Esthetics and Oral Rehabilitation

Description of Subtheme:

Oral rehabilitation is a phrase that is used to encompass several levels of oral therapy. Usually, dentists think of an oral rehabilitation as meaning restoration of all of the teeth in a given mouth, however, when only the defective teeth in any mouth are restored, it could also be defined as an oral rehabilitation. The advent of esthetic dentistry has encouraged the oral rehabilitation concept; as the patients seek dental treatment now for esthetics reasons more than to do oral rehabilitation.

Some of the ongoing research conducted by the departments of Oral Rehabilitation Sciences together with Restorative Sciences deals with Color match of modified high translucency zirconia frameworks, effect of eye fatigue on visual shades selection and effect of human variability on visual shades selection.

Within the near future, research projects will be directed toward evaluating new techniques, trends and materials that aid in oral rehabilitation and in improvements of esthetics as this play an important role in changing a person’s appearance and improving self-esteem.

The science of implantology is highly dynamic. With each improvement and advancement made, implantology has proved to be a boon in disguise to the society and hence its acceptance by the general population has widely increased despite it being a relatively expensive treatment modality. Both the departments of Oral Surgical Sciences and the Oral Rehabilitation Sciences conduct research under this sub-theme including the evaluation of different surface treatment of dental implants on initial stability, evaluating trabecular implant placement with bone expansion in the anterior maxilla, evaluating the use of autograft-platelet rich fibrin mixture around immediately placed dental implants in mandibular molar region, and evaluating the novel socket shield technique in immediate implantology.

Future research will be towards evaluating new implants designs, grafting materials and techniques that enhance the survival rate of dental implants.