Prosthodontic research: breaking traditional barriers.

There is considerable concern among leaders in both academia and the prosthodontic profession about the vitality of prosthodontic research and the discipline in general. Many feel that prosthodontics should be focused more on issues of societal significance. In addition, patient-oriented research is becoming more difficult to support within the current climate of ever-lower priority for discipline-based research.A break with traditional lines of enquiry is required, which will entail a corresponding break with established departmental boundaries, to gain access to a multiplicity of complementary skills. Several themes will be crucial in future prosthodontic research: clinical decision making, including health economics; materials science and host response at the implant interface; biocompatibility, functional properties and serviceability of prosthodontic materials; and function and dysfunction of the masticatory system. These themes are at the core of future projects that will address quality-of-life issues related to tooth loss. Prosthodontic researchers will have to be far more aggressive in developing synergistic collaborative arrangements, to align prosthodontic research with the major issues of the day, such as aging of the population, health disparities and access to preventive strategies. Through these collaborations, prosthodontics will remain a flagship discipline within dentistry, and its practitioners will be engaged in the major issues of health care.