Dentistry and Maxillofacial Surgery

The Doctoral School "Dentistry and Maxillofacial Surgery" is designed as basical education in dental science and comprises philosophical, ethical, statistical, experimental and literary skills, among others. The thesis projects focus on all fields of dentistrry, namely cariology, endodontics & dental traumatology, pedodontics, orthodontics, periodontology, restorative and esthetic dentistry, gerodontology, implantology and dental materials as well as orodental and maxillofacial surgery. Applicants must hold a graduation in dentistry, general medicine or natural sciences. The language used for teaching, communication and writing of the thesis is English. For this reason excellent English skills are required.

Scope

Dentistry comprises a large variety of fields, each endowed with specialized and individual knowledge. The central questions in dentistry are:

interaction of bacterial biofilms on natural or artificial tooth surfaces with healthy or compromised surrounding or distant tissues
methods of and devices for the fabrication and integration of artificial toothwear into its natural surroundings
interaction of mechanical properties of artificial or natural toothwear with natural tooth substance, the jaw musculature and the temporomandibular joint
interaction of manual and /or mental skills of the operator with
- tissues
- natural or artificial teeth
- wellness and / or motivation of the patient
- forensic aspects

Doctoral students with pre-existing specialized knowledge in the mentioned fields are welcome to share their experiences with trained orodental / maxillofacial scientists und to thus initiate new scientific projects in dentistry. In addition to the in-depth training for specific thesis projects, the program includes extensive training activities such as seminars, journal clubs, training courses and workshops depending on the demands of the individual dissertation comitees.

The overall aim of the program is to educate scientists in preclinical / extraoral and clinical ordodental / maxillofacial topics. Graduates of the Doctoral Program will be able to pursue their future careers in an acedemic or industrial environment and can be equally successful in the fields of education / training, research and development.

Lectures and Courses

The scientific theme of ZMK encompasses clinical, preclinical and literary research. The faculty of ZMK currently consists of researchers who all have a clinical background. They have devoted themselves to further advancing already established paths of doctoral education at the MUG and provide comprehensive insight into all fields of dentistry. In every field of dentistry adequate specialized training is provided if necessary. Based on the high frequency of patients, clinical research is the main issue.

Current topics are implantology, bisphosphonale-related osteonecrosis of the jaw, dental traumatology, orthodontics and clinical periodontology. In addition, students are introduced to a wide range of dignostic procedures, novel therapeutic strategies, and areas where further basic research is needed to fulfill unmet clinical demands.

Curricular Committee

The assignment of the Curricular Committee is:

to monitor and evaluate the on-going teaching program and examinations
to analyze the evaluation forms of the participating students submitted on each training course
to suggest respective changes to the courses, work-shops and examinations and all related materials where appropriate
to propose novel concepts and topics for courses and work-shops to broaden the teaching program

Members:

Lumnije Kqiku-Biblekaj (Division of Restorative Dentistry, Periodontology and Prosthodontics)
Martin Lorenzoni (Division of Preventive and Operative Dentistry, Endodontics, Pedodontics and Minimally Invasive Dent)
Elisabeth Santigli (Division of Orthodontics and Maxillofacial Orthopedics)