THE GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE PAGE

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Student Activity

Graduates

The CAPD/ACDP recognizes that the future national voice of pediatric dentistry in Canada lies within its graduate student population. Whether students are participating in a program within Canada or in the United States, there is one common thread amongst them all - they are linked together and with their active CAPD/ACDP member colleagues through the CAPD/ACDP website.

Students are welcome to submit announcements and/or news that they wish to share on the website about their activities relating to student affairs, meetings or scientific research by contacting the site administrator.

Undergraduates

CAPD/ACPD also recognizes the importance of our undergraduate students in Dentistry who have taken an active interest in Paediatric Dentistry. CAPD/ACPD, through the establishment of the Norm Levine Undergraduate Student scholarship, continues to encourage and support the development of these young learners.

This scholarship is available for each of the dental schools in Canada.

Abstract Submission

There are set guidelines that graduate students need to follow in order to attend and/or submit abstracts for the 3M ESPE Graduate Student Research presentations. The following PDF file contains the information necessary for students' participation:

2022 Instructions for Submission of Scientific Abstracts 

Please note that the 2022 deadline for submission of Abstracts is August 19, 2022

Research Presentations 

The annual 3M Oral Care Graduate Student Research Presentations and Awards are a result of the partnership formed between 3M Oral Care and CAPD/ACDP. The money 3M Oral Care generously donated goes to Canadian graduate students in pediatric dentistry who present their research topics at the CAPD/ACDP Annual General Meeting.

Each year, 5 Graduate students will be invited to the Annual meeting to present their research. Invited students are eligible for the 3M Oral Care CAPD/ACDP Graduate Student Award of $1000 which is awarded to the best presenter as determined by a panel of judges. 3M Oral Care also awards a sample of their product line to all graduate student presenters.

In addition to qualifying for the 3M Oral Care Award, CAPD/ACDP will provide each presenter with Complimentary registration for the Conference Scientific Sessions.

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CAPD/ACDP Congratulates the winner of the 2022 3M Presentations

Dr. Alexandra Rabalski

The 2022 Presenters and Topics 

Dr. MANDEEP GILL

Exploring Part-time Clinical Instructors’ Knowledge of Minimal Intervention Dentistry

Gill M*1, Brondani MA1, Manso AP1, Mathu-Muju KR.1

1Department of Oral Health Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

Purpose: In recent years, there has been a paradigm shift in managing carious lesions minimally invasively and this concept is known as Minimal Intervention Dentistry (MID). Recommendations from the Canadian Core Cariology Curriculum symposium encouraged reflection and recommended further investigations into the teaching of MID in Canadian dental institutions. As Canadian dental schools heavily rely on part-time sessional instructors to support the clinical teaching program, it is of value to understand the knowledge of University of British Columbia’s part-time clinical instructors have of MID in the management of dental caries in patients of any age. Therefore, the purpose of this study aimed to explore UBC’s part time instructors’ knowledge of the principles of minimal intervention dentistry (MID) when managing caries.

Methods: A qualitative exploratory approach of inquiry was used, and purposeful selection identified part-time instructors that support the clinical teaching of dental students during the delivery of patient care in the clinical setting for semi-structured interviews. The interview guide, modeled after Schulte et al. 2011, presented 3 clinical caries management scenarios with questions exploring the participants’ knowledge of the five domains of cariology and minimal intervention management: knowledge base, risk assessment, diagnosis, synthesis, and choice of surgical/non- surgical therapy. Interviews were conducted over Zoom, audio recorded, and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis was conducted with an interpretive deductive-inductive approach.

Results: Nine interviews were completed. The participants consisted of 6 males and 3 females between 55-76 years of age, with 32-45 years of private practice experience, and who had taught anywhere between 3-19 years. The thematic analysis led to the identification of two themes and their respective categories: Foundational knowledge - caries detection methods, caries detection limitations, evaluating lesion activity, categorizing caries risk, selective dentin removal, and pulpal diagnosis; and Caries management decision making - adherence to oral health measures, diagnostic uncertainty, patient cooperation, and economics.

Conclusions: UBC part-time instructors were familiar with the concepts but did not necessarily fully implement minimally invasive dentistry strategies into their hypothetical caries management plans. As MID principles do not appear to have been consistently adopted by sessional instructors, this may pose challenges to consistent teaching of modern caries management to dental students in the clinical educational setting. As dental schools depend upon community dentists to support clinical teaching programs, it would be advisable to consider providing continuing education for sessional instructors to help ensure consistent, evidence-based clinical teaching of caries management.

References:

1. Tikhonova S, Jessani A, Girard F, Macdonald ME, De Souza G, Tam L, Eggert FM, Nguyen-Ngoc C, Morin N, Aggarwal N, Schroth RJ. The Canadian Core Cariology Curriculum: Outcomes of a national symposium. J Dent Educ. 2020 Nov;84(11):1245-1253. doi: 10.1002/jdd.12313. Epub 2020 Jul 22. PMID: 32700382.

