29 March 2011

Dundee dental researchers win top awards

Two dental researchers at the University's College of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing have won prestigious awards at a major international conference.

Professor Nigel Pitts, Director of the Dental Health Services and Research Unit, and Dr Nicola Innes, clinical lecturer in paediatric dentistry, were recognised at the International Association for Dental Research Awards in California.

Professor Pitts won the IADR Distinguished Scientist Research in Dental Caries Award for his research into the detection, assessment and preventive treatment of caries and the implementation of findings on a truly international basis.

The award is designed to stimulate and recognise outstanding and innovative achievements which have contributed to the basic understanding of caries aetiology and/or to the prevention of dental caries. This success makes Professor Pitts one of the very few researchers in the world to hold two IADR Distinguished Scientist Awards, following an earlier prize in the field of dental epidemiology and public health.

Dr Innes won the IADR/Unilever Hatton Competition Senior Clinical Research Prize for her paper 'Sealing Caries in Primary Molars: Hall Technique RCT 5-year Results.' This was a clinical trial carried out by Dr Innes with Dr Dafydd Evans involving general dental practitioners in Tayside.

This important award follows on from her winning the British Society for Oral and Dental Research Senior Clinical Research Prize in Barcelona in 2010.

Professor Pitts said, 'It is very gratifying to have this international recognition of the impact, over an extended period, of the caries research undertaken by the team in Dundee.'

Dr Innes added, 'Being awarded this international prize is a great achievement for all those who were involved in this clinical trial, and a further boost to the University’s reputation as a centre for clinical research.'

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