Research Laboratories
Laboratory for Dental Research
Many of the current oral diseases and malformations have their roots in our evolutionary history. Knowing the evolutionary processes that led to the current shape and size of our skull and mandible may greatly bear on our understanding of phenomena such as malocclusions (i.e., crowding, rotation, overbite), dental malformations ( i.e., impaction, missing and supernumerary teeth) and oral diseases (caries, attrition, periodontal diseases). Treatment strategy should take into consideration evolutionary reasoning involved in shaping our face and jaws, ignoring them may end, in the long run, in treatments’ failure. Therefore, the laboratory focuses in dental anthropology, dental tribology and the masticatory system, which is carried out both in prehistoric and modern populations using laboratory models, microCT scans and clinical studies.
