Foundation Reflects on Successful Year Funding Research and Education in Endodontics
The summer months serve as a time of transition for the Foundation for Endodontics. With the 2016-2017 annual fundraising campaign complete, and this year’s campaign planning in its early stages, staff and volunteers are spending time celebrating their achievements and learning what they can do better in the future. This quiet period provides a wonderful opportunity for the Foundation to remind its constituents and beneficiaries how the Foundation has distributed resources and funding to support endodontics, during the past year. The opportunities and stories of the beneficiaries are vast and powerful!
Watch this short video to get a brief overview of how the Foundation serves as a catalyst for the future of the specialty.
Then, take a look at how resources were distributed during the past year to support endodontic research, education, public awareness and access to care:
2016 Edge Endo Fellow
The Endodontic Educator Fellowship Award recognizes the critical role that educators play in strengthening the specialty.
2016 Award: Carla Y. Falcon, D.M.D., M.D.S., Rutgers School of Dental Medicine
Dr. Falcon is the recipient of the Foundation for Endodontics 2016 Edge Endo Fellowship Award. Designed to encourage a career in endodontic academics, the Educator Fellowship Award provides $1,000 over five years to individuals who commit to a minimum of five years of teaching.
“Thanks to generous support from our sponsor, Edge Endo, the Foundation is proud to award our flagship grant for 2016 to Dr. Falcon,” said Foundation for Endodontics President Dr. Peter A. Morgan. “Dr. Falcon has shown great commitment to the specialty of endodontics and as an educator, will instill in her students the critical thinking needed for successful endodontic diagnosis and treatment.”
Dr. Falcon is entering her second year as an assistant professor in the Department of Endodontics at Rutgers, where she also completed her dental degree and endodontic training. Dr. Falcon applies her critical mind and bachelor’s degree in engineering to endodontics regularly; she recognizes that understanding the biological rationale for endodontic treatment is as important as clinical expertise.
2016-2017 Competitive Research Grants
The research grant initiative ensures the growth and development of the science of endodontics and improves the quality of patient care. Congratulations to the Foundation’s most recent awardees:
Spring 2017 Grantees Total: $1,571
| Dalia Alzebdeh | $1,040 | Temple University | The Role of Topographical Cues on Dental Pulp Stem Cells Osteogenic Differentiation via Mechanotransduction |
| Vanessa Chrepa* | $1,000 | University of Washington | Impact of Final Apical Size Preparation on Root Canal Treatment Success: A Clinical, Microbiological and Volumetric Evaluation |
| Benoit Michot | $1,182 | New York University | Interactions of Neurons and Dental Pulp Stem Cells in Pulpitis: The Role of Calcitonin Gene-related Peptide |
| Kiarash Yeganegi | $1,849 | Loma Linda University | Enterococcal Infective Endocarditis by Repetitive, Low-grade Bacteremia: A Preliminary Animal Study in Rats |
| Bo Yu* | $1,849 | University of California at Los Angeles | The Effect of Wnt4 on Osteoimmune Modulations in Apical Periodontitis |
Fall 2016 Grantees Total: $1,136
| Abdulmajeed Alshujaa* | $1,749 | University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio | Characterization of Pain-Modulating Substances in Periradicular Lesions from Teeth with Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Periradicular Pathology |
| Tatiana Botero-Duque* | $1,000 | University of Michigan | A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial of Regenerative Protocols to Treat Immature Necrotic Permanent Teeth |
| Michael Fuller | $1,000 | The Ohio State University | Postoperative Management with a Steroid for Symptomatic Teeth Diagnosed with Pulpa Necrosis |
| Jacqueline Lopez Gross | $1,000 | University of Toronto | Astroglial Plasticity within the Rat Orofacial Sensorimotor Cortex after Endodontic Treatment Versus Tooth Extraction |
| Olivia Cook | $1,357 | The Ohio State University | An Evaluation of 4% Prilocaine Plus 2% Lidocaine with 1:100,000 Epinephrine for Inferior Alveolar Nerve Blocks |
| Daniel Crossen | $1,030 | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | Periapical Microsurgery: A 4-D Analysis of Healing Patterns |
*Indicates researchers who received $500 award for highest scoring proposal.
Interested in the amount of funding and number of projects being funded in each research priorities, year-over-year? Check out how we are putting our donors’ generous contributions to work.
2016 Foundation for Endodontics/Dentsply Sirona Start-up/Innovation in Research Grant
The intent of this grant is to highlight and promote excellence at multiple institutions and to support start-up research efforts for new faculty members and established research programs looking for a new direction in their research.
2016 Award: Saint Louis University, CADE Graduate Endodontics
Thanks to $1,000 in funding from this grant, the SLU Graduate Endodontics program will create the Saint Louis University Dental Radiographic Perception Laboratory. The intent is to apply the concepts of research designs to experimental psychology and medical radiography to dental and endodontic domains. Eye-tracking will be the initial focus of this research to learn where and for how long dentists are looking at radiographic images. The ideas of using eye-tracking and other biometric sensors to examine the “art and science” of endodontic radiographic interpretation are part of a broad innovative vision for SLU endodontics.
These are just some of the ways in which the Foundation ensures a bright and solid future for the specialty. Funding these individuals and programs would not be possible without your support!