When PerioDash began more than a decade ago, the goal was to bring people together in support of the AAP Foundation and the specialty of periodontics. That remains true as the program enters its twelfth year. Every PerioDash event starts with a local team, but its impact extends far beyond the event itself.

In 2025, 527 participants across 36 teams took part in PerioDash. The program looked a little different in each location. The examples below show a few of the ways different groups have adapted the program to fit their goals and communities.

The L.A. Team, representing UCLA, USC, and the West Los Angeles VA, has participated since the start of PerioDash, helping build a tradition that continues to attract residents, faculty, alumni, and supporters each year. As Drs. Flavia Pirih and Beatriz Bezerra shared, “It’s a morale booster every year. Running, walking, and celebrating together outside of the clinic strengthens our sense of community and pride in the specialty.”

At the University of Utah, dental students and faculty embraced PerioDash despite not yet having a periodontal residency program. With support from periodontal department leaders, the event generated interest in the specialty while building goodwill and visibility for the department within the dental school. As Dr. Okano noted, “Students talk about PerioDash throughout the school year. Immediately following this year’s event, many were already asking about next year and wanting to participate again.”

Private practices have found opportunities to make PerioDash their own as well. Dr. Walt Colón and his team have used the event to bring together referring dentists and their teams, predental students, former staff members, family, and community supporters. Dr. Colón noted that “assistants from other practices made PerioDash their annual event and encouraged their doctors to join the following year.”

The Foundation has expanded resources to support participants. The PerioDash Participant Resource webpage features participant spotlights, educational handouts, talking points, social media resources, and opportunities for customized local press outreach. These resources help teams continue conversations about periodontal and peri-implant health long after race day.

When PerioDash began more than a decade ago, the goal was to bring people together in support of the AAP Foundation and the specialty of periodontics. That remains true as the program enters its twelfth year. Every PerioDash event starts with a local team, but its impact extends far beyond the event itself.

In 2025, 527 participants across 36 teams took part in PerioDash. The program looked a little different in each location. The examples below show a few of the ways different groups have adapted the program to fit their goals and communities.

The L.A. Team, representing UCLA, USC, and the West Los Angeles VA, has participated since the start of PerioDash, helping build a tradition that continues to attract residents, faculty, alumni, and supporters each year. As Drs. Flavia Pirih and Beatriz Bezerra shared, “It’s a morale booster every year. Running, walking, and celebrating together outside of the clinic strengthens our sense of community and pride in the specialty.”

At the University of Utah, dental students and faculty embraced PerioDash despite not yet having a periodontal residency program. With support from periodontal department leaders, the event generated interest in the specialty while building goodwill and visibility for the department within the dental school. As Dr. Okano noted, “Students talk about PerioDash throughout the school year. Immediately following this year’s event, many were already asking about next year and wanting to participate again.”

Private practices have found opportunities to make PerioDash their own as well. Dr. Walt Colón and his team have used the event to bring together referring dentists and their teams, predental students, former staff members, family, and community supporters. Dr. Colón noted that “assistants from other practices made PerioDash their annual event and encouraged their doctors to join the following year.”

The Foundation has expanded resources to support participants. The PerioDash Participant Resource webpage features participant spotlights, educational handouts, talking points, social media resources, and opportunities for customized local press outreach. These resources help teams continue conversations about periodontal and peri-implant health long after race day.

As PerioDash becomes part of the AAP Foundation's Levi-Richman Integration Initiative, the program will continue to build community while helping raise awareness about the connection between oral health and overall health. Participants will have additional opportunities to highlight periodontal health as the oral-systemic link and educate patients and the public about periodontal and peri-implant diseases, the importance of treating them, and the dedicated specialists who can help.

Support from the Levi-Richman Integration Initiative will also provide participant gear, including custom team shirts and medals, allowing 100% of every PerioDash registration fee to directly support the AAP Foundation's mission and impact.

Whether teams participate to promote wellness, strengthen professional connections, engage their local communities, or raise awareness about oral-systemic health, every PerioDash event starts with a local team. We hope yours will be next.

Register for PerioDash 2026 and visit the PerioDash Participant Resource page to start planning your event.

