30 April 2023

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Dentsply Sirona, AADOCR recognize students’ research projects

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The 2023 Student Competition for Advancing Dental Research and its Application (SCADA) Awards, co-sponsored by Dentsply Sirona and the American Association for Dental, Oral & Craniofacial Research (AADOCR), annually invite U.S. dental schools to select a student to participate in the competition, which aims to recognize outstanding student research projects just like every year. 

In this year’s competition, a total of 38 selected students submitted their projects in one of the two available categories: Clinical Science & Public Health Research and Basic & Translational Science. According to an April 18 news release, the winners were announced at the AADOCR/CADR Annual Meeting & Exhibition held in Portland, Oregon in a special evening event hosted by Dentsply Sirona.

Through this award, the initiators have been supporting oral health research for years and promoting young professionals in the early stages of their research careers – also by making them part of a worldwide network of clinicians and scientists.

2023 SCADA Award Winning Projects

In the Clinical Science & Public Health Research category:

• 1st Place: Jay Dalal, University of Connecticut, School of Dental Medicine, won the competition with his research project “The Effectiveness of Current Desensitizing Agents at Hypersensitivity Prevention.”
• 2nd Place: Julia Kishanie Persaud, New York University, College of Dentistry, project: The Impact of Electronic Cigarette Use on the Salivary Microbiome in Periodontitis Patients
• 3rd Place: Mackenzie Andrews, Midwestern University, project: Does Mouthguard Lamination Technique affect Hockey and Baseball Impact Force?

In the Basic & Translational Science category:

• 1st Place: Natalie Andras from The Ohio State University, College of Dentistry, is the winner with her project “Gene-Editing Provides Functional Evidence for the Ectomesenchymal Origin of Cementoblasts.”
• 2nd Place: W. Benton Swanson, University of Michigan, project Scaffold-based Approach to Regenerating the Cranial Suture Stem Cell Niche
• 3rd Place: Darnell Cuylear, University of California, San Francisco, project: Calcium Phosphate Microparticles For Dual Anti-resorptive Drug Delivery and Osteogenesis

First, second and third winning projects in each of the two categories were awarded with $1,000, $750, and $500, respectively.

SCADA – a program dedicated to research and international networking

SCADA was initiated in 1959 and is committed to two main goals: to strengthen the field of dental research by supporting young professionals in early stages of their research careers, and to promote networking between students and clinicians and scientists from all over the world as they develop their skills and advance their careers. Dentsply Sirona and the American Association for Dental, Oral and Craniofacial Research support this program as co-sponsors, engaging over 7,000 students worldwide, to showcase their research, recognize their passion for discovery and innovation, and fuel the future of dental care.

In addition to the US competition, the SCADA program also has an international component.  Dentsply Sirona sponsored 6 other national student research competitions in France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand in 2022. With Dentsply Sirona’s support, the student winners of each country were invited to present their winning research on a non-competitive manner at the AADOCR/CADR Annual Meeting. 

SCADA advances science and improves global oral health

“Our vision at Dentsply Sirona is to transform dentistry and to improve oral health globally," said Dr. Rainer Seemann, vice president of global clinical research with Dentsply Sirona, in the news release. "This is just possible with science. What better way to help guide the future of the profession and oral health than to support science in its foundations. The student clinicians are the future of oral science and we are committed to investing into this future by running the SCADA program for 64 years.” 

AADOCR President Jane Weintraub said these "accomplished SCADA investigators provide an auspicious future for dental, oral, and craniofacial research.”