As the hypothetical adcomm member, I wouldn't really want to know if you're doing research, but I would want to know if your interest in research is part of your professional pursuit of dentistry. If I were at a research-oriented D-school, I'd want to know if you know anything about the research at my institution and whether you want to continue research at my school.
If you are close to publishing a paper (it was accepted for publication), I'd wait until I could potentially list it on a resume to give to an adcomm interviewer as your personal update.