ศูนย์เชี่ยวชาญเฉพาะทาง
โรคปริทันต์
และรากฟันเทียม

Periodontitis, an advanced form of periodontal disease, is the major cause of tooth loss that affects oral health as well as a quality of life. 743 million people worldwide suffers from severe periodontitis, which are prevalent in adults and particularly in the elderly. In Thailand, about 8.4 million population had severe periodontitis and the number of cases are expected to increase as our nation has become an “aging society” with increasing trend of growing numbers of elderly citizens.

Periodontal disease is a chronic inflammation caused by host immune response to dental plaque. The disease destroys tooth supporting structure, consisting of gingiva, periodontal ligaments, cementum, and alveolar bone, which tooth becomes loose or loss. Although periodontitis is not a life-threatening disease, it is suggested that periodontal infection and inflammation may contribute to some challenging systemic conditions/ diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, and kidney disease, all of which recognized as plubic health burden.

At present, there has been no effective periodontal treatment and the cost is high due to imported materials. Limitation to regenerate loss or damaged tissue due to advanced disease has been realized and urgent innovative treatment is required.

A dental implant is an artificial tooth root that has become a popular option for replacement of missing tooth. Like natural tooth, inflammation could occur in tissue and bone surrounding a dental implant due to dental plaque, resulting in peri-implant diseases called peri-implant mucositis and peri-implantitis. The prevalence of both implant lesions in implant patients are 43% and 22%, respectively. Nowadays more and more dental implants have been placed, the number of cases are notably increasing, of which treatment has become more and more complicated.

Therefore, periodontal tissue and bone surrounding tooth and dental implant are crucial for healthy mouth. Of importance, mouth is the gateway of health and disease. Our Research Unit (RU) for Immunopathological / Clinical Research in Periodontal Disease was established in 2011. Research grant support lso came from Chulalongkorn Academic Advancement into Its 2nd Century Project and Thailand Research Fund. Recently, the RU has been promoted to be the Center of Excellence (CE) in Periodontal Disease and Dental Implant (April 2020) with the support of Ratchadapisek Somphot Endowment Fund and the Faculty of Dentistry, Chulalongkorn University. Our center aims to prevent and provide best treatment using innovative technology platform for periodontal disease and peri-implant disease. Our research focus in 3 areas as follows.

We have conducted large population cohort studies in collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University and the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) since 2002. This study is the longest follow-up large-scale health data set in Thailand. We obtains the data of periodontal conditions of the Thais, which enables us to investigate the association between periodontal disease and systemic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, and kidney etc. The body of knowledge could be developed that possibly lead to formulate the risk assessment score as a guideline for the local Thai patients. 

Oral health knowledge and awareness will be provided for the public using different tools in social media. We organize a yearly short course of continuing education training for general dentists to proper care for and treat periodontal disease patients, particularly in the elderly. The importance of “Mouth as a Gateway to Health and Disease” and “Healthy aging” will be emphasized. In addition, long-term clinical data of implant patients will be collected to study risk factors of success and failure of dental implant placement.

Our goal is to develop innovative treatment for effective periodontal regeneration. We currently investigate the therapeutic efficacy of modified messenger RNA (mRNA) encoding growth factors using in vivo models (rats and dogs). Recently we have a provisional patent for the joint invention “The use of growth factor-encoding nucleoside-modified mRNA for periodontal tissue regeneration” between Chulalongkorn University and University of Pennsylvania (Application number 62965235). If in vivo results look promising, we will conduct clinical studies at Chulalognkorn Dental School.