Diabetes, obesity, and metabolic syndrome are closely linked to periodontal inflammation and oral dysbiosis. Susceptibility to periodontitis is increased by approximately threefold in people with diabetes (Preshaw, et al. PMID: 22057194) and individuals with metabolic syndrome demonstrate approximately 40–70% greater odds of periodontal disease (Nibali, et al. PMID: 23386648). Meanwhile, definitive treatment of periodontal inflammation and dysbiosis is associated with improved glycemic control (D'Aiuto, et al. PMID: 14742655), and periodontitis treatment is associated with a decrease in HbA1c that is similar to that seen with pharmacologic treatment in patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (Umezaki, et al. PMID: 40070580).

On June 13-15, 2026, the AAP Foundation’s Levi-Richman Integration Initiative championed periodontal health as the oral-systemic link by taking this important information to more than 7,000 endocrinologists and other attendees at ENDO 2026, the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society. This largest annual gathering on endocrinology presented a unique opportunity to improve patient health by raising awareness of periodontal disease, the importance of treating it, and the dedicated specialists who can help among this vital population of potential referrers.

Sukirth Ganesan, BDS, PhD, recipient of the AAP Foundation’s 2020 Teaching Fellowship and ITL Fellowship, led the delegation. He was joined by two of his graduate students from the University of Iowa, Gloria Moses Fiifi-Yankson, BDS, MPH, and Priscilla Remulla, BDS, MPH, who had co-authored a study presented at the conference, “Metabolic and Microbiome Responses to Very Low-Calorie Diet in Women with Obesity and Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease.” The volunteer team and AAP Foundation Executive Director Kyle Gorden interacted with hundreds of attendees and signed up nearly 250 to receive more information on the linkages between periodontal and endocrine disease.

“The AAP Foundation booth became a place for meaningful conversations throughout the meeting,” said Dr. Ganesan. “Many clinicians shared that they typically only think about oral health in the context of joint replacement, cancer therapy, or medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw. It was encouraging to see their genuine interest in expanding that conversation to include obesity, diabetes, and metabolic health, and how these conditions influence periodontal health. Those discussions reinforced that integrating oral health into whole-person care is not only important, but something many of our medical colleagues are eager to embrace. Building those connections is how we move from research findings to better care for our patients.”

The team also promoted the upcoming November 19 webinar Working Together to Stop Diabetes, part of a series produced by SEPA and funded by a gift to the AAP Foundation by Patty and Dr. Paul Levi as part of the Levi-Richman Integration Initiative. The first webinar in that series, Working Together to Stop Tobacco and Nicotine, was held June 4. Recordings of the June 4 program are available now and information on the November 19 program will be posted as it is confirmed at workingtogether.site.

The Working Together webinars are designed to enable referrer outreach at the national, regional, and local levels.While the AAP Foundation engages with national organizations such as the Endocrine Society, it encourages regional perio organizations to reach out to equivalent regional endocrinology groups, and for individual periodontists to invite endocrinologists and other physicians in their local communities. This downloadable flyer provides rigorously cited data on the linkages between periodontal and endicrine disease, as well as QR codes to link referrers directly to the find-a-periodontist tools offered by the American Academy of Periodontology and American Board of Periodontology. 

The flyer is the first in a series that will be created with Integration Initiative funding as the AAP Foundation takes the perio link message to different medical specialties through conferences, webinars, and other partnerships with professional organizations. Next up is the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2026, which will be held in Chicago November 6-9. More information and copies of the endocrinology and cardiology flyers will be available at the Foundation’s booth at the AAP Annual Meeting, to be held the prior weekend in Seattle. Volunteers interested in helping to staff the Foundation booth or otherwise get involved with the Integration Initiative are encouraged to email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The Levi-Richman Integration Initiative was created by gifts from Patty and Dr. Paul Levi and Dr. Colin Richman, with additional major support from PDS Health. It incorporates the AAP Foundation’s existing Richman Family Foundation Perio-Ortho Interface Grants and expanded Patty and Paul Levi Research Awards, as well as the Foundation's virtual 5K, PerioDash. The Integration Initiative’s first investment was partial funding of the AAP’s Best Evidence Consensus on the Prevention of Peri-Implant Diseases, held May 15-17. The workshop had a goal of developing clinically relevant strategies to prevent the onset, progression, and recurrence of peri-implant diseases. The Initiative’s Advisory Committee is currently developing criteria for a new grant program that will make significant investments in multidisciplinary oral-systemic research.

