Media Releases

University of Toronto’s Faculty of Dentistry to accelerate oral health care discoveries through Sinai Health System’s new Centre for Advanced Dental Research and Care

September 16, 2016

Toron­to, ON – Com­plex peri­odon­tal dis­ease, extreme­ly rare oro­fa­cial con­di­tions and implant fail­ure: these are just a few of the research ques­tions that the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto’s Fac­ul­ty of Den­tistry will tack­le with its research part­ner, Sinai Health Sys­tem, through the estab­lish­ment of a new Cen­tre for Advanced Den­tal Research and Care.

Launched today through a gen­er­ous phil­an­thropic dona­tion by den­tal­corp to Sinai Health Sys­tem, the Cen­tre promis­es to be the first of its kind in North Amer­i­ca. Draw­ing togeth­er clin­i­cal spe­cial­ists and researchers towards the devel­op­ment of new diag­nos­tics, ther­a­peu­tics and stan­dards of care, the aim of the Cen­tre is to advance Cana­da as a world leader in oral health care.

The Cen­tre will be chaired by senior Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to fac­ul­ty mem­ber and Den­tist-in-Chief at Sinai Health Sys­tem, Dr. Howard Tenen­baum, and will bring togeth­er researchers from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto’s Fac­ul­ty of Den­tistry as well as clin­i­cal prac­ti­tion­ers from both insti­tu­tions.

New diag­nos­tic tools and bio­log­i­cal mark­ers will be devel­oped to assess, pre­dict and treat some of the most poor­ly under­stood con­di­tions in the world. From bet­ter under­stand­ing severe refrac­to­ry peri­odon­tal dis­ease – a sys­temic dis­ease with dev­as­tat­ing effects – to the devel­op­ment of more suc­cess­ful tooth implants – a grow­ing field of impor­tance to an aging pop­u­la­tion, the Cen­tre will swift­ly trans­late knowl­edge into clin­i­cal care. As many as 300 patients are expect­ed to be seen at Cen­tre dur­ing its first year of oper­a­tion alone.

The Cen­tre will also pro­duce the next-gen­er­a­tion of clin­i­cian-sci­en­tists by pro­vid­ing a rev­o­lu­tion­ary set­ting for den­tal spe­cial­ists-in-train­ing to research and treat med­ical­ly-com­plex cas­es.

“With its focus on solv­ing real-world clin­i­cal prob­lems and bridg­ing the gap between basic sci­ence and clin­i­cal research in the deliv­ery of care, this Cen­tre rad­i­cal­ly advances our mis­sion to improve human health through fur­ther­ing den­tal edu­ca­tion and research,” said Dr. Daniel Haas, Dean of the Fac­ul­ty of Den­tistry.

Dr. Howard Tenen­baum, the Centre’s new­ly named chair, con­sid­ers the col­lab­o­ra­tion a ‘nat­ur­al out­reach’ of the Faculty’s long­stand­ing part­ner­ship with Sinai Health Sys­tem. “The Cen­tre for Advanced Den­tal Research and Care rep­re­sents an evo­lu­tion­ary leap for den­tal health­care, and will make a pro­found impact on the lives of our patients as well as our stu­dents,” he added.

About Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Fac­ul­ty of Den­tistry

Com­bin­ing the rigours of bio­log­i­cal and clin­i­cal research with a supe­ri­or edu­ca­tion­al expe­ri­ence across a full range of under­grad­u­ate and grad­u­ate pro­grams – with and with­out advanced spe­cial­ty train­ing – the Fac­ul­ty of Den­tistry at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to has earned an inter­na­tion­al rep­u­ta­tion as a pre­mier den­tal research and train­ing facil­i­ty in Cana­da. From the cut­ting-edge sci­ence of bio­ma­te­ri­als and micro­bi­ol­o­gy, to next-gen­er­a­tion nanopar­ti­cle and stem cell ther­a­pies, to ground-break­ing pop­u­la­tion and access-to-care stud­ies, the mis­sion of the Fac­ul­ty of Den­tistry is to shape the future of den­tistry and pro­mote opti­mal health by striv­ing for integri­ty and excel­lence in all aspects of research, edu­ca­tion and clin­i­cal prac­tice. www.dentistry.utoronto.ca

About Sinai Health Sys­tem

Sinai Health Sys­tem is com­prised of Mount Sinai Hos­pi­tal, Bridge­point Active Health­care, Lunen­feld-Tanen­baum Research Insti­tute and Cir­cle of Care. As an inte­grat­ed health sys­tem, it deliv­ers excep­tion­al care from healthy begin­nings to healthy aging, espe­cial­ly for peo­ple with spe­cial­ized and com­plex health needs, in hos­pi­tal, com­mu­ni­ty and home. Sinai Health Sys­tem dis­cov­ers and trans­lates sci­en­tif­ic break­throughs, devel­ops prac­ti­cal health solu­tions, edu­cates future clin­i­cal and sci­en­tif­ic lead­ers and leads efforts to elim­i­nate health inequities. Its Lunen­feld-Tanen­baum Research Insti­tute ranks in the top ten bio­med­ical research insti­tutes in the world. Sinai Health Sys­tem is a full affil­i­ate of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to. www.sinaihealthsystem.ca

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Media Con­tact:
Erin Vol­lick, Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Offi­cer
Fac­ul­ty of Den­tistry
Tel: 416–979-4900 ext. 4381
Email: erin.vollick@dentistry.utoronto.ca