A local practitioner was recently recognized for outstanding work in the field of dentistry.

Selma native Dr. Gerald A. Anderson II was chosen as the outstanding practitioner/clinician for the state of Alabama at the Alabama-Mississippi regional meeting of the Dental Practice-Based Research Network held in Birmingham on March 9.

Anderson, who operates his private practice on Selma Avenue, said the recognition was a surprise to him.

“I was shocked. I really was,” Anderson said. “I have worked with this program for about seven years. I went to dental school at UAB. When they started this program at UAB … I was one of the ones they called to be involved with it and I enjoyed every minute of working with it.”

Anderson works through the University of Alabama School of Dentistry in Birmingham, and has been a member of the executive council of the Dental Practice-Based Research Network for the Alabama-Mississippi region since the program’s inception in 2005.

Anderson said the program helps bridge the gap between research and implementing the findings of research into actual private practices for the betterment of dentistry.

“Initially, I served on the executive council and basically what that part has been is I’ve worked with the representative from NIH (National Institute of Health in Washington) and I’ve worked with the dental school at UAB,” Anderson said. “It’s a panel of 11 people, and we as practitioners or as researcher or as schools, present topics for research. They write a grant and we go through and review all of those grants and determine which ones are to be funded. And, personally, we’ve done studies and I’ve participated in about seven of them. It’s studies that you incorporate in your practice where they can take some of the data from real-world practices and apply it to the advancement of dentistry.”

Anderson was also chosen to present a paper that he was involved in at the International Association of Dental Researchers’ annual meeting in Miami back in 2009, and has been in private practice as a dentist in Selma for 20 years.

He said he loves the small-town atmosphere of his hometown, the people and helping his patients any way he can.

“I’ve always loved people and I love my patients,” Anderson said. “One of the things I love the most is, a lot of people are scared of the dentist, but I’m able to take someone who’s really scared and terrified, and take them to a point where they come here and don’t have any fear at all. To me, that’s as much a reward as anything.”