Research Innovations Seminar Series explores optical coherence tomography, temporomandibular disorders

The School of Dentistry held a Research Innovations Seminar Series event on June 6, 2025.

Inspired by the school’s mission to advance health through scientific discovery, innovative education and the highest-quality care for all communities, the Research Innovations Seminar Series invites experts to showcase their research and discovery to a wide audience, condensing complex and difficult questions into a digestible format. Approximately 75 individuals from the School of Dentistry community attended this year’s talks.

“Our mission is to engage in scientific research that affects patient care and gives access to care to all people,” said Kristin Artinger, PhD, Associate Dean for Research and Discovery. “Today, we wanted to highlight some of the science happening in the school from two very innovative researchers.” 

The event began with a presentation from Hooi Pin Chew, BDS, FDSRCS, PhD, associate professor of operative dentistry. Chew posed the question, “to replace or not to replace?,” not simply as an homage to Shakespeare but as a dilemma oral health professionals face daily when examining discoloration surrounding restorations. 

The real question behind that one, she explained, is whether the discoloration is decay—a question that can’t be answered unless one could look inside the tooth without removing the restoration. That’s the idea behind optical coherence tomography, which produces images of internal structures using near infra-red light waves. 

Chew demonstrated the use of OCT to examine the kinds of defects that occur when resin composite material shrinks, including a clinical trial that scanned for the incidence of interfacial debonding and marginal deficiency for two preparation designs of Class-I composite restorations.

Though work remains to be done before a dental-dedicated OCT will be available in clinical practice, Chew explained, “we may be closer to answering the question of ‘to replace or not to replace’ than you might think.” 

Following Chew’s presentation, Donald Nixdorf, DDS, MS, professor and director of the Division of TMD and Orofacial Pain and co-director of the Orofacial MRI Center, sought to demystify temporomandibular disorders. He shared that one in eight people experience chronic pain in their jaw muscles, joints or function. “The umbrella term encompassing the group of pain and mechanical problems involving the jaw, mouth and face is called Temporomandibular Disorders, or TMD.” 

Looking around the room, he noted, “several of you in this room likely experience temporomandibular disorders. But can anyone see one another’s TMD?” Because the answer to that question is “no,” Nixdorf explained, TMD sufferers often suffer in silence.

Nixdorf explained the role of chronic pain in TMD. “Pain is an alarm system,” he explained. “It tells us something isn’t right—but in chronic pain, that alarm is on for three or more months out of the year.” 

An understanding of how chronic pain operates and presents, Nixdorf explained, is crucial to identification and treatment. He shared his team’s evidence-based, rehabilitative approach focused on education, oral habit reduction and helpful techniques—which has resulted in a 70% clinical improvement over the course of six weeks. 

“The power to heal is within the patient,” he explained, encouraging practitioners to better understand the disease and be prepared to support their patients. 

Watch the Research Innovation talks, as well as presentations from previous seminars.