Wilmington, DE – Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children is pleased to welcome Michael R. Cottam, DMD. Dr. Cottam will lead the Nemours Dental Program and serve as the Education Program Director for the new Nemours Pediatric Dental Residency Program, the first pediatric dental residency program in Delaware, scheduled to begin in July.
Before joining Nemours, Dr. Cottam was in private practice in Utah and served as an adjunct faculty member at Roseman University of Health Sciences, South Jordan, UT. He earned his DMD and certificate in advanced education in pediatric dentistry at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; and he is a member of the American Dental Association and the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry.
The Nemours Pediatric Dental Residency Program is a two-year program, qualified by the American Dental Association, for candidates seeking board certification in pediatric dentistry. This is a unique opportunity to train more dentists to care for medically complex and special needs patients. The program will also include caring for healthy children.
The first two residents are Jenelle Fleagle, DDS, and Lida Alimorad, DDS, both currently practicing general dentistry and recruited from a large pool of candidates following the National Match Program. Dr. Fleagle received her degree from the Ohio State University College of Dentistry and comes to Nemours from Mercy Health Sensory, Pediatric, and Hispanic Dental Clinics in Youngstown, Ohio. Dr. Alimorad earned her DDS from the University of Maryland Dental School and is the Dental Director of Community Clinic, Inc., in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Nemours will recruit two new residents to the program every 12 months.
“Our aim is to provide our residents with robust and rigorous training,” said Dr. Cottam. “We are excited to offer Delaware’s first residency program in pediatric dentistry. Our goal is to train dentists to successfully manage oral disease in infants, children, and teens, including medically complex and special needs patients, in a compassionate manner that creates positive, empowering experiences for children and their families.”
“Dr. Cottam’s excitement and enthusiasm is just what we need to help reinvigorate our dental program here at Nemours,” said Stephen P. Dunn, MD, Chair, Department of Surgery, Nemours duPont Hospital for Children. “He also brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to ensure Delaware’s only pediatric residency program is both highly successful and well received by our patients and their care givers.”
As the demand for dental care services grows, in both Delaware and the United States, the number of dentists available to treat will fall short, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). “We hope our residency program will help fill that void—especially in underserved populations, as well as our medically complex and special needs children,” says Dr. Cottam.
About Nemours Children’s Health System
Nemours is an internationally recognized children's health system that owns and operates the two free-standing children’s hospitals: Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Del., and Nemours Children's Hospital in Orlando, Fla., along with outpatient facilities in five states, delivering pediatric primary, specialty and urgent care. Nemours also powers the world’s most-visited website for information on the health of children and teens, KidsHealth.org, and offers on-demand, online video patient visits through Nemours CareConnect. Nemours ReadingBrightstart.org is a program dedicated to preventing reading failure in young children, grounded in Nemours’ understanding that child health and learning are inextricably linked, and that reading level is a strong predictor of adult health.
Established as The Nemours Foundation through the legacy and philanthropy of Alfred I. duPont, Nemours provides pediatric clinical care, research, education, advocacy and prevention programs to families in the communities it serves.
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