Thursday 20 March 2014 9:15am
World Oral Health Day, March 20, has seen further research funding success for Dr Lyndie Foster Page and her team within the Dental Epidemiology and Public Health Research Programme of the SJWRI, looking at prevalence of and new treatments for childhood caries. Following their award of nearly $100,000 in funding from Cure Kids in late 2013 for their 'Transformer Tooth' research, Dr Foster Page and team were announced as recipients of $80,000 in Lottery Health Research funding for a related clinical research project investigating the potential of the Hall Technique in preventing caries in childhood populations.
Both projects have evolved from an original HRC-funded feasibility study which investigated whether the established method of removing decay by drilling it out and filling the hole under general anaesthesia could be replaced with the Hall technique, which involves placing a stainless cap or crown on the tooth to seal in decay. Once a cap is placed on the tooth, no further treatment is required, whereas fillings given to young children often need to be replaced. Traditional approaches are also more invasive and are understood to correlate with higher rates of dental anxiety in later childhood and adulthood.
More information on this research:
Kiwi kids have reason to smile for World Oral Health Day (Cure Kids press release, 20 Mar 2014)
Children will soon be spared dentist's drill (NZ Herald story, 20 Mar 2014)
Otago health researchers supported by Lottery grants (University press release, 11 Mar 2014)
Cure Kids grant success for SJWRI team (23 Dec 2013)
Drill-less technique may reduce kids' dentist fears (Health Research Council of NZ, 29 Jan 2013)