Professor Warwick Duncan, pictured speaking at HealthTech week received the Award for Best Translational Research Project at the event which includes $100, 000 in funding to continue the development of the novel dental technology his team is working on.
A funding boost means an Otago dental team is one step closer to predicting the outcomes of oral surgery, increasing the chance of successful operations.
Professor Warwick Duncan and his team have created UltraD3 technology - an ultrasound dental diagnostic device that aims to predict the outcome of oral surgery.
The novel technology was awarded Best Translational Research Project at HealthTech Week, with Warwick and his team receiving $100,000, and dedicated time with patent attorneys FlintIP for the project titled, Periodontal surgery monitoring/prognostication using novel ultrasound intraoral imaging.
Warwick says he was astonished to receive the award and humbled the committee saw fit to reward the hard mahi of his team.
“We are using the funding to fine-tune our latest prototype of the device which is manufactured by our partners at Spark Transducers.”
Once the prototype is developed the team will recruit 30 patients with gum disease at the Otago Faculty of Dentistry’s Postgraduate Periodontics clinic.
“During their surgeries, we’ll take tissues samples and send this to the pathology lab to confirm the presence of the disease. We’ll also take both ultrasound and normal clinical measurements before the surgery and at three, six, and 18-month intervals after their surgery.
“Ultimately, we hope to discover whether the measurements we take before surgery can be used to predict healing outcomes after surgery as currently there are no devices that allow this.”
Warwick and his team are now looking for the next stage of investment to develop this technology further.
He says patients and clinicians are seeking an increased ability to predict the outcomes of gum surgery given it is expensive and painful, with failed operations often requiring repeat procedures with a reduced chance of success.
In worst case scenarios patients can lose teeth and so having a clearer understanding of the likelihood of success allows for better informed decision-making for both the patient and the clinician.
Warwick’s team includes Otago’s Dr Zeina Al-Nassan and Dr Anahita Manafi, Spark Transducers Mr Paul Harris, Consultant Dr Tanmoy Bhattacharjee, and Auckland University of Technology’s Dr Amira Salem.
HealthTech Week is Aotearoa New Zealand’s national conference for health technology and research.
Kōrero by the Division of Health Sciences Communications Adviser, Kelsey Swart.