Dr. Laura Jacox DMD, PhD, MS

Dr. Laura Jacox completed her dental training at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and her graduate studies in Craniofacial Developmental Biology at Harvard University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, through the MIT-Harvard Health Sciences & Technology Program. Through Jacox’s graduate work in the Sive Lab at MIT’s Whitehead Institute, she discovered a novel craniofacial organizer, known as the Extreme Anterior Domain, which is required for mouth formation and migration of cranial neural crest in the frog model, Xenopus laevis. Her love of craniofacial development and patient care guided her to orthodontics. Laura then moved to Chapel Hill, NC to complete her Orthodontic Residency, Master's degree and post-doctoral training at the University of North Carolina (UNC), with Dr. William Proffit, DDS, MS, PhD and Dr. Ching-Chang Ko, DDS, MS, PhD. During residency, Dr. Jacox began a major clinical study on the influence of Dentofacial Disharmonies (DFD) and its correction on speech with oral surgery, linguistics and speech pathology collaborators; this project is the main focus of her research studies as an Assistant Professor at the UNC Adams School of Dentistry. As an Orthodontics Faculty Member and Director of the Orthodontics Research Program, she has established a lab and independent research program, with dental students, graduate students, orthodontic residents and postdoctoral fellow mentees. Her projects have continued to grow with funding from the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Foundation, the American Association of Orthodontics Foundation and the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She has presented at numerous national and international meetings, and has published widely on the topics of craniofacial development, Orthodontics, DFD and speech. She also practices with Severt Smiles Orthodontics in Chapel Hill and Pittsboro, NC, with a focus on special needs and surgical orthodontic patients.