Five postgraduate trainees from the Department of Prosthodontics at the Amrita School of Dentistry won best paper awards at the 44th Kerala State Dental Conference in Trivandrum.

Dr. Haripriya, Dr. Ipe Sabu K., Dr. Liji Mathew, Dr. Neena George and Dr. Sreeraj presented papers based on actual patient cases they treated.

Dr. Haripriya’s paper titled Facial Makeover in a Completely Edentulous Patient analyzed a facial makeover surgery for a 39 year old female patient, who lost her complete set of teeth two years ago.

The surgery was performed in collaboration with the Department of Plastic Surgery at the Amrita School of Medicine.

“After extraction of an individual’s natural teeth, facial muscles lose their tonicity; also wrinkles invade their face. Replacement of the teeth can bring back a smile but not the fullness of the face. With fat injections, there was some possibility for restoring the previous facial form. With this approach, we received results better then we expected,” shared Dr. Haripriya.

Another paper about prosthetic devices for treating patients with radiation therapy authored by Dr. Ipe also received an award. The paper was titled Prosthetic Appliance for Brachytherapy.

“The appliance was used to deliver radiation to the palate, with minimal radiation exposure to the adjacent areas. The morbidity of the adjacent tissues could thus be avoided,” explained Dr. Ipe.

The third award-winning paper studied the application of nanotechnology in dental implants, highlighting how nano modifications for micro surfaces can help ensure long-term clinical success.

“Over the past two decades there have been many studies and today we know what exactly is to be done on the implant surface to enhance osseo integration,” stated Dr. Liji, who authored this paper titled Enhancing Implant Surface Topography Using Nanotechnology.

Dr. Neena George focused on smile correction in here paper titled Smile Design Using Diagram of Facial Aesthetic References, outlining a case study on Prosthetic Rehabilitation, using fixed partial dentures.

Dr. Sreeraj elaborated on methods to measure speech outcome in his paper titled Functional Assessment of Speech in Patients Rehabilitated with Obturator Prosthesis after Maxillectomy.

Maxillectomy refers to the surgical removal of maxilla due to cancers of the oral cavity.

“These measurements were required in determining the effectiveness of speech rehabilitation using obturator; they helped guide and evaluate the treatment plan and document the effectiveness of treatment protocol,” stated Dr. Sreeraj.

In addition to these scholars, Dr. Priya, Dr. Anju Mohan and Dr. Vijaysree from the Department of Conservative Dentistry & Endodontics as also Dr. Nithin Anand from the Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery received best paper awards at the same conference.

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Best Paper Awards at Kerala State Dental Conference

February 9, 2012
School of Dentistry, Kochi