Director's Message

The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) remains committed to improving the oral, dental and craniofacial health of our nation. As we prioritize among competing research opportunities, we are ever mindful that the ultimate goal of our scientific efforts is to improve people's lives.

The future of the Institute will be shaped not only by the remarkable advances of modern science and technology, but also by the stark reality that our oral health community is at a crossroads. More than ever before, we need closer integration among research, practice and education to understand and eventually remediate the many disorders affecting the oral and craniofacial complex. Yet cutting-edge research and trends in dental education appear to be veering apart, posing unique challenges at a time when greater cross-talk among clinicians, scientists and educators is vital for progress.

Can we achieve a future in which smart, early interventions avert suffering from chronic orofacial pain, craniofacial disorders and oral cancer? Can we develop prevention and care delivery platforms that empower all Americans to preserve their oral health for their entire lifetime? Will we successfully bioengineer salivary glands and replacement teeth, or discover small molecules to prevent the formation of oral biofilms? Can the salivary glands be a gateway to the body for the delivery of precise molecular therapies with few side effects?

Each of these goals is attainable. We can realistically improve our own oral health and that of our children and generations to come through creativity, diligence and adherence to a strong commitment to evidence-based and research-driven practice and health outcomes.

In charting a course for the next five years, my NIDCR colleagues and I have worked closely with our stakeholders to carefully consider the Institute's strengths, opportunities and resources to derive a plan for how we can best map these to the oral health needs of the nation. Our strategic funding decisions consider emerging opportunities, successes and failures on an ongoing basis to inform programmatic activities.

Collectively, this input yields a highly diverse range of opinion and perspective. It has helped to paint a picture of how the NIDCR should evolve to successfully achieve its mission to improve the oral health of the American public. It is clear that the oral, dental and craniofacial community must remain multifaceted and diverse, so that our future investments can transform many areas simultaneously.

Moving forward, the 2009-2013 NIDCR Strategic Plan is built on four key goals: widening our scope of inquiry, strengthening the research pipeline, fostering novel clinical research avenues, and eliminating oral health disparities.

Widening the Scope of Inquiry. The tools of modern science show us that diseases have no disciplinary boundaries. Our best chance for understanding complex diseases such as cleft lip and cleft palate, ectodermal dysplasias, dental caries, chronic pain, and oral cancer is to embrace the newest technologies and advances as well as to open our doors to expertise from different fields. Thus, our first strategic goal asserts that it is critical that we bring the best science to bear on problems in oral, dental and craniofacial health through multi- and interdisciplinary research. This investment requires a healthy marriage between creative individual investigator-driven research and team science approaches.

Keeping the Pipeline Strong. Our second strategic goal is to strengthen the workforce of researchers dedicated to solving urgent problems in oral, dental and craniofacial health. We need to work hard to draw curious minds to oral health research—it is our responsibility to inspire and support the next generation of scientists from a diverse array of backgrounds and biomedical and behavioral disciplines. Our future depends on training the scientists of tomorrow and giving them the opportunities to make discoveries.

Promoting Clinical Innovation. Today, we are on the verge of many opportunities to develop tailored, preemptive oral health care. Targeted and more facile diagnostic tests, new drugs and biologics, practice-based research venues, and culturally sensitive behavioral interventions will provide novel clinical avenues to improve oral, dental and craniofacial health. Promoting innovative clinical research, our third strategic goal, requires not only resources but also a new mindset to embrace and apply new approaches to solving old problems.

Addressing Health Disparities. The most challenging issue we face as health professionals, educators and scientists is the stubborn reality that health disparities continue to exist in our country. We must improve our understanding of what causes inequality at individual, community and societal levels. This knowledge will inform the development of practical and culturally appropriate interventions. Thus, our fourth strategic goal is to apply rigorous, multidisciplinary research approaches to eliminate disparities in oral, dental and craniofacial health by improving health in diverse populations.

Now is the time to showcase the integral importance of oral, dental and craniofacial research toward solving problems in health and informing our understanding of many different diseases and conditions. As always, I welcome your continued input as we strive to improve the nation's oral health through sound science.

Lawrence A. Tabak, D.D.S., Ph.D.
Director, NIDCR