Oral Health Community
Conveys Benefits of Research
at Congressional Briefing

The importance of the dental and craniofacial research being conducted at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), and its benefits to society, was the message the Friends of NIDCR brought to Capitol Hill at a congressional briefing it hosted on Tuesday, October 19, 2010.

The briefing, “Oral Health Research: A Healthier America Starts Here,” provided an overview of the work funded by NIDCR and featured the perspectives of dental school deans, patient advocate communities and researchers, all of whom effectively demonstrated how oral health research is benefiting society and why it is important for it to be supported on Capitol Hill.

Oral Health Co-Chairs Provide Insight
Andrew Kaffes, Legislative Affairs Director, Friends of NIDCR read some noteworthy passages from messages of the two Co-Chairs of the Congressional Oral Health Caucus.

“I am a huge supporter of the National Institutes of Health, and particularly NIDCR, and the work you are doing” said Rep. Michael Simpson. “As a dentist, I personally understand how dental and oral health research being done at the NIH and across the country is making a difference in Americans’ lives. However, many people in Congress do not know much about these advances or do not understand why this research matters to them and especially to their constituents. Your engagement is critical to the political process, and your advocacy is making a positive difference.”

Rep. Elijah Cummings added “I commend the oral health research being conducted and supported by the NIDCR that have led to improvements in dental practices and have changed the scope of public health polices. Moreover, community-funded disparities research by NIDCR is helping to meet the needs of our nation’s underserved and high-risk populations by exploring ways to prevent early childhood carries (ECC). Good oral healthcare plays a significant role in our overall health and well-being. Thank you for your leadership and unwavering commitment to improving healthcare, particularly to improving dentistry.”

Director Garcia Gives Overview of NIDCR
Acting Director Isabel Garcia, DDS, MPH, started her presentation by informing the attendees that NIDCR is the third oldest institution at NIH. She also noted that “research in the mouth doesn’t stay in the mouth. It affects all other parts of the body.” She added, “Many NIDCR-funded research projects see a joining of forces of multi-disciplinary researchers, including biologists, clinicians, pathologists, mathematicians and many more.” She also outlined the breadth of funded projects taking place outside the NIH campus around the country.

The Value of Dental Research
R. Bruce Donoff, DMD, MD, President, Friends of NIDCR, Dean, Harvard University School of Dental Medicine provided a look at “The Value of Dental Research.” But he first reflected upon his late July visit to Capitol Hill, noting “how well versed the staffers were on healthcare, including many facts about dental needs from their constituents.” Dr. Donoff also stressed that “research is an investment in the future,” and in concert with Dr. Garcia’s comments, that “the mouth is a mirror of the body.” He gave an example of odontogenic keratinizing tumors, formerly called odontogenic keratocysts that are interesting to study for the patched, hedgehog, smoothened GLI1 signaling pathway. This pathway is involved in basal cell carcinoma and medulloblastoma which occur with the jaw tumors in the syndrome Basal cell nevus syndrome. New drugs which inhibit the pathway have been studied in these two conditions and might be tested using the jaw tumor as a model.

Patient Community Perspectives
Two speakers provided a Patient Community Perspective.

Mary Kaye Richter, Executive Director, National Foundation for Ectodermal Dysplasias and FNIDCR vice president, presented on the topic “Ectodermal Dysplasias: From Test Tubes to Cures.”

She demonstrated how NIDCR funding has helped hundreds of ED patients worldwide by providing visual evidence to the audience. In her straight-forward manner, Richter explained that “if a shot costs $50,000, but eliminates $100,000 of services from the long journey from childhood to adulthood, it’s a no-brainer.” She left the attendees with a powerful statement. “Our long journey is not over, nor do we know where it will end. When all is said and done, lives will be enhanced with the miracles of research.”

Next, Kathryn McCarren, a Sjögren’s patient for more than 20 years and Member, Board of Directors, Sjögren’s Syndrome Foundation spoke on Sjögren’s Syndrome. She explained how she is one of four million Americans who stand to benefit from the work of NIDCR. But this disease, whose hallmark symptoms are dry mouth and dry eye, can take up to seven years to be diagnosed. The cost to patients is astronomical. As her dentist said, “you put my daughters through college and paid for their weddings.” The international registry is just one of the projects funded by NIDCR over the years.

A Researcher’s Perspective
Spencer W. Redding, DDS, Med, Chair, Department of Dental Diagnostic Science, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, gave an interesting look at some life-saving research via Oral Diagnostics.

Salivary Diagnostics for Heart Attacks
With saliva currently being studied as a substitute for blood for disease diagnosis, NIDCR is funding four research groups to develop point-of-care saliva tests for some of the most common systemic diseases including heart attack, infectious diseases, asthma, and oral cancer.

Point-of-care means the test can be performed where the patient is examined with results in a matter of minutes. A consortium of institutions including Rice University, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and the University of Kentucky are developing the test for heart attacks.

The goal of this program is to produce a saliva test that will be used by paramedics to help diagnose heart attacks before the patient reaches the hospital. This will speed treatment decisions during the critical early minutes of a heart attack and potentially reduce mortality.

Cell Analysis for Oral Cancer
Dr. Redding noted that oral cancer is a significant problem in the United States with 35,000 new cases per year and 8,000 deaths. The five-year survival rate (60%) is among the lowest for all major cancers because patients are not usually diagnosed with the disease until it is in an advanced stage. Early diagnosis improves the five-year survival rate to over 90%.

NIDCR ARRA funds are supporting the development of a point-of-care diagnostic test for oral cancer involving Rice University, The University of Texas Health Science Centers at San Antonio and Houston, and Sheffield University. This test will use a simple non-invasive brush to collect cells from the patient’s mouth and complete the test at the point-of-care in real time.

Currently such diagnoses are made from a surgical biopsy requiring painful local anesthesia and submission of tissue to a pathologist for assessment which commonly takes up to a week to complete. The brush test will be simple to perform, reduce patient discomfort, and shorten the time to diagnosis. This should help facilitate early diagnosis of oral cancer and improve cure rates.

A Dean’s Perspective
“Research is the daily food of dentistry,” was the first sentence on “The Knowledge Pipeline to Better Health of Americans – A Dental Dean's Perspective” presented by Christian Stohler, DMD, Dean, University of Maryland, College of Dental Surgery.

Dr. Stohler’s talk gave the attendees an understanding of the big-picture view of research. He explained how “diseases are constantly changing, and with the constant change of demographics in the U.S., this imposes a continuing burden on researchers to adapt to more and more complex situations to develop better treatments.”

He added, “With the bio-restoration of tissue, we are on the verge of transforming dentistry.”

New Congress on the Horizon
The congressional briefing reaffirmed the benefits of dental and craniofacial research to society. As we head toward the conclusion of the 111th Congress, and with a new 112th Congress on the horizon, it becomes increasingly important to convey this message. As such, FNIDCR will continue to strive to make oral health research a priority in Washington by building on this briefing and similar initiatives to bring the message to key audiences in Washington and to our nation’s town halls.

AGENDA