Childers is a board certified pediatric dentist and his research interest involves the microbiology, immunology and epidemiology of dental caries. With over 30 years in his academic career at UAB, Childers has a longstanding history of external research support (NIH) and over 50 peer reviewed publications. He is also active in clinical and teaching activities for graduate and dental students at the School of Dentistry, Civitan-Sparks Center for the Developmentally Disabled and Children's Hospital of Alabama.

Da Fonseca received his dental degree in Brazil in 1987. He went on to the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, for his Master of Science degree and certificate in Pediatric Dentistry, followed by a fellowship at the Denver Children’s Hospital. In 1994-95, he did an Oral Medicine fellowship at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle working exclusively with hematopoietic stem cell transplant children.  He was a clinical assistant professor and director of undergraduate pediatric dentistry at the University of California, San Francisco (1995-97). At the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1997 to 2005), he was director of the pediatric dental service at the University Medical Center. He was director of inpatient dental care at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and a clinical professor at the Ohio State University College of Dentistry (2005-2010). He was the Law-Lewis Professor and director of the pediatric dental graduate program at the University of Washington Center for Pediatric Dentistry and Seattle Children’s Hospital until June 2013. He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Dentistry for Children, a publication of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. He co-edited the book “Clinical Cases in Pediatric Dentistry”.

Da Fonseca is currently Chicago Dental Society Professor and Head of the Department of Pediatric Dentistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago.