CADE Endodontics Program Awarded Grant to Create New Laboratory
Saint Louis University’s Center for Advanced Dental Education (CADE) endodontics program has been awarded a $50,000 Foundation for Endodontics/Dentsply Sirona Innovation/Start-up in Research Grant.
This grant is awarded annually to one or more university endodontic programs. Winners are chosen based on goals for developing a new research initiative at their institution.
SLU’s graduate program in endodontics was awarded this grant to develop a Dental Radiographic Perception Laboratory to address research ideas that are not being studied anywhere else. This laboratory aims to learn where dentists and endodontists look when interpreting radiographs and ultimately to develop best-practice techniques to improve radiographic interpretation. More broadly, the aim is to apply the concepts and research designs of experimental psychology and medical radiography research to dental and endodontic domains.
Although eye-tracking will be the initial focus of this research other biometric sensors will explore the “art and science” of dental radiographic interpretation.
The new laboratory will:
- Evaluate parameters affecting the perception and interpretation of dental radiographs, including biases and other factors affecting misperception and misinterpretation of radiographs.
- Compare different image evaluation visual search strategies to identify those which result in more accurate image perceptions and interpretations.
- Evaluate the effects of career experience and training on radiographic perceptual abilities and visual search techniques.
- Compare the radiographic perceptual abilities of endodontists, general dentists and other dental specialists.
Beyond this focused research, SLU Graduate Endodontics welcomes collaborative eye-tracking and other perceptual research opportunities across campus. Karl Woodmansey, DDS, and John Hatton, D.M.D., executive director of CADE, are facilitating this project. They can be contacted at: WoodmanseyKF@slu.edu and HattonJF@slu.edu.
Dentsply Sirona Endodontics underwrites the grant program.
The Center for Advanced Dental Education’s mission is to achieve the highest level of excellence in scholarship and patient care while educating dentists in the specialties of orthodontics (tooth straightening), endodontics (root canal treatment), periodontics (gum disease therapy) and pediatric dentistry. The center aims to serve its students, the profession of dentistry, the community of St. Louis, and the communities in which the graduates of CADE will practice their dental specialty.