.
She received a Dean's Small Grant Award in 2014 for a study titled, “Evaluating Dental and Dental Hygiene Student’s Ability to Perform a Head and Neck Exam and Identify Oral Lesions in Everyday Clinical Practice “and in 2015, she co-authored a chapter in the book, “History of Salivary Proteomics." In June 2017, she received the Dean’s excellence award in the scholarship of teaching and in September 2017, she became the first recipient of the Joseph F. O'Donnell Early Career Investigator Award by the American Association for Cancer Education. She has collaborated with various colleagues and published over 17 articles on a variety of topics. She is also a graduate of the UT Health Education fellowship program.
She continues to mentor students in table clinics and presentations in local and national meetings and is very involved in community dental health screenings. Her teaching philosophy is, “Treat the teeth, but also take a keen look at the surrounding soft tissues.”
Dr. Ogbureke and her husband, Dr. Kalu Ogbureke, have four children: Chinasa, Kalu Jr., Erinma, and David.