Alexandria, VA – The International Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (IADR) and the American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (AADOCR) have announced the publication of a special issue of Journal of Dental Research that highlights the experimental studies, advances in data architecture, and population-based investigations that seek to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between oral health and systemic health.
The relationship between oral and systemic disease has evolved from early speculation to systematic investigation. A century after William Hunter’s focal infection theory placed the mouth at the center of myriad illnesses, the field now interrogates that premise with contemporary tools—causal frameworks, large registries, rigorous trials, and integrated clinical data, as well as experimental studies that allow approaches to isolate variables and to perform cause-and-effect experiments to investigate the mechanisms underlying oral and systemic disease connections.
The goal of this Special Issue is not to deliver a final verdict on whether “oral health affects systemic health,” but to refine the question to one that is clinically actionable: for which people, through which pathways, and at what points in the life course does oral health alter systemic risk, and how should health systems respond? By combining methodological rigor, mechanistic insight, population-scale data, and interprofessional practice, as well as experimental studies to test in a straightforward and precise way hypotheses generated by human-derived data, the studies in this issue bring that question within reach. The charge now is rapid, responsible, and equitable translation to interventions that promote both oral and systemic health and enable more effective prevention or management of chronic diseases, and healthy aging across diverse communities.
To compliment the Special Issue, guest editors Gustavo Garlet, University of São Paulo, Brazil and Gustavo Nascimento, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA conducted interviews with two authors from the issue on their papers: David Wong, University of California, San Francisco, USA on his paper, "Extracellular Particles to Track Cancer Biomarkers from Tissue to Biofluid," and Noha Gomaa, Western University, London, Canada on her paper, "Social Adversity Is Causally Linked to Multimorbidity Including Oral Condition." The interviews are currently available on YouTube.
About the Journal of Dental Research
The IADR/AADOCR Journal of Dental Research (JDR) is a multidisciplinary journal dedicated to the dissemination of new knowledge in all sciences relevant to dentistry and the oral cavity and associated structures in health and disease. The JDR Editor-in-Chief is Nicholas Jakubovics, Newcastle University, England. Follow the JDR on Twitter at @JDentRes!
About IADR/AADOCR The International Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research is a nonprofit organization with a mission to drive dental, oral, and craniofacial research for health and well-being worldwide. IADR represents the individual scientists, clinician-scientists, dental professionals, and students based in academic, government, non-profit, and private-sector institutions who share our mission. AADOCR is the largest division of IADR. Learn more at www.iadr.org.
