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Karen Troendle, B.A., D.D.S., M.P.H.

Distinguished Teaching Professor

Dr. Troendle joined the faculty of the School of Dentistry in 1977 as an instructor and rose to the rank of Professor with Tenure in 2010. Dr. Troendle has had multiple teaching responsibilities over 44 plus years at the School of Dentistry. She has emerged as an expert and leader in the field of Operative Dentistry. She directs the preclinical Operative Dentistry courses where students learn the basics of preparing and restoring teeth. She also directs the clinical DS3 Course where clinical experience is supplemented with didactic information. She helps supervise approximately 24 DS3 and DS4 students as core faculty for General Practice Group 2. Because of her experience in the field, Dr. Troendle serves as the Department of Comprehensive Dentistry Director for Direct Restorations to coordinate all the curricular activities in this area. She also serves on a pre-doctoral leaders group to work with the Division Head, to advise the chair on issues critical to the pre-doctoral program. 

Dr. Troendle has been instrumental in developing and adopting new technologies for her teaching. She has developed a system of artificial decay that simulates demineralized tooth structure. This allows the dental students to develop their clinical skills in the preclinical setting using teeth more closely simulating the clinical situation than any other dental school in the country. External to our institution, Dr. Troendle developed a program entitled: Promoting Oral Health in South Texas Elderly. In this program she developed educational material in English and Spanish and trained over 500 nurses aides and other caregivers on oral health delivery to the elderly. This program was awarded the Geriatric Dental Health Care Award by the American Dental Association and was adopted for training programs in Nevada and Kansas. As a result of this work and her teaching expertise in Operative dentistry, Dr. Troendle has given multiple continuing education courses to dentists, nurses aides, dental hygienists, and dental assistants throughout the country. Her reputation as a dental educator was recognized by two other dental schools as they were being developed. She was asked to develop the Operative Dentistry curriculum for East Carolina University School of Dental Medicine and served as consultant to develop the faculty development program for Roseman College of Dental Medicine in Utah. In documentation of her teaching accomplishments, Dr. Troendle has published 23 articles, three book chapters, and two monographs. 

Dr. Troendle has been recognized multiple times by students and peers for her extraordinary contributions to teaching. She has served multiple years as an Assistant Marshall at the School of Dentistry graduation. The Marshalls are chosen by dental students they have instructed, and this is one of the highest honors bestowed by students. In 2002 she received the Presidential Award for Teaching Excellence. In 2011 she was designated as a Distinguished Teaching Professor and served as the President of The UTHSCSA Academy of Master Teachers. In 2014 she received the Department of Comprehensive Dentistry Excellence in Pre-doctoral Teaching Award. In 2014 the department of Comprehensive Dentistry created the Tom Nowlin Endowed Professorship in Restorative Dentistry. This was named for one of our former faculty, Dr. Tom Nowlin. Endowed by Dr. Nowlin’s family, this is “to be is awarded to the faculty member who makes the greatest teaching contributions in the field of Restorative Dentistry”. In 2015 Dr. Troendle was awarded the coveted Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award.