Schulich Dentistry Research Opportunity Program competition results

Each year, the Schulich Dentistry Research Opportunity Program (SDROP) provides opportunities for  Schulich Dentistry students to contribute to clinical and basic science research during the summer. Interested students compete for a limited number of studentships.

The 2021 SDROP competition resulted in 15 successful projects, selected from a record number of applications.

Successful applicants receive a stipend of $5,000, allowing them to spend eight to 12 weeks investigating a topic related to oral research. Once their work is complete, SDROP participants have the opportunity to present their research at national and international conferences and contribute to publications in peer-reviewed journals.

“SDROP seeks to stimulate interest in dental research among our DDS students,” said Dr. Sharat Pani, Assistant Professor, Dentistry, and SDROP research supervisor.

“This year’s competition has seen some unique solutions proposed to challenges created by space restrictions and pandemic related lab availability. These have included projects based on teledentistry, remote patient interviewing and patient data analyses.”

Congratulations to all successful 2021 Schulich Dentistry Research Opportunity Program applicants:

Student

Supervisor

Project

Alicia Gordon

Dr. Cecilia Dong

Preparing dentists to provide geriatric dental care. Exploring the acceptance of geriatric dentistry programming for undergraduate dental students attending a Southwestern Ontario dental school.

 Victoria Thorburn

Dr. Cecilia Dong

Biomarkers in Biopsy and Resected Tissues from Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Patients.

Prateek Aggarwal

Dr. Christina McCord

Outpatient Oral Biopsy Submission Trends: An Examination of the Role of General Dentists and Dental Specialists in the Diagnosis of Oral Diseases.

Vladislav Podskalniy

Dr. Sharat Pani

Neighbourhoods as potential predictors of dental care outcomes- a retrospective analysis of data.

Hannah Der

Dr. Trevor Thang

Quality assurance of damaged photostimulable phosphor plates: validating a machine-learning algorithm.

Rocco Cheuk

Dr. Abbas Jessani

The utilization of tele dentistry during the COVID-19 pandemic: practices and perception amongst dental professionals in Ontario.

Akshay Gupta

Dr. Abbas Jessani

Methods Used for Caries Detection and Diagnosis in Dental Practices in Ontario

Kate Jacques

Dr. Mark Darling

S100A7 expression as a marker for predicting malignant transformation in actinic cheilitis.

Dana Mohammad

Dr. Noha Gomaa

Towards a Person-Centred Care Approach: Assessing Safety Perceptions and Satisfaction with Dental Care in Light of COVID-19-related Modifications to Dental Practice.

Sanaz Karami

Dr. Noha Gomaa

A Virtual Dental Home as a Community Intervention for Socially Disadvantaged Families: A Proof-of-Concept Study.

Anissa Gamble

Dr. Sharat Pani

Barriers and facilitators of oral health care among young Canadian adults with Type 1 diabetes mellitus - An exploratory mixed methods study.

Kevin Zhou

Dr. Trevor Thang

Developing 3D virtual dental and anatomical models for augmented reality learning in dentistry.

Melika Pahlevan Sabbagh

Dr. Georgia Nikoloudaki

Efficacy of Vital Pulp Therapy Strategies in Mature Permanent Mandibular Molars with Symptomatic Irreversible Pulpitis: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-analysis.

Ruby Bhutani

Dr. Christina McCord

Oral cancer and the microbiome.

Xi Yue Zhang

Dr. Sheila Butler

Effects of distance-learning strategies in dental fixed prosthodontics amidst COVID-19: students’ perspective.