ICNARA Welcome

Abstract
We are planning a multidisciplinary working conference addressing current research on novel anticaries and remineralizing agents. This conference will be held in conjunction with the School of Dentistry at the University of Chile at a venue near Santiago, Chile over three days January 10-12, 2008. The conference will be co-supported by faculty from the School of Dentistry, University of California-San Francisco, the College of Dentistry, New York University, and the School of Dentistry, Academic Center for Dentistry (ACTA), Amsterdam. The conference is being organized by a planning committee, headed by Professor John D.B. Featherstone, University of California San Francisco.

Background and Aim of the Conference
Building upon the agenda set by the US Surgeon General, May 2003, articulated in the National Call to Action to Promote Oral Health, the conference will explore further the state of our knowledge related specifically to under-utilized novel anticaries and remineralization agents for caries prevention and repair, with an eye toward developing a shared multidisciplinary research agenda for the next decade.

Conference Objectives
The objectives of the conference are to explore:
  1. the current state of the research available on novel remineralizing agents and antibacterial
      compounds as related to dental caries,
  2. an empirical assessment of what is known about these underused agents said to ameliorate
      oral health and prevent caries development,
  3. methodological critiques of research designs and measurement models on which current
      knowledge is based,
  4. discussion of alternative designs and innovative lines of interdisciplinary research that
       may promise to help us know more, and
  5. critical issues of the data needs for the future.

Conference Participants
We have invited approximately 30 of the leading international experts in cariology, bacteriology, remineralization and preventive dentistry to focus on the state of the field and from this, build a multidisciplinary agenda for future research. The conference will include top researchers from Australia, Brazil, China, Denmark, England, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland, Switzerland, and the United States, countries where much of the research on caries prevention and intervention is done.

Publication of Proceedings
We will disseminate information resulting from this conference widely by publication in Advances in Dental Research (on line), as well as press releases at the time of the conference and executive summaries for use by funding agencies such as the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Planning Committee:
Professor John D.B. Featherstone, University of California San Francisco (UCSF)
Professor Mark Wolff, New York University College of Dentistry (NYUCD),
Professor Jacob M. ten Cate, Academic Center for Dentistry Amsterdam (ACTA), Amsterdam,
Rita May, May Consulting, Inc., New York/Santiago Chile