2. Schulte AG, Pitts NB, Huysmans MC, Splieth C, Buchalla W. European core curriculum in cariology for undergraduate dental students. Caries Res. 2011;45(4):336-45. doi: 10.1159/000330006. Epub 2011 Jul 14. PMID: 21757903.

DR. KELSEY O'HAGAN-WONG

The Use of Hydroxyapatite Toothpaste to Prevent Dental Caries

O’Hagan-Wong, K1. Enax, J2, Meyer F2, Ganss B1

University of Toronto, Faculty of Dentistry

Research Department Oral Care Dr. Kurt Wolff GmbH & Co. KG, Germany

BACKGROUND: Dissolution of hydroxyapatite (HAP) from the tooth structure at low pH can lead to the irreversible destruction of enamel and dentin, which if left untreated can result in pain and tooth loss. HAP toothpastes have been recently approved for use in Canada and contain HAP particles which resemble those occurring naturally in dental enamel. HAP toothpaste particles are believed to deposit and restore demineralized enamel surfaces and are being explored as a fluoride free anti-caries agent.

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this narrative review was to determine the effectiveness of hydroxyapatite containing toothpastes on enamel remineralization in vitro, in situ and in vivo.

METHODS: A literature search was carried out using the PubMed and Scopus databases. The following keywords were applied “Hydroxyapatite”, "Dentifrices", "Caries", "Remineralization", “Toothpastes”. Relevant papers in English were included in the review based on the title and abstract. Additional articles were screened from the references of selected papers as appropriate.

RESULTS: Our search generated a total of 34 results consisting of 22 in vitro studies, 6 ex vivo studies and 6 clinical trials comparing HAP toothpastes to fluoride toothpaste for caries prevention. In vitro and in situ studies report that brushing with HAP toothpaste filled in and smoothened the irregularities in the demineralized surface compared to fluoridated toothpastes, which failed to repair any enamel irregularities. Surface hardness between teeth brushed with HAP was not significantly different from those brushed with a fluoridated toothpaste, however calcium and phosphate content appear to be significantly higher following the use of HAP toothpastes in these studies. Clinical trials that investigated caries progression reported the non-inferiority of HAP toothpastes compared to fluoridated control toothpastes after 1 year.

Additional effects of HAP toothpastes include increase tooth whitening/brightening effects and decreased dentinal hypersensitivity. Furthermore, no adverse health or environmental concerns surrounding HAP toothpaste use have been reported.

CONCLUSION: This review shows that HAP may be equivalent to fluoridated toothpastes at caries prevention with few adverse effects. HAP toothpastes may be a useful fluoride free alternative for the prevention of dental caries.

EXTERNAL FUNDING: Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS)

DR ALEXANDRA RABALSKI

Emergency dental care in a paediatric hospital during COVID-19

Dr. Alexandra Rabalski, University of Toronto

Objectives: To determine the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on paediatric dental-related emergency department (ED) visits at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, Canada. This study investigated whether COVID-19 influenced patient volumes, dental conditions, and treatment provided in the ED in comparison to historical experiences.

Methods: Retrospective data on dental-related ED visits at SickKids were collected between June 2, 2018, and March 15, 2020, for the pre-pandemic group, and March 16, 2020, to March 15, 2021, for the pandemic group. All children 0 to 17 years of age that were residents of Ontario and who presented for dental-related ED visits were included. Clinical (date of visit, time of triage, consultation by a dentist, primary presenting dental condition, and intervention provided) and patient demographic information was collected. Statistical analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics (frequency distribution), t-test and Chi-square test, with significance level set as p < 0.05.

Results: 2224 patient encounters were reviewed. 71% of patients presented to the ED pre-pandemic, and 29% presented to the ED during the pandemic period. 48.2% and 47.8% received a dental consultation before and during the pandemic, respectively. Dental trauma to the primary dentition was the most common primary presenting condition in both groups. No significant differences were found between the two periods for primary presenting condition (p = 0.065). During the pandemic, patients presenting to the ED were significantly younger (p = 0.0007). There was a significant increase in dental extractions (p < .0005) during the pandemic period. Finally, there was a significant increase in prescription of oral anti-infectives (p = < .0001) during the pandemic period.

Conclusions: Patients presenting to the ED during the pandemic were younger. For patients that were consulted by a dentist, management was more likely to be with anti-infectives, and surgical management was more likely to be with extractions. This study emphasizes the importance of pandemic preparation and paediatric emergency dental management in a hospital ED setting.

Winners of the 3M Oral Care -CAPD/ACDP Graduate Student Research Presentation Award