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Industrial collaborators have achieved more efficient and cost-effective routes to market for their oral hygiene and wound healthcare products as a result of UWE in vitro biofilm models based on perfusion flow. These have been used to measure the products' efficacy.
These companies include GABA international, GlaxoSmithKline, Insense Ltd (now Archimed), and Healthcare International.
Healthcare International has developed an oral healthcare product following the use of the UWE models to identify which of several compounds were best suited for this; it has been sold and distributed by Boots International.
Practising dental professionals have been trained by UWE researchers, using insights gained from our research findings, in correct procedures to diagnose and treat breath malodour.
Research conducted by Professor Matthews at the University of Bristol, has led to the alleviation of pain for people who suffer from sensitive teeth through the development of improved desensitising toothpaste products sold globally by leading toothpaste manufacturers. In 2000 and 2007, Matthews' group provided the first direct evidence that fluid flow in dentinal tubules results in activation of the sensory nerves in teeth and that this fluid flow is responsible for the pain associated with sensitive teeth. This evidence underpinned the development of a new generation of desensitising toothpastes, which act by blocking the dentinal tubules and preventing the movement of fluid, providing pain relief from thermal sensitivity.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 60% to 90% of school children are affected by tooth decay in industrialised countries 1,2. At low levels, fluoride can reduce tooth decay, but high levels can damage developing tooth enamel in young children. Our research has informed the revised WHO guidelines for monitoring community tooth decay prevention programmes and the UK National Fluoridated Milk Advisory Group's recommendation to increase the amount of fluoride added to school milk. The WHO guidelines are accepted and implemented internationally representing a substantial spread of influence. The recommendation to increase the amount of fluoride in school milk UK-wide is significant, as it will further control and reduce dental caries, especially in deprived areas with non-fluoridated water supply. In addition, we have established better measures of babies' and children's actual and ideal fluoride intake, including better techniques to determine the fluoride content of foods, a protocol for monitoring fluoride intake through urinary excretion, and experimentally-based models to monitor community preventive programmes.
Infective endocarditis (IE) is a rare but life-threatening disorder that may arise as a consequence of bacteraemia following invasive procedures such as those of dentistry. Research at the UCL Eastman Dental Institute has detailed the dental causes, prevalence and character of bacteraemia following dental procedures and demonstrated that everyday oral health activities are more likely to be a cause of bacteraemia than invasive dentistry. The research outcomes informed 2008 NICE guidelines that recommended that antibiotic prophylaxis solely to prevent IE should not be given to people at risk of IE undergoing dental and non-dental procedures. This has since caused a 78.6% fall in related antibiotic prescribing, a cost-saving of approximately £4m to the NHS in England and will reduce the threats of fatal anaphylaxis and antibiotic resistance.
Dental hypersensitivity is a major problem for over half the population in the developed world. Researchers at the Dental Institute of King's College London (KCL) have developed a system to use bioactive glass powders to clean, seal and desensitize teeth, thus alleviating dental pain. As a result, a spinout company — OSspray — was formed in 2004 to develop and commercialise the system for dentists and hygienist to spray-clean teeth. Over £4.5 million of funding has been raised to date from institutional and venture capital investors and three product lines have been launched in the past 24 months. The products developed by the KCL/OSspray team have treated over 700,000 patients across the EU, USA and Asia. The knowledge gained by the KCL-based founders of OSspray has been used to train students in Innovation Technology.
The use of fluoride in preventive dentistry was previously fraught with controversy despite numerous primary studies. A series of Cochrane systematic reviews by Queen Mary's Marinho et al greatly reduced uncertainty in this field and has been used extensively in the UK (eg Department of Health, Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network) and internationally (eg World Health Organization) since 2002 as strong evidence to support clinical and public health decisions on preventive use of fluorides. The research provided a knowledge framework that enabled decision-makers worldwide to significantly reduce variations in practice and policy, and also reduce burden of dental caries (tooth decay). The research has prompted new, more relevant trials and important advances in systematic review methodology (new statistical approaches for meta-analysis).
King's College London (KCL)-led research has both underpinned and helped to develop and test an International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS) and complementary International Caries Classification and Management System (ICCMS™). Now increasingly accepted and used worldwide, these assessment and management systems are important to clinicians and researchers in detecting, preventively managing and monitoring caries as well as in framing research investigations and evaluating outcomes. They are valuable tools for public health planning and assessing incidence and prevalence of caries (tooth decay), the most ubiquitous disease across the globe. Equally importantly, they now facilitate professional curricula and public education programmes.
Loudness is the subjective magnitude of a sound as perceived by human listeners and it plays an important role in many human activities. It is determined jointly by the physical characteristics of a sound and by characteristics of the human auditory system. A model for predicting the loudness of sounds from their physical spectra was developed in the laboratory of Professor Brian Moore with support from an MRC programme grant.
The model formed the basis for an American National Standard and is currently being prepared for adoption as a standard by the International Organization for Standardisation (ISO). In addition, the model has been widely used in industry worldwide for prediction of the loudness of sounds, for example: noise from heating, ventilation and air-conditioning; inside and outside cars, and from aircraft; and from domestic appliances and machinery.
"One in 10 adults in Wales has no natural teeth" (BBC News), "Cost puts off some going to the dentist" (BBC News) and "Overall improvement masks dental health concerns", (British Dental Association, Press Release). These are examples of the sensational headlines which accompanied the publication of the findings of the 2009 Adult Dental Health Survey (ADHS). Researchers at Birmingham's Dental School were key members of the research consortium that carried out both the ADHS as well as the 2003 Child Dental Health Survey (CDHS). The findings from these surveys demonstrated an overall improvement in the nation's oral health but also highlighted areas of inequality. The Government regards these surveys as being of vital importance in providing gold-standard information about the nation's oral health and uses the findings to inform oral health policy in the areas of workforce planning, the provision of, and access to, dental services. The impact of these internationally-leading studies is reflected in Government policy documents and in public debates about the future provision of dentistry.
Researchers in the Dental Institute, working with Periproducts Ltd, have developed a toothpaste and mouthwash based on nano-hydroxyapatite that can treat dentine hypersensitivity and repair dental caries. It is marketed as UltraDEX® Recalcifying, and sold in Boots and major UK supermarkets. The researchers have also developed novel bioactive glasses for treating hypersensitivity. When they come into contact with saliva and water, these bioglasses release calcium, phosphate and fluoride ions, forming fluorapatite that binds to and protects the tooth surface. In 2012, Queen Mary signed an IP licensing agreement with a global healthcare company to commercialise the new glasses that form apatite faster than the bioglasses currently on the market. For a sense of the commercial potential of this development, the market for re-mineralizing hypersensitivity toothpastes is in excess of £6 billion per year.