Dubai: Mohammed bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences (MBRU)-backed Dubai Dental Hospital and Hamdan Bin Mohammed College of Dental Medicine have collaborated with Operation Smile Oral Health Educators to hold a workshop for dentists focused on cleft lip and cleft palate prosthetic rehabilitation and prosthodontists concerned with treating cleft conditions.
The 2-day, hands-on course, sponsored by Operation Smile UAE, included online didactic sessions, as well as face-to-face practical skills training sessions in the prosthodontics laboratory at Dubai Dental Hospital, using conventional techniques enabling participants to further develop their knowledge and technical skills to treat patients with cleft conditions who require prosthetic rehabilitation effectively.
For his part, Dr. Pedro Santiago, Operation Smile’s Lead Global Advisor in Oral Health, emphasized that, “Operation Smile is a global nonprofit specializing in expert cleft surgery and multidisciplinary care. We provide medical and dental expertise, research and care through our dedicated staff and volunteers around the world. Our training and education programs elevate safe clinical standards and strengthen a global network to reach more people at different stages in their lives. This workshop showcased how impactful a well-planned and effective inter-institutional collaboration could be.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Manal AlHalabi, Dean of Hamdan Bin Mohammed College of Dental Medicine, and Consultant in Pediatric Dentistry at Dubai Dental Hospital, shared that, “MBRU faculty contributed to the course’s practical and online components, sharing their in-depth experience of different types of cleft conditions, patient assessment, and treatment planning, which familiarized the learners with different prosthetic treatment options.”
“This was the first innovative obturator course in the world that utilized MBRU-developed 3D-printed models of maxillary conditions to enable hands-on training of the dentists in a pre-clinical setting,” Professor Keyvan Moharamzadeh, Associate Dean of Education at Hamdan Bin Mohammed College of Dental Medicine and Consultant in Endodontics and Restorative Dentistry at Dubai Dental Hospital pointed out.