Tawil Wins International Endodontic Research Award
Dr. Peter Z. Tawil, Jacob and Charlotte Freedland Term Professor in the Department of Endodontics, has been named the recipient of the Paul Calas Prize for his outstanding research. The award is presented by the Société Française d’Endodontie and supports a scientist or research team that presents the most original paper on their theoretical and clinical studies in endodontics never previously submitted for publication.
“It has been several years since I started collecting this data and it’s really exciting to see it finally come together and to see it being recognized by my peers,” said Tawil. “I am also very thankful for my colleagues who helped me polish our article and our submission to the Journal of Endodontics (D. Duggan, V. Saraiya and J. Galacia). In endodontics, over the past couple of years there have been a lot of concerns that we are seeing dentinal defects (craze lines, little cracks observed in the root structure) after some modern instrumentation techniques. So far the effect of these dentinal defects has been speculative and our study is the first to link their presence to clinical outcome.”
Tawil added, “Presenting this research in French was also a nice treat!” Born in Lebanon and raised in Montreal, he grew up speaking French and completed the majority of his education, including his D.M.D., at French-speaking schools. This excludes his undergraduate education in engineering, which took place at McGill University in Montreal where English was the primary language.
As the prize recipient, Tawil presented his research and accepted the award at the Société Française d’Endodontie annual meeting, which was held June 12-14 in Nice, France.
Tawil’s winning research, entitled “Periapical Microsurgery: The Effect of Root Dentinal Defects on Short and Long-Term Outcome,” was the first study to show that the presence of dentinal defects can reduce the clinical outcome. (Dentinal defects refer to damage to the microscopic damage to the root structure, which is the foundation of the tooth.) Prior to his study, linkage between these defects and their effect on treatment outcome was merely speculative.
The Paul Calas Prize is awarded by the Société Française d’Endodontie each year in memory of the late Professor Paul Calas, of the Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics at the Toulouse University of Dentistry. Calas passed away in June 2007.
