iADH Research Award goes to Dr Peter Schmidt from the Chair of Special Care Dentistry

Dr Peter Schmidt, Senior Physician at the Chair of Special Care Dentistry at Witten/Herdecke University (UW/H), was awarded the iADH Research Award 2022 in Paris in the "Public Health/Clinical Research" category for his scientific presentation on the caries experience of German Special Olympics athletes in young adulthood. The iADH (International Association of Disability and Oral Health) is a global scientific organisation promoting the oral health of people with disabilities and has more than 8,000 members. This is the first time that Dr Peter Schmidt has brought the award to Germany.

As statutory health insurance companies in Germany have been paying for fissure sealants for all children and young people since 1989, this offer also applies to those with a disability. Fissures are pits or grooves on the chewing surfaces of molars. Bacteria can attach to the tooth more easily and cause tooth decay. This can be prevented by sealing the fissures.

Contribution to the investigation of fissure sealants

To date, however, there have only been a few studies on fissure sealants, which primarily relate to the age group of children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities. Overall, these studies show that fissure sealants also help to prevent tooth decay in children and adolescents with disabilities. In a publication from 2021, Dr Peter Schmidt was able to prove that this preventive measure carried out in childhood and adolescence can even have positive effects on dental health into young adulthood. For the first time, corresponding data on adults with intellectual disabilities from Germany has been published (link to the publication: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/10/12/2602/htm#B25-jcm-10-02602).

The research paper presented in Paris now describes this connection for another group of people with disabilities in young adulthood - young adult athletes who took part in the Special Olympics Germany Summer Games in 2018. It thus confirms the finding that fissure sealants can have a long-term caries-preventive effect in people with disabilities. The research group sees this observation as an interesting new impetus in dental health care research. In the future, further studies could also address such issues with regard to the long-term effect of fissure sealants in other groups of young adults from the majority population.

Scientific prizes for outstanding conference contributions

Every two years since 1970, the iADH has organised a congress that gives members from all over the world the opportunity to come together in one place and share their new scientific findings and clinical experiences. At these congresses, the iADH Scientific Committee awards scientific prizes in various categories for outstanding conference contributions.

The iADH Research Award was presented to Dr Peter Schmidt, co-author Dr Imke Kaschke (Special Olympics Germany) and co-authors Florens Czenskowski (PhD student at the Chair of Special Care Dentistry at the UW/H) and Prof. Dr Andreas Schulte (Chair of Special Care Dentistry and Head of the Department of Special Care Dentistry at the UW/H) for the paper entitled "Association between fissure sealing and caries experience in German Special Olympics athletes in young adulthood".

The presentation in Paris was made possible because Dr Peter Schmidt received travel expenses support from the "Fördergemeinschaft Zahnmedizin der Witten/Herdecke University". Dr Peter Schmidt has been working as a post-doctoral researcher at the Chair of Special Care Dentistry since 2016 and has been a senior physician in the Department of Special Care Dentistry at the University Dental Clinic at Witten/Herdecke University since 2018.