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Pediatric and Preventive Dentistry

Research focus
Overview
Focused research by young, inspired and committed faculty is the cornerstone of the academic, clinical and scientific activity of the department. Research is mainly directed towards understanding the oral health conditions affecting children and to mitigate them so improve the oral health, and the general well-being of children. Most of the research is conducted towards Early Childhood Caries which is one of the most common chronic childhood condition with a multitude of comorbidities affecting children and their families.

Vision
To usher in an era where every milk tooth is preserved and nurtured through creative breakthrough in thinking and human resources and to engage in life transforming research to create holistic oral care.

Mission
To provide exceptional, uncompromised, personalized, preventive, therapeutic oral health care services including guidance for infants to preschoolers, with the highest level of care, skill, judgement and comfort in an atmosphere of trust and compassion and to spearhead innovative research leading to a cavity free childhood through adolescence and forever.

CECCRe - Centre for Early Childhood Caries Research
CECCRe- Centre For Early Childhood Caries Research was inaugurated on 29/08/18 by the dignitaries of the university. This centre is a follow up of the one crore grant received from the Wellcome Trust(UK) DBT India Alliance and first of its kind to be awarded to a Dental Institute across the country. This centre intends to provide exceptional, uncompromised, personalized preventive, therapeutic oral health care services including guidance for infants to preschoolers, with the highest level of care, skill, judgement and comfort and to spearhead innovative research, leading to a cavity free childhood through adolescence and forever. The room is equipped with one fully automated dental unit. A register to enter and maintain the data of each patient along with the provision for future recall and follow up visits is created. The room is decorated colourfully with cartoon pictures, alphabets and in addition a wall mounted television is placed in the screening area.  Also, a standee and a wooden box displaying the age appropriate oral hygiene measures are placed inside the screening area for educating and creating awareness on prevention of dental decay in young children.
The unit functions with the aim of insisting the proper oral hygiene measures, educating on age appropriate anticipatory guidance and emphasising the importance of milk tooth to achieve a decay free mouth. Also the centre caters to all aspects of preventive and therapeutic approach for dental problems for children below 6 years of age with regular follow up visits being encouraged.

Thrust Areas
Early Childhood Caries / Pediatric Endodontics / Dental Education / Interceptive orthodontics / Dental Traumatology.

Faculty
The faculty nurture the creativity of students and encourage the under-graduate students, Post-graduate students to be actively involved in research. The students are constantly mentored to complete their research projects and to publish the same in high-impact journals. The doctoral students are encouraged to pursue research in their field of interest and to create a niche so as to get recognised in their academic community. 

UG/PG/Doctoral Research
The undergraduate students are encouraged and guided by the faculty to undertake summer research projects being offered by the university.
Post Graduates conduct systematic reviews as a part of study in lieu of Library Dissertation. All the Post-graduates are encouraged attend the Cochrane Workshops on Systematic Review protocol development.
All the doctoral fellows undergo multiple training programs through MOOCs and various online courses to form a strong foundation in their areas of research.

Funding Received
Emphasis is always placed on funded research, as it helps in training skilled personnel, and in forming networks to undertake interdisciplinary and Inter-Institutional Research.
 

International

• DBT Wellcome Thrust / India Alliance - One of the faculties has been awarded the Early Career Fellowship by the Wellcome Trust DBT India Alliance. Funding received for this project is approximately One crore.

National

• Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC)

• Indian Council of Medical research (ICMR)

• Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD)

• Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB)

• Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) - Path-breaking Research has been undertaken in collaboration with University of Western Australia under the SPARC Scheme and funding received was approximately 48 lakhs.

• GATE grants - The details of the grants received under the GATE grants projects as Research Starter Grants are as follows

• Dr Akila Ganesan - Association of sleep time feeding practices with Early Childhood Caries (ECC); Amount received - INR 0.69 lakh

• Dr Selva Kumar H - Evaluation of masticatory stress distribution and extent of Peri-cervical dentine in primary teeth using dynamic finite element analysis; Amount received - INR 1,00,000



Collaborations

International Collaborations

  1.  Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates (UAE)
  2.  Childrens Dental Centre, Seoul, South Korea
  3. Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong
  4. King Faisal University, Al Ahsa, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
  5. UCLA School of Dentistry, Los Angeles, California, USA
  6. University of Western Australia, Perth

 National Collaborations

  1.  All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India
  2.  King Georges Medical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
  3.  K M Shah Dental College & Hospital, Sumandeep Vidyapeeth ( Deemed    to be University), Vadodara, Gujarat, India
  4.  Mahatma Gandhi Dental College, Mahatma Gandhi University of      Medical Sciences and Technology, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
  5.  Maulana Azad Institute of Dental Sciences, New Delhi
  6.  M S Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, Bangalore, Karnataka,    India
  7.  Narayana Dental College and Hospital, Nellore, Andhra Pradesh
  8.  Oxford Dental College and Hospital, Bangalore, India
  9.  Sardar Patel Post Graduate Institute of Medical and Dental Sciences, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

 

Ongoing Doctoral Research Projects

• Evaluation of interproximal contact areas of primary molars as a risk factor for early childhood caries.

• Association of sleep time feeding practices with Early Childhood Caries (ECC)

• Sequence and Chronology of permanent tooth eruption in Chennai population, using multiple parameters

• Assessment and Evaluation of Andrews fifth key to normal occlusion A study cast and CBCT Analysis

• Polymorphisms of Enamel Formation genes in a South-Indian population with Early Childhood Caries - A Case Control Study

• Mobile App to provide sustained Anticipatory Guidance Design, Development, Validation, User perception, and Effectiveness

• Evaluation of Masticatory stress distribution and extent of peri-cervical dentine in primary teeth using dynamic finite element analysis

Ongoing Research Projects of PG Students

  Prevalence of Cusp of Carabelli – A Systematic Review

 Crown dimensions in primary teeth - A Systematic Review

 Chemical composition of enamel in primary and permanent teeth- A Systematic.

 Review

 Evaluation of Occluso-gingival heights of primary molars

 Early Childhood Caries and Iron Deficiency Anaemia - A  Systematic Review

 Emergency Management of Injured TeethPublications

 In vivo investigation of variations In the number and pattern of root canal orifices using naked eyes and by magnifying loupes

 Prevalence of oral anomalies in newborn

Publications

The number of Publications in Peer-reviewed National/ International Journals is the key indicator of the research activity and the diverse research projects undertaken by the department. This is depicted in the following figure. Total number of publications in high impact factor journals in the last two years 2020 and 2021 (Till date) is 10.

 

Awards

Paul P Taylor Award This is awarded to the lead author of the most prestigious article in Journal Pediatric Dentistry for the previous year and in the year 2020, it was conferred upon Dr M S Muthu.

 

Patents

Oral Wipespatent filed Dr.M.S.Muthu