The King’s College London Dental Institute is pleased to announce the launch of a new collaborative initiative to establishan Erosive Toothwear Foundation (ETF) which will assemble and use the global knowledge base in this area in order to develop a web based Global Resource Centre. The Erosive Toothwear Foundationwill make the collated worldwide evidence in the field available to a broad range of stakeholders in one accessible place.
Erosive toothwear represents a range of conditions in which the hard tissues of the teeth are gradually lost over time, giving individuals a series of challenges with function, appearance and sensitivity to temperature change; it is not related to tooth decay. Erosive toothwear can represent a major problem for both individuals and communities, but the evidence behind this condition, and treatment options for it, are often poorly understood. There are currently many barriers which prevent the knowledge we have from basic and clinical research translating into improved health.
The aim of this initiative is to promote understanding of:
- The condition
- The underlying science,
- The scale of the problem
- How best to prevent and, where appropriate, manage it
This will be accomplished by the disseminationof the collated evidence using a range of educational tools to facilitate knowledge transfer for patient and public benefit across the four domains of education, dental practice, public health and research.
The initiative is being led jointly by Professors Nigel Pitts and David Bartlett from King’s College London’s Dental Institute, working with Healthcare Learning from London – a leading company in healthcare education and information. The Erosive Toothwear Foundation is bringing together scientific expertise from Professor Adrian Lussi – University of Berne, Switzerland; Professor Dom Zero – Indiana University, USA; and Professor Carolina Ganss – University of Giessen, Germany. This group will be working together with four major oral health companies: Colgate, GSK, Oral B and Unilever, which will contribute as educational supporters; each company is providing expertise relating to both the science and knowledge implementation aspects.
Working together, this group will produce resources derived from the consolidated overviews of the global evidence on erosive toothwear for the following target audiences:
- Dental team and health practitioners
- Dental and other educators
- Students across health disciplines
- Researchers and epidemiologists
- Public health and policy makers
- Children and families
Meeting at the European Organisation for Caries Research Congress in Athens, the group are making plans for a launch meeting of the Erosive Toothwear Foundation in San Francisco in spring 2017.