Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "Dental pediatric imaging: an investigation towards low dose radiation induced risks" "Ivo LAMBRICHTS" Morphology "Cone beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) is an emerging X-ray technology that has found wide applications in dentomaxillofacial imaging. The ability to provide high-resolution 3D images has resulted in a significant increase in the volume of dental radiology procedures. Although CBCT is associated with higher radiation risk than conventional dental X-ray imaging, it is considered to be 'low dose' imaging as defined by the High Level Expert Group (HLEG; www.hleg.de). The aim of this PhD topic is characterising the potential risks involved in pediatric CBCT imaging. To this end, the objective is subdivided in three tasks. In the first tasks, low dose radiation induced effects are studied in stem cells from the orofacial region. Orofacial stem cells will be exposed to low doses of Xirradiation (0, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 mGy) and DNA damage repair and repair kinetics will be analysed by microscopical visualization of DNA double strand markers yH2AX and 53BP1. The cells will be analysed 30 minutes, 1 hour, 4 hours and 24 hours after irradiation. The profile of secreted proteins in culture supernatant of these stem cells will be studied as well. In the second task, the effect of exposure to therapeutic CBCT imaging in oral mucosal cells will be studied. As in task 1, the DNA damage and repair kinetics will be analyzed by microscopical visualization of DNA double strand markers yH2AX and 53BP1 in exfoliated oral mucosal cells collected from consenting patients just before and after (30 minutes and 24 hours) exposure to CBCT. The last part of this PhD focusses on saliva profiling. A pilot study will be set up to evaluate the feasibility of using saliva to detect local changes in oxidative stress levels in the oropharyngeal region and salivary glands induced by CBCT. To determine possible age dependency of radiation sensitivity, saliva samples will be collected from 50 children and a dozen of adults. Sample collection will occur just before and 30 minutes after CBCT exposure. It is expected that the outcome of this project can lead to further recommendations and potential future adaptations for the use of CBCT in pediatric dentistry." "MANAGEMENT OF TRAUMATIZED (IMMATURE) TEETH IN CHILDREN NEEDING ORTHODONTIC TOOTH REGULATION" "Dominique Declerck" "Population Studies in Oral Health, Oral and Maxillo-facial Surgery - Imaging & Pathology (OMFS-IMPATH), Orthodontics" "Orthodontic treatment after dental trauma.Orthodontic tooth regulation is a type of treatment frequently offered to children, usually in the stages of development of the dentition and surrounding orofacial structures.Teeth affected by trauma are most often situated in the esthetic zone. Visible defects and discolorations may have a lifelong impact on self-esteem, overall well-being and quality of life of the individual. Complications require additional treatment sessions and eventual tooth loss will have consequences on the development of the surrounding structures since childhood and adolescence are the periods in life where growth of orofacial structures and development of the dentition take place. Finally, economical aspects should not be disregarded both at the level the patient (and his parents) and society (health care system).       To ensure optimal orthodontic care of children with a history of traumatized anterior teeth, certainly teeth with poor prognosis, interdisciplinary long-term management is required including the general dentist, the pediatric dentist and the orthodontist. Reports from the literature show that the knowledge on dental trauma and its implications on orthodontic tooth movement is  rather poor. " "Little NIRVANA 2.0: a digital multipurpose pain management system for children" "Babs Weyn" "Processing Speech and Images (PSI), Pediatric Oncology, Locomotor and Neurological Disorders, Population Studies in Oral Health" "Painful and stressful medical procedures such as vaccinations or needle procedures are a major burden for children. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organisations states that pharmacological pain and anxiety management should be accompanied by psychological interventions aimed at empowerment and confidence. In this context, KU Leuven and partners developed a prototype of a new, innovative, multisensory pain & anxiety toolkit for children. This prototype was tested on more than 150 children with excellent results. At the same time, an initial value proposition and business plan were developed. The market study highlights the great potential and clinical need of little NIRVANA, but also shows that for a viable business case, it is necessary to reduce the current estimated cost per use.In this project, we aim to reduce the cost per use by reworking the