Carl L Bandt: A shining light at the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry

Carl Bandt, DDS ’62, MS ’66, professor emeritus of the School of Dentistry passed away in late February. The following reflection was written by Mark Herzberg, DDS, PhD, professor of basic sciences, with support from Bruce Pihlstrom, DDS, MS, professor emeritus.

Carl was named professor and chair of the Department of Periodontics from 1978 and served until he retired in 1988.  He earned his BS degree with distinction in 1960 and his DDS degree from the University of Minnesota in 1962. Carl joined the faculty as an instructor in 1966, and he also studied Biostatistics (Biometry) and earned an MS degree as an NIH-supported postdoctoral fellow from 1965-68. His vision for the department led to building one of the foremost units in the world, renowned for excellence in teaching and service, but most notably for research. Carl would want you to know that the accolades belong to the team, but great credit goes to his leadership for recruiting and assembling a faculty of clinician-scientists and for establishing collaborations with other scientists who he convinced to invest and investigate questions of importance to improving periodontal health. He was the composer, who wrote research music that was interpreted and played beautifully by his orchestra of researchers. 

Carl and his colleagues published 40 peer-reviewed research papers that focused on improving periodontal care but are highlighted by at least three seminal contributions. The first reflects Carl’s expertise in biostatistics. Carl and his mentor, James Boen, published a short paper in the Journal of Periodontology (vol 42: 181, 1972) showing that achieving statistical significance with a small number of subjects can be more compelling than showing significance with larger numbers of subjects.

Carl's statistical insight was also reflected in a set of published papers that reported a paradigm-shifting approach to understanding the relationship between periodontal bacteria and the occurrence of periodontal disease. Published about 20 years before landmark papers on the human microbiome. Carl and colleagues recognized that the abundance of different bacteria in dental plaque could be ranked from barely detectable to abundant (Bandt, CL et al. J  Periodontal Res 17(5):518-20, 1982).  This ranking could then be applied to the clinical state of the patient or a tooth of a patient to ask if shifts in microbial community composition reflects underlying health or disease (Liljemark WF et al. Infect Immun. 46(3):778-86, 1984; Hinrichs JE et al. J Periodontol. 56(4):187-94, 1985; Wolff LF et al. J Periodontal Res. 20(3):237-50, 1985; Wolff LF et al. J Periodontol. 56(5):281-4, 1985; Cao CF et al. J Clin Periodontol. 17(2):115-8, 1990). Revolutionary and underappreciated at the time, this approach is fundamental to modern microbiome analysis when we try to understand how the microbial community affects our health.

Another important contribution involved Carl in his role as principal investigator in a NIH supported clinical trial, conducted in collaboration with 3M and the Cargill Corporation. (Pihlstrom, B. et al,  J Periodontol. 58(5):291-300, 1987; Wolff L. et al, J Periodontol. 58(5):301-7, 1987; Bakdash M. et al., J Periodontol. 58(5):308-13, 1987) Carl designed and oversaw this landmark trial that clarified the role of a controversial non-surgical, anti-infective treatment of periodontal disease that had gained significant attention and was even the topic of formal evaluation by the U.S. Congress in the early 1980s.

In 1985, efforts were made to close the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry as part of a "Commitment to Focus" plan proposed by University President Kenneth Keller to reduce costs following legislative funding cuts. Carl was asked by the dean to lead the School of Dentistry to respond to the political winds and push back against calls by the University and the governor, Rudy Perpich, to close the entire enterprise. The school occupied prime real estate in Moos Tower that could be used by the Medical School to advance its growing research enterprise. The dental school was perceived as expensive with an outsized administration and falling short of supporting the larger research mission of the University.  Creating a “team of rivals,” Carl organized the school’s department chairs and faculty to write a Strategic Plan. The Plan was a direct response to the University’s concerns and rationale for closure. The Plan, if implemented, would reduce administrative costs by reducing the number of departments from 13 to 4, and similarly the number of Chairpersons would be correspondingly adjusted. Through exemplary leadership and logical argumentation, Carl achieved the unattainable. All departmental chairs relinquished their administrative posts in favor of forming the 4 mega departments with new streamlined organizational trees. Focusing on junior faculty, the Plan also highlighted the growing extramurally funded research and the strategy to catalyze a compelling research future.  

Carl was very strategic in forming alliances with important corporate and citizen entities outside the School of Dentistry. Perhaps most importantly, the 3M Corporation was renowned for its dental products research, development and marketing.  3M was planning to add to its footprint in the life sciences in the late 1980s and wrote a strong letter of concern suggesting that closure of the School of Dentistry would negatively impact the Minnesota biomedical research landscape. In retrospect, this public letter was likely to be impactful in sustaining the operations and growth of research in the School of Dentistry. Eventually, Governor Perpich opposed closure. 

This Strategic Plan was the basis of an application to the PEW National Dental Education Program. The Pew National Dental Education Program (PNDEP) was a major initiative funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts in the late 1980s to modernize dental education, focusing on strategic planning, curriculum reform, and leadership development across numerous U.S. dental schools. Recognizing the strength of the School of Dentistry’s Strategic Plan as written in his letter of support of the PEW application (August 27, 1987), President Kenneth Keller announced that the School of Dentistry would not be closed and its resources would not be redeployed to other University needs.

As a final and lasting coda to his academic career, Carl applied his considerable administrative and interpersonal skills to raise $5 million to establish the Erwin Schaffer Endowed Chair in Periodontal Research. Honoring colleague and former Dean Erwin Schaffer, the Endowed Chair assures that periodontal research will continue as a legacy to the work that Carl began at the University of Minnesota.