Join the AAP Foundation's Levi-Richman Integration Initiative for the first program in the Working Together webinar series produced by SEPA, the Spanish Society of Periodontology, made possible by a gift to the AAP Foundation by Dr. Paul Levi. Working Together to Stop Tobacco and Nicotine will take place on Thursday, June 4, 2026 with a global session at 8am CDT featuring worldwide experts on the effects of tobacco on periodontal health and the role that dental clinics can play in curbing tobacco and nicotine use. It will be followed by local sessions in 20+ countries and regions around the world, including a U.S. session at 9am CDT featuring Dr. Benjamin W. Chaffee from the University of California, San Francisco and Dr. Alexandra Tsigarida from the University of Rochester, moderated by AAP Foundation board member Dr. Purnima Kumar of the University of Michigan.

In addition to preexisting programs that are now part of the Initiative, the Levi-Richman Integration Initiative's first investment was partial funding of the AAP’s Best Evidence Consensus on the Prevention of Peri-Implant Diseases, which was held May 15-17. The workshop had a goal of developing clinically relevant strategies to prevent the onset, progression, and recurrence of peri-implant diseases.

The dental and medical support organization focused on integrated healthcare will provide major financial support and partner with AAP Foundation grantees on research that advances understanding of periodontal health as the oral-systemic link.

PDS Health has joined the AAP Foundation’s Levi-Richman Integration Initiative as a research partner and major charitable donor. The integrated healthcare support organization will collaborate with the Initiative’s grantees to develop and execute research projects examining the relationship between periodontal disease, its prevention, and systemic health outcomes, consistent with the AAP Foundation's support of science-based research and its integration into clinical practice. PDS Health will also continue its longstanding philanthropic support of the Foundation with $250,000 in funding over five years, including major support of the Levi-Richman Integration Initiative and sponsorship of the Foundation’s annual donor appreciation events.

PDS Health has been a longtime advocate for dental-medical integration, including the implementation of integrated electronic health records that support greater collaboration between oral health and medical providers.

“We’re proud to support the AAP Foundation and the Levi-Richman Integration Initiative as they advance research and collaboration around the connection between periodontal health and overall health,” said PDS Health Founder and CEO Stephen E. Thorne IV. “Periodontists have long played an important role in advancing understanding of the oral-systemic link, and this initiative brings greater attention and investment to work that has the potential to improve patient care and long-term health outcomes. We’re excited to contribute insights from integrated care models and real-world clinical data that may help strengthen future research.”

“We’re delighted to grow our relationship with PDS Health,” said AAP Foundation President Dr. Christopher Richardson. “Not only is their financial support a real boost to the Initiative, but their data and partnership in accessing and interpreting it may present an opportunity to conduct novel research on the relationship between oral and systemic health of a kind that has never previously been possible at scale.”

“Enhanced medical-dental integration, including the more universal adoption of electronic health records, may allow for better assessments of the bidirectional impacts of periodontal disease and systemic disease,” said Dr. Mia Geisinger, Immediate Past President of the American Academy of Periodontology and chair of the Levi-Richman Integration Initiative’s Advisory Committee. “The longitudinal studies and epidemiological research that our grantees will conduct, whether independently or in collaboration with PDS Health, may allow us to further elucidate best practices to enhance diagnostic and treatment outcomes.”

Named for its founding donors, Patty and Dr. Paul Levi and Dr. Colin Richman, the Levi-Richman Integration Initiative will leverage $2.5 million in existing and new investments to champion periodontal health as the oral-systemic link through research, education, and advocacy.  The Initiative will sponsor new research, disseminate knowledge with education programs for dentists, physicians, and allied health professionals, and enable advocacy to raise awareness of periodontal and peri-implant diseases, the importance of treating them, and the specialists who can help. The AAP Foundation has committed to the Initiative for five years and is actively seeking additional funds to further extend its impact.

In addition to preexisting programs that are now part of the Initiative, its first investment was partial funding of the AAP’s Best Evidence Consensus on the Prevention of Peri-Implant Diseases. The workshop had a goal of developing clinically relevant strategies to prevent the onset, progression, and recurrence of peri-implant diseases.

