Dental Symposium to Highlight Cutting-Edge Research

Focus: From the Laboratory to the Dental Office

Dentistry is experiencing some significant changes that will affect dentists, their patients, dental education, and researchers in the not too distant future.

The scope and magnitude of those changes will be discussed by national and internationally renowned experts in oral health care and education at a symposium to be held this fall on the University of Michigan campus.

The inaugural symposium, Clinical Research to Clinical Practice: Managing Challenges at the Cutting Edge, is a two-and-a-half-day program designed to inform oral health care professionals about many innovative developments now underway in research laboratories that, ultimately, may become a part of everyday clinical practice, according to Dr. William Giannobile, director of clinical research for the School of Dentistry.

The symposium will be held Friday, September 12, and Saturday, September 13, at Rackham Auditorium. A presymposium is also scheduled for Thursday, September 11, and will be held at the Michigan Union. The symposium is cosponsored by the U-M School of Dentistry and the Delta Dental Research and Data Institute, the research division of Delta Dental of Michigan.

Topics to be discussed include:
• What are some of the cutting-edge innovations in dentistry?
• How might they benefit patients, dentists, and other oral health care providers?
• Are there any breakthroughs that may occur in the future that will affect how dentistry is practiced?
• How will discoveries in the laboratory lead to innovations in clinical research and in dental practice?
• What will these innovations mean to practicing clinicians and the future of dentistry?

What's Taking Place; How it Could Affect Dentists and Patients

"Dentistry, dental research, dental education, and patient care are at an exciting crossroads," Giannobile said. "This symposium will bring together researchers, practitioners, and educators who will give a 'big picture' perspective about what's taking place, why it will be important, and what it will mean in the future to the typical dentist and his or her patient."

Giannobile directs the Michigan Center for Oral Health Research which uses knowledge discovered in laboratories and applies it to help patients. Opened in the fall of 2003, the Center provides patient services related to clinical research including oral exams, oral surgeries, and major restorative procedures. It builds on many of the School's major strengths including a long history of clinical trial research and international prominence in basic science research.

The cost to attend the symposium is $125 for dentists and $95 for auxiliaries (dental hygienists, office staff, and others). Oral health care professionals will receive 12 continuing dental education credits for attending the program after they register with the School of Dentistry's Office of Continuing Dental Education. To register, call (734) 763-5070 or (734) 763-5171 or e-mail the Office of Continuing Dental Education: cde.umich@umich.edu.

See the full program schedule.