National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research Oral Health + Overall Health

Bariatric patients may encounter oral health problems that may land them in the Emergency Room. Physicians and staff should be aware of the oral and nutritional implications alone with monitoring and managing metabolic effects in a emergency cases. I strongly feel that barriers should be set in place to prevent paternalistic decision-making influenced by assumption about the patients characteristics. More research... more »

Based on reports from the centers for Disease Control(CDC) more than one-third of U.S. adults are obese. Weight loss surgery is shown to be one of the most effected long term weight loss method used to date. But not with complications including oral health. Some of the latest studies show paternalistic decision making is still practiced and is influenced by assumption about the patients characteristic. Patient voices... more »

My Idea came from my personal experience. I had gastric-bypass surgery 17yrs. ago and kept off 300 lbs. I've experienced financial burdens caused by Oral Health complications. Maintaining oral health in patients undergoing bariatric surgery contributes to success after the operation, and over all good health. Post Oral Assessments, preformed by a dental surgeon alone with the multidisciplinary team of doctors should... more »

Untreated oral disease can lead to aspiration pneumonia, bacterial endocarditis and other systemic diseases.

What is the mortality rate attributable to preventable oral diseases for different populations?

Integrating oral health care into primary care settings can provide oral health preventive services across the lifespan.

Is one model more effective in preventing oral diseases?

Hypothesis: The chronic and intermittent acute pain caused by Early Childhood Caries (ECC) is correlated to a higher pain tolerance throughout the lifespan and different incidence of chronic diseases than people who did not experience ECC .

What are the root causes of Early Childhood Caries (ECC) and how are they be correlated to the social determinants of health and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) scores?

Does the experience of ECC predict adverse health outcomes and is it similar to the adverse health outcomes predicted by ACEs scores?

Temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) are a puzzling group of conditions, studied extensively since Dr Costen's classic 1934 paper, yet the rich number of approaches have met with limited success. A new model comes from the fields of manual medicine (Cranial Osteopathy, myofascial release, Chiropractics, etc.), along with the tension/compression system of Tensegrity, and, from molecular genetics - the central importance... more »

Humans are designed to be nose breathers, but somewhere along the way, nose breathing can change to mouth breathing, with dire consequences: dry mouth, caries, bad breath, snoring, enlarged tonsils, high, narrow palate, crowded teeth, long face syndrome, ADHD symptoms, and poor sleep with reduced human growth hormone released. It’s time to document what clinicians are seeing.

It is necessary to create a centralized research database similar to NHANES for tracking oral health across the lifespan. This will allow for research focused on oral health outcomes and will increase access for data to support evidence-based clinical practice for patients.

Since the 1960s, the sugar industry has suppressed research and information about the damaging effects of sugar and carbohydrates on oral and overall health. The dental profession was pressured to move the research focus away from sugar as the cause of dental disease and focus instead on oral hygiene. Because of that, large gaps exist in the research. It's time to put the research focus back on sugar, starting with... more »

Conduct research on how oral disease and craniofacial disorders affect social wellness, self-esteem and mental health status of individuals. Explore whether individuals with poor oral health, especially those in underserved populations with less opportunity or access to dental care, experience bias in society, for example hiring or promotion for jobs.

There is a need to do pragmatic randomized clinical trials with large sample sizes in large health care systems (HCS) that include both dental and medical providers to answer questions regarding the effectiveness of current management strategies for patients with temporomandibular disorders with co-morbid headache and neck pain as well as wide spread pain.

The National Dental PBRN has shown that primary care dentists in clinical practice will enthusiastically participate in clinical research, and the Network has developed an appropriate infrastructure to facilitate this research. Now the Network is ready to do simple pragmatic randomized clinical trials (RCT) that are feasible to implement in these settings.

Delay and avoidance of oral health care are public health problems affecting a significant portion of the global population, across developmental stages. In spite of technological advances in dental services, anxiety and fear remain a major determinant of avoidance of treatment that otherwise could prevent disease. Understanding behavioral mechanisms involved in avoidance due to fear and anxiety associated with pain... more »