Alessandro Villa

Dr. Alessandro Villa is an oral medicine specialist who cares for patients with a variety of conditions affecting the mouth. He has particular interests in treating oral mucosal diseases (which affect the mucous membrane lining of the mouth), salivary gland disorders and oral complications from cancer therapy. He serves as chief of the UCSF Sol Silverman Oral Medicine Clinic and as program director for the oral medicine residency program.

Villa's research interests include oral complications from cancer treatment and oral leukoplakia (a precancerous condition of the mouth). He also works on public health educational campaigns aimed at reducing the rate of oropharyngeal cancers (cancers of structures in the back of the throat) associated with human papillomavirus (HPV).

Villa earned his dental degree from the University of Milan in Italy and then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cancer epidemiology and genetics at the National Cancer Institute. He earned a master of public health degree from AT Still University College of Graduate Health Studies. He completed a residency in oral medicine at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, training at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and he earned a doctorate in biomedical sciences and preventive dentistry from the University of Sassari in Italy.

Villa has written many journal articles and book chapters on topics in oral medicine, and serves on the editorial board of several oral medicine journals, including Oral Diseases. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.