Translational Systems Approach to Clinical Dental Research: A Primer for Precision and Personalized Oral Health in Resource-Constrained Settings

Abstract

Resource-constrained regions such as sub-Saharan Africa urgently need to leverage innovative approaches to dental care provision and research, using available scarce resources. Even though a lot of clinical dental research has emerged in Africa, from the use of clinical dental samples (or data) and carried out by dental healthcare personnels, the principles of clinical dental research (CDR) and the embellishment of a translational dental research (TDR) pipeline is not widely used and considered. Neither has this principle trickled down to curriculum-integrated mechanisms at many academic dental schools on the continent. Equipping future dental professionals with robust clinical dental research skill need to be implemented in an integrated and systematized manner on the continent. It is therefore important to define the precise parameters of CDR and what it should entail, as well as what the exact purpose of carrying out such research should be. Furthermore, key concepts in TDR, as well as precision and personalized oral health (PPOH) need to be established, in the era of precision and omics-based dentistry. Hence, this paper discusses an integrative implementation framework and models for optimizing the use of TDR for cost effective CDR in resource-limited settings. We also proposed the utilization of a CDR and TDR model that uses a systems-oriented, multiscale integration of CDR, TDR and PPOH within the clinical dental practice settings, dental research environments, as well as incorporation of these concepts into the pedagogical curriculum of undergraduate and postgraduate dental training programs. Using the proposed integrative implementation framework for CDR and TDR in resource-constrained regions, it is envisaged that cost- and labour-effective practices will be instituted. Not least, effective incorporation of PPOH and one health into CDR and TRD will hopefully translate into beneficial global oral public health policies and systems reform in Africa.