Next up is the first program in the Working Together webinar series produced by SEPA, the Spanish Society of Periodontology, made possible by a gift to the AAP Foundation by Dr. Paul Levi. Working Together to Stop Tobacco and Nicotine will take place on Thursday, June 4, 2026 with a global session featuring worldwide experts on the effects of tobacco on periodontal health and the role that dental clinics can play in curbing tobacco and nicotine use. It will be followed by local sessions in 10 countries and regions around the world, including a U.S. session featuring Dr. Benjamin W. Chaffee from the University of California, San Francisco and Dr. Alexandra Tsigarida from the University of Rochester, moderated by AAP Foundation board member Dr. Purnima Kumar of the University of Michigan.

$2.5 million program designed to improve oral and systemic health and encourage referrals for periodontal care through research, education, and advocacy

The American Academy of Periodontology Foundation is launching an ambitious initiative to grow understanding of the relationship between oral and systemic health. The program will sponsor new research, disseminate knowledge with education programs for dentists, physicians, and allied health professionals, and enable advocacy to raise awareness of periodontal/peri-implant diseases, the importance of treating them, and the specialists who can help. Named for its founding donors, Patty and Dr. Paul Levi and Dr. Colin Richman, the Levi-Richman Integration Initiative will leverage $2.5 million in existing and new investments to champion periodontal health as the oral-systemic link.

Programs of the Initiative will include

• An ambitious new program of research grants focused on interdisciplinary research into the oral-systemic link
• Existing Richman Family Foundation Perio-Ortho Interface Grants, which began in 2021 through a transformative gift from Dr. Richman
• Expanded Patty and Paul Levi Research Awards, which began recognizing prevention-related research conducted by predoctoral dental students in 2016, funded by gifts from the Levis and more than 100 other donors, and now will include a second award for postdoctoral periodontal residents
• Education programs for dentists, physicians, and all allied healthcare professionals
• Funding for relevant programs at the American Academy of Periodontology, including the upcoming Best Evidence Consensus on the prevention of peri-implant diseases
• Collaborations with Europe’s leading charity dedicated to periodontology, the Sepa Foundation, including:
  • A biannual online global symposium on prevention, beginning in 2027
  • International expansion of the AAP Foundation’s PerioDash 5K run/walk
  • A series of educational webinars for dentists and physicians in conjunction with events such as World No Tobacco Day and World Diabetes Day

This Initiative marks a visionary new chapter for the AAP Foundation, which in 2025 celebrated surpassing $10 million in cumulative grants, scholarships, and fellowships awarded over 35 years including support to programs of the American Academy of Periodontology and American Board of Periodontology. “The AAP Foundation is proud to continue its long history of support to academic periodontology,” said its president, Dr. Christopher R. Richardson, “while now complementing that core competency with this ambitious new Initiative aimed at directly supporting clinicians in private practice and improving both periodontal and systemic health.”

Funding for the Initiative comes from nearly $2 million in contributions, including Dr. Richman’s transformative $1 million pledge from 2020, a portion of which will now support other components of the Initiative. In addition to more than $250,000 previously contributed by the Levis and other donors for the Levi Research Award, Patty and Paul have committed additional funding in new and previously unannounced gifts and an estate commitment to support other components of the Initiative. Their gift also enables a $200,000 grant to the Sepa Foundation, the charitable arm of the Spanish Society of Periodontology. The AAP Foundation has committed to continuing this Initiative for five years and is actively seeking another $500,000 to extend it further.

“My family and I are proud to support this ambitious new project,” said Dr. Richman, “and to expand understanding of the bi-directional relationship between oral and systemic health. Our existing Perio-Ortho Interface Grants have already sought to strengthen collaboration between periodontists and orthodontists, which has been a major area of  focus over my career. Now, with this new effort, we extend that same spirit of integration to our systemic health colleagues and embrace another topic about which I am passionate: the oral-systemic link.”