current little NIRVANA 1.0 solution and extending it into a modular, multi-application little NIRVANA 2.0 solution that will allow to reduce the cost of the system, increase throughput and facilitate implementation in the clinical flow. Field tests of the system in a real environment will be part of the validation. The final goal is the realisation of a validated little NIRVANA toolkit for multifunctional pain management that can be marketed immediately after the project." "The development of a multifactorial model to predict the outcome of mandibular advancement device therapy for obstructive sleep apnea based on the patients' phenotype." "Olivier Vanderveken" "Laboratory Experimental Medicine and Pediatrics (LEMP), Harvard Medical School, University of British Columbia, Translational Neurosciences (TNW)" "Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a prevalent public health issue with an attributable risk of cardio- and cerebrovascular morbidity and mortality. Furthermore, OSA is related to a high socioeconomic burden due to its clinical daytime consequences such as excessive daytime sleepiness, impaired cognitive performance and reduced quality of life. Oral appliances that protrude the mandible, the mandibular advancement devices (MAD), significantly reduce OSA severity in the majority of patients. However, in a third of patients, the efficacy is not medically appropriate to reduce the long-term consequences of OSA. Furthermore, the efficacy of MAD therapy is inconsistent among patients. Therefore, a high need exists for upfront prediction of treatment outcome in the individual OSA patient. There is no validated method that can achieve upfront selection of candidates for MAD therapy in an accurate and reliable way. Nowadays, it is increasingly recognized that OSA is a multifactorial disease. In the proposed research project, a prospective prediction model with a combination of different pathophysiological traits will be assessed. Furthermore, up to now, our understanding of MAD therapy relies on relatively small studies lacking power. Therefore, we will evaluate this predictive model, as well as the long-term effectiveness, morbidity and mortality in a large international cohort of patients treated with MAD." "Dental Tissue Regeneration via Bioengineerd Immune Modulatory Scaffolds (DREIMS)" "Reinhilde Jacobs" "Surface and Interface Engineered Materials (SIEM), Oral and Maxillo-facial Surgery - Imaging & Pathology (OMFS-IMPATH), Microbiology and Immunology, Kulak Kortrijk Campus, Molecular Immunology (Rega Institute)" "Oral health plays an essential role in our daily lives and wellbeing. Yet, poor oral conditions are highly prevalent, affecting almost half the world’s population, with high socio-economic burden. Treatment of conditions affecting the dental root remains highly challenging. Moreover, dental root replacement with titanium implants may work for adult patients, yet in children such technique cannot be applied as an osseointegrated implant will not follow dentoalveolar growth. Therefore, replacing a lost permanent tooth in children is extremely challenging. In order to offer a viable solution for pediatric tooth loss, tissue engineering strategies utilizing combinations of scaffolds, growth factors, and stem cells, are currently in development. However, clinical success remains limited to small defects, and suffers from limited reproducibility. This project aims a novel tissue engineering approach for dental root tissue replacement based on multi-material scaffolds with immunomodulatory properties." "Optimisation of cone beam computed tomography for dentomaxillofacial applications" "Reinhilde Jacobs" "Oral and Maxillo-facial Surgery - Imaging & Pathology (OMFS-IMPATH), Laboratory of Experimental Radiotherapy, Medical Physics & Quality Assessment" "This doctoral project attempts to find an optimal balance between the radiation dose and image quality for dental Cone Beam CT (CBCT). Therefore, the project consists of two parts. In a first part, a correct description and quantification of the radiation dose is investigated, using different methods: measurements on (adult and paediatric) anthropomorphic and cylindrical phantoms using thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs) and ion chambers, TLD skin measurements on patients, and dose-area product (DAP) measurements. Also, the correlation with dose simulations, which will be performed in a parallel running project, will aid in a correct estimation of patient dose.In the second part of the project, the image quality of CBCT images is tested by means of a quality control phantom. This phantom will be developed during the course of project and perfected in a number of stadia.Eventually, the two projects will be brought together, analysing the image quality as a function of the corresponding radiation dose, and the link will be made with diagnostic requirements for different groups of patients."