September 22, 1994: Vol26n3: Looking for the 'nuances'

BY MARK WALLACE
Reporter Staff
The way Alan Drinnan sees it, being a good dentist requires more than
knowledge about oral problems. It also requires being able to
recognize all sorts of other bodily conditions that can cause oral
problems.
	"I train students to see every nuance of a patient's
condition," Drinnan says. "I teach them to really observe patients, to
capture all the subtleties of their condition, and to see if there is
any evidence of other kinds of disease that may be manifesting
themselves in oral problems."
	Drinnan, a professor and longtime chair of the Department of
Oral Medicine who came to UB in 1962, recently was named a
Distinguished Service Professor by the SUNY Board of Trustees. Over
his long career, Drinnan's consistent interest in developing new ways
of looking at all sorts of problems has led him to be on the cutting
edge of many areas of oral medicine and community service.
	Born in Bristol, England, Drinnan attended the Bristol
University Dental School before being drafted into the British Army in
1955 and serving two years as a dentist in Germany. After leaving the
army, Drinnan received his M.B., Ch.B., the British equivalent of an
M.D., from Bristol University Medical School in 1962. Although his
specific training was in oral surgery, Drinnan realized he also needed
a medical degree, partly, he says, because it would better enable him
to understand his specialty.
	Drinnan came to Buffalo just one month before UB became part
of the SUNY system. "At that time, the dean of the School of Dental
Medicine, James English, was interested in building up dentistry,"
Drinnan says. "There were lots of opportunities. In the 1960s, the
exciting thing about UB was all the growth taking place. Those were
the Rockefeller years, money was being put into the SUNY system, there
were new people and famous people coming all the time."
	Drinnan says he became involved in university and community
affairs primarily because of a UB-sponsored community television
program called "Dialogue" which he hosted every other week from
1964-70, alternating with Robert Rossberg of Counseling and
Educational Psychology.
	"It was a very involved and interesting time," Drinnan says.
"Those were the years of the riots, when police were frequently on
campus. The program was a presentation of all walks of life, and all
of the issues relevant to the times."
	 Drinnan also has been involved in several other public
service television programs, and served as chair of the Board of
Advisors for WBFO from 1986 to 1992. His involvements in other types
of community service have been on the local, national, and
international levels. In 1972 he became a founding member of the still
highly active Erie County Sheriff's Department Scientific Staff, a
group of scientists, physicians, dentists, and specialists who aid the
Sheriff's Department and other police agencies in a variety of
situations. Drinnan has been chair of the staff since its inception.
	Drinnan also served as president of the American Academy of
Oral Pathology from 1979-1980, and in 1993 became president of the
American Board of Oral Pathology. From 1990-92, he served as president
of the International Association of Oral Pathologists,  which sets
standards for oral pathology around the world. He has consulted for a
wide variety of other agencies and universities, recently concluding
six years of service on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Armed
Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, D.C.
	Drinnan is as innovative in his teaching as he is in his
community service. "I have a collection of several hundred slides of
paintings in which artists have unintentionally documented evidence of
particular diseases in highly specific detail, and I use them in my
classes to teach students how to observe," he says.
	In addition to authoring countless articles, Drinnan has
co-authored the book, Physical Evaluation of the Dental Patient.
"Sherlock Holmes was the ultimate observer," Drinnan says. "He could
tell a great deal about someone just by looking at them. I want to
teach my students the same kinds of observational skills.
	"I use art as a method of teaching observation, because when
you look at a painting, what you look at is all the detail," he says.
"In looking at anything, what's crucial is how you look at it. By
using art, I make the process of teaching students how and where to
look for problems more palatable."