Historic dental clinic at Wilmington Hospital named in honor of Edwin L. Granite, D.M.D.

Historic dental clinic at Wilmington Hospital named in honor of Edwin L. Granite, D.M.D.

Robert J. Laskowski, M.D., MBA, Christiana Care president and CEO, and Janice Nevin, M.D., MPH, Christiana Care chief medical officer, were among the many friends and colleagues who turned out to honor Edwin L. Granite, D.M.D., at the Wilmington Hospital dental clinic that now bears his name. Dr. Granite is joined by his wife, Bell.

Edwin L. Granite, D.M.D., retired Sept. 30 as Christiana Care Health System’s chairman of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Hospital Dentistry, chief of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and program director of the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Residency Program.

Christiana Care honored Dr. Granite by naming the clinic where he practiced, taught and mentored for decades The Edwin L. Granite, D.M.D., Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery & Hospital Dentistry Clinic. For more than 60 years, this facility at Wilmington Hospital has provided affordable dental care to uninsured and under-insured patients.

“Dr. Granite helped to shape Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery education and surgical practice for over 47 years in Delaware — in private practice starting in 1962, and as an academician at Christiana Care,” said Daniel J. Meara, M.D., D.M.D., Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Residency Program director. “He provided dedicated and skilled care to his patients and has been a leader in education as a teacher and mentor to many residents and students who are now out practicing throughout the country and spreading his influence beyond Delaware. His vision for the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Residency Program has enhanced Christiana Care’s stature today as a destination for health care and residency education as a comprehensive, academic teaching hospital with a fully accredited Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Residency Program.”

Howard W. Zucker, D.D.S., program manager for Christiana Care’s General Practice Dentistry Residency Program and director/section chief of Implant Dentistry, reflected on Dr. Granite’s many accomplishments, citing Rudyard Kipling’s 1910 poem “If”:

“If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue / Or walk with kings — nor lose the common touch …”

Dr. Zucker recalled that at lunchtime Dr. Granite “made the time to greet and chat with so many people along the way. He always made time for others. He is a wonderful person.”

Dr. Granite earned his degree in dental medicine from Temple University in Philadelphia in 1957. He chose to enter the oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS) specialty while serving as a dentist in the Navy at Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia, and thereafter enrolled in a certification program at Jefferson Medical College Hospital in Philadelphia.

In 1965, he began his 47-year relationship with Christiana Care, starting as the coordinator and director of the OMS training program. He was appointed chief of the OMS section in 1993 and program director of the OMS residency program in 1999.

As a senior attending oral and maxillofacial surgeon at Christiana Care, Dr. Granite also was on courtesy staff at the A.I. duPont Hospital for Children and served as an OMS consultant to the Veterans Administration Hospital, the Delaware State Hospital, Bissell Hospital, Kent General and the University of Delaware. He also has served the public sector as consultant to the Delaware Institute of Dental Education and Research, which helps secure opportunities for Delaware residents to attend dental school through an annual admissions program with neighboring states and institutions.

Dr. Granite is a diplomate of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and served on the board’s Examination Committee for the past three years. He also is a diplomate of the National Dental Board of Anesthesiology. He is a fellow of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, the American College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, the International Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, the American Dental Society of Anesthesiology, the American College of Dentists and the International College of Dentists. He is a recipient of the Scholar’s Award from the American College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, a fellowship from the Pierre Fauchard Academy (an international honorary organization) and a recipient of the Wilmington, Delaware, City Council Community Service Recognition Award and Commendation.

The Edwin L. Granite, D.M.D. Clinic will embody its namesake in providing excellence in patient care and residency education.

Dr. Granite’s lifelong passion for knowledge about jaws and teeth extends beyond Homo sapiens. He has an avid interest in sharks, which he goes to great depths to pursue, as a skilled scuba diver and amateur underwater photographer and videographer. His underwater videography of sharks, underwater seascapes and creatures of the deep is a special highlight of an annual dinner event and art exhibit sponsored by the Christiana Care Medical Dental Staff each fall.

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