Representing Schulich Dentistry at IADR 2022

September 2022

A variety of individuals represented Schulich Dentistry at the 2022 IADR General Session & Exhibition Virtual Experience on June 23, 2022.

Class of 2024 President Rachel Brunswick was selected to give a live interactive presentation on her abstract, “Household and Nutritional Factors Impacting Adolescents Oral Health Status, Lesotho.” This presentation highlighted the study Rachel has been working on over the past year with Dr. Abbas Jessani, which aims to find associations between household/nutrition characteristics and the oral health status amongst underserved adolescents in Lesotho, Southern Africa.

According to Rachel, the results showed significant associations of household factors; specifically household size, frequency of internet use, and frequency of newspaper use with either dental caries or gingivitis.

“Presenting at the IADR provided a wonderful opportunity to bring attention to the oral health status and needs of this underserved community and highlight the potential for household factors to be considered in future preventative oral health interventions within the context of global health,” Rachel shared. “I had such a great experience as a first-time presenter at the IADR and I look forward to seeing what this upcoming year of research will bring for Schulich Dentistry.”

Supervisor Dr. Jessani praised Rachel’s work in analyzing, writing, and committing to presenting such important findings at this prestigious event. “As a supervisor,” he explained, “it is really important for me that students understand the role of psychosocial and living conditions on oral disease as in the case of this project.”

Other sessions included:

  • Schulich Dentistry Vice Dean and Director Dr. Carlos Quiñonez presented a symposium on “The political determinants of oral health: Political economy as action research” during the political determinants of health session on June 24th.
  • Dr. Noha Gomaa also presented a symposium on June 24th entitled “Biological Embedding of Social Adversity in Children’s Oral Health” during the session “Biological versus Psychosocial Traits as Risk Determinants of Early Childhood Caries.”
  • Melika Pahlevan Sabbagh (DENTS2024) and supervisor Dr. Georgia Nikoloudaki hosted an Interactive Talk session on “Efficacy of Vital Pulp Therapy Strategies in Mature Teeth with Symptomatic Irreversible Pulpitis: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-analysis" during the Evidence-Based Dentistry Network session on June 23rd. Fourth-year DDS student Jessica Ballantyne was also a co-author on this work.
  • Karla Carpio Horta from Dr. Liliani Aires Candido Vieira’s group gave an oral presentation titled “Neighbourhood level sociodemographic variables and the incidence of Early Childhood Caries” during the “Behavioural and Social Risk Factors Associated with Early Childhood Caries" session on June 23rd. Co-authors included Dr. Sharat Chandra Pani, Dr. Mauricio Perez Florez, Dr. Brandon Linaksita, and Hanna Chang (DENTS2023).