Dentist Eric Stafne helped patients quit smoking

Dr. Eric Stafne, a Forest Lake dentist who combined his periodontal practice with teaching and a passion to help patients stop smoking, died of cancer Wednesday. He was 75.

Although Stafne retired in 2000 from full-time teaching at the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry, he continued until June to lead its Tobacco Cessation Program and Counseling Clinic, which he started in 1995.

"He saw from early in his periodontal practice that some patients responded well to treatment and some didn't," said his daughter, Lonie Adams of Maple Grove, "and he suspected that tobacco use might be involved. The research proved he was right."

The tobacco program includes lectures and clinical experience to help dental professionals understand the issues and coach their patients to quit smoking, which causes many dental health problems, including mouth cancer and gum diseases.

Stafne thought dentists and especially dental hygienists were well positioned to help willing patients stop tobacco use because they see patients regularly for fairly long appointments.

"Eric was a real pioneer. This sort of program is still rare in dental schools," said Dr. Bashar Bakdash, director of the Division of Periodontology at the university. "He had a passion for that, which really was a passion for his patients."

His daughter said his work was "an intense passion, and Dad said he wasn't sure where it came from."

"The thing about Dad is he was always upbeat and always grateful for a job and a family that he loved," she said.

Stafne learned about three years ago that he had prostate cancer and underwent powerful chemotherapy and radiation that left him weakened, "but still a nice guy to be around, even while he was experiencing a lot of pain," she said.

He was born in Rochester and graduated from the university dental school in 1960. After serving as a dentist in the Air Force for two years, he returned to the university to specialize in periodontics and in 1965 went into private practice in St. Paul.

He married Dorie Jean Supple in 1961 after meeting her in dental school, where she was training to be a hygienist. She retired about 15 years ago, her daughter said.

When Stafne started his periodontics practice, he also began teaching part time at the university and after 25 years sold his practice to teach full time.

"Eric was a very modest man, but he made such a difference," Bakdash said. "There are dentists today who practice differently because of him, and there are patients he never met who are healthier because, indirectly, he helped them stop smoking."

In addition to his wife and daughter, Stafne is survived by his son, Mark, and four grandchildren. A memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Mattson Funeral Home in Forest Lake, with friends gathering with the family there an hour earlier.