Newly-announced Endodontic Program Will Increase Access To Root Canal Treatment In Developing Nations

Newly-announced Endodontic Program Will Increase Access To Root Canal Treatment In Developing Nations

Friday, June 3 – Dentsply Sirona announced today a new initiative to bring Root Canal Treatment (RCT) to developing nations. The program, called Project 32, has been created to increase access to endodontic care through training and technology. Doctors in these regions often can’t access the tools necessary to save the patients’ natural teeth. Through a unique product-solution, that incorporates hands-on training, Project 32 aims to bring awareness that “every tooth matters” for the long-term health of patients worldwide.

The program has a planned launch of early 2017 and will be released in select regions of Latin America.

Cape Town, South Africa, June 3, 2016.Project 32, a program of Dentsply Sirona Endodontics, was announced tonight during a reception preceding the 10th World Endodontic Congress. Project 32 was developed to remove the barriers to endodontic care in more regions where tooth extraction is the current practice for resolving nerve damage, infection and decay.

An endodontic treatment is preferable to extraction for numerous health reasons; scientific research shows connectivity between tooth loss and malnutrition, obesity, cardiovascular disease, rheumatoid arthritis, pulmonary disease and cancer¹. To an arguably lesser degree, tooth loss has implications to social status and self-esteem².

Project 32 aims to increase access sustainably by incorporating comprehensive procedural certification training for local clinicians. This allows communities to provide RCT to their citizens indefinitely; the certification is provided at no additional charge to communities participating in Project 32.

The single-use kit includes the Glide Path, Shaping, and Obturation tools that can all be utilized in one visit. Although not included, a sealer is recommended for use after obturation.

“The project team worked to create a solution to numerous access barriers,” said Dominique Legros, group vice president, endodontics at Dentsply Sirona. “Providing all necessary tools in one package, incorporating training, and reducing overhead costs are three preliminary obstacles that Project 32 alleviates.”

Project 32 will be made available to developing nations through government programs. The single-treatment kits are available at a lower cost than traditional packaging for the same tools, but will only be able to be purchased by the government health organizations. The endodontic treatment kits are preferable to the public health entities because of portability, and ease of storage and disposal. Each individual kit is sterile and ready to use.

Background

Project 32 is an extension of the work conducted over the past years by Professor Manoel Eduardo de Lima Machado. Machado brought RCT to the Amazon Region beginning in 2010 through Projeto Amazonas, a partnership addressing oral and health care needs in the Amazon Region. Machado, who is an associate professor at the School of Dentistry at the University of Sao Paolo in Brazil (DDS, MDSc, PhD) aimed to decrease the number of extractions and to evaluate the performance of an endodontic protocol in adverse situations.

Due to the difficult economic circumstances, absence or very little contact with the government, and the particularly challenging issues people living in the Amazon Region are excluded from basic public services, including dental care. As a result, they tend to undergo tooth extractions instead of endodontic treatments. In order to increase quality of life, student volunteers and professionals left Sao Paulo with endodontic materials to perform root canals procedures. The project was educational not only in enabling these young specialists to perform life-enhancing treatment, but also to experience cultural and social diversity.

After extensive empirical research and tests, which observed the cutting, strength, care and durability of an array of endodontic instruments, the professors and graduate students selected the WAVEONE® GOLD solution, because it is easy to use and efficient. These criteria proved crucial, since the root canal treatments are performed on a significant number of patients and performed in testing situations. The importance of selecting the simplest endodontic treatment was echoed by Machado:

“The use of simple and efficient technology can make endodontic treatment easy to perform. Performing these operations in unfavorable environments allows us to broaden our social range so we’ll be able to treat almost anyone in need, regardless of their environment. In short, if you can accomplish it here in The Amazon, you can do it everywhere.”

Website: www.dentsplysirona.com/project32

Contact: Project32@dentsplysirona.com 

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