“Our goal here is to ‘put the mouth back in the body,’” added Dr. Levi, quoting the late Dr. Bruce Donoff, a dentist and physician who served as dean of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine for 28 years. “Evidence has been mounting for years of the strong correlation between periodontal diseases and systemic conditions such as diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease. More recently, new research has demonstrated relationships between oral health and an ever-growing list of conditions, from Alzheimer’s to erectile dysfunction. Although these relationships are understood among periodontists, they remain largely unfamiliar to the general public and physicians, including cardiologists, pulmonologists, and endocrinologists, whose patients could be in critical need of periodontal care.”

“Periodontal and peri-implant disease and the dysbiosis and inflammation associated with these diseases have been linked to the development and progression of many systemic diseases,” said Dr. Mia Geisinger, Immediate Past-President of the American Academy of Periodontology, who will chair the Levi-Richman Integration Initiative’s Advisory Committee. “While these associations do not necessarily prove causation, the currently understood correlations indicate that patients suffering from such systemic conditions are at increased risk of periodontal disease and should be evaluated for periodontal treatment, particularly if they demonstrate one or more warning signs of periodontal disease. Enhanced medical-dental integration, including the more universal adoption of electronic health records may allow for better assessments of the bidirectional impacts of periodontal disease and systemic disease. Future longitudinal studies and epidemiological research may allow us to further elucidate best practices to enhance diagnostic and treatment outcomes. The Levi-Richman initiative will both fund research assessing causal links between periodontal and systemic disease and help to propagate its findings through education and advocacy.”

One such advocacy program is PerioDash, the AAP Foundation’s annual 5K run/walk to raise awareness of periodontal diseases, the importance of treating them, and the dedicated specialists who can help. Now a part of the Levi-Richman Integration Initiative, PerioDash will expand to Europe through partnership with the Sepa Foundation. Supported by funding from the Initiative, Sepa will also produce educational programs open to oral and systemic health professionals worldwide, in collaboration with the AAP Foundation and other groups. These programs will begin in 2026 with a series of webinars held in conjunction with international health awareness events such as World No Tobacco Day (May 31) and World Diabetes Day (November 14). The programs will have both global and local components, enabling periodontists to reach out to physicians in their local communities to expand understanding of the oral-systemic link and build their referral networks.

Funds from the Levi-Richman Integration Initiative may also be used to support programs related to prevention and the oral-systemic link at the American Academy of Periodontology, American Board of Periodontology, and other partner organizations. The first example is partial funding of the AAP’s upcoming Best Evidence Consensus on the Prevention of Peri-Implant Diseases, to be held in May of this year. The workshop has a goal of developing clinically relevant strategies to prevent the onset, progression, and recurrence of peri-implant diseases.

About the American Academy of Periodontology Foundation

Founded in 1990, the American Academy of Periodontology Foundation serves to advance the specialty of periodontology and dental implant surgery through advocacy, research, and education. It is the premier philanthropic entity ensuring the viability and sustainability of the specialty of periodontics and dental implant surgery. More than 350 dental students, periodontal residents, faculty members, and practicing clinicians have received educational and research awards from the AAP Foundation over its 35 years, totaling more than $10 million in total funding. Those grants were made possible by funding from more than 150 corporate and organizational donors and nearly 5,000 periodontists and other individuals.

About Colin Richman

Born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa, Dr. Richman attended school in South Africa and England before receiving his periodontal certificate from the University of Connecticut. Dr. Richman is a leading periodontist in Georgia. He has extensive training and experience in periodontology and has presented more than 350 lectures in the U.S. and abroad. He is a former assistant professor at the Emory University School of Dentistry and a former clinical instructor at the University of Connecticut. Dr. Richman serves as a faculty member at the Georgia Health Sciences University.

About Patty and Paul Levi

Patty Levi has supported Paul for nearly sixty years in his endeavor to teach and practice periodontology. Patty supported Paul during his post-doctoral periodontal program at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine (TUSDM). He entered private practice in Burlington, Vermont and taught at the University of Vermont Dental Hygiene School for 27 years. He eventually began commuting to Boston to teach part-time at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM) and at TUSDM. Today he is faculty at Harvard teaching 4-5 days a week. Patty and Paul share a deep commitment to prevention as a lifestyle and philosophy, which they have passed on to their children and grandchildren. They enjoy traveling internationally and became acquainted with the Spanish periodontal community when Paul taught in Barcelona for an academic year.