Four sessions of the TUMS-APEC Online Journal Club were held successfully

TUMS is running a project entitled “Appraise To Raise” which includes holding Online Journal Clubs. Due to the very effective role of online journal clubs and discussion and exchange of experts’ views in such sessions, Asian Pacific Endodontic Confederation (APEC) planned to hold journal clubs on a variety of endodontic subjects, and because of the significant capabilities and experience that the TUMS School of Dentistry, particularly its Endodontics Department holds, an agreement signed between TUMS and APEC on June 25th 2020, and according to which, all the online journal clubs of APEC will be held and supported by TUMS. Iran as a pioneer in the APEC region, offers an ideal setting for this meeting, enabling researchers to promote, develop and maintain high standards of endodontic research, teaching and clinical practice in the Asian Pacific region and gain new perspectives in this regard.

TUMS has so far held several successful online journal clubs with the presence of the authors. In these sessions, first the article will be presented by one of Endo residents, then participants of all around the world ask their questions and mention their remarks and finally we all enjoy the author’s fruitful explanations.

According to the results of a polling TUMS had run with all the members at APEC, it is agreed for sessions to be held monthly on Fridays at 13:00 GMT.

The first four sessions were held successfully with the presence of APEC authorities, including Prof. Mehmet Baybora Kayahan, President of Asian Pacific Endodontic Confederation, Dr. Sanjay Miglani, the Immediate Past President, Dr. Ibrahim Abu Tahun, Chairman of the Education Committee and Dr. Hyeon Cheol Henry Kim, the President – Elect.

The first TUMS-APEC online journal club was held on the 4th of December 2020 to discuss and appraise an article entitled “Association between cardiovascular diseases and apical periodontitis: an umbrella review” with the presence of the first author, Dr. Aleksandar Jakovljevic. He is a PhD graduate in basic and clinical dental sciences related to herpesviral infection in apical periodontitis from the University of Belgrade, Serbia, who from 2017 is an assistant teacher at the Department of Pathophysiology, Cathedra of Oral Rehabilitation, School of Dental Medicine, University of Belgrade. You may review the recorded video of the session in this link.

The 2nd APEC and the 7th TUMS International Online Endodontics Journal Club, which was the most outstanding TUMS-APEC webinar so far, was held on January 15th 2021 on “Conservative Management of Mature Permanent Teeth with Carious Pulp Exposure”. This session saw the presence of the first author of the article, Prof. Nessrin Taha, the appraiser of the session, Dr. Arvin Rezaie, an Endodontics resident at the School of Dentistry of TUMS, and the Moderator of this session, Dr. Mohammad H. Nekoofar. Prof. Nessrin Taha is Director of the dental teaching clinics and course coordinator for the master of clinical dentistry in endodontics at Jordan University of Science and Technology. In this meeting, Prof. Mehmet Baybora Kayahan, the APEC President from Turkey and Prof. Ibrahim AbuTahun, the Chairman of APEC Education Committee from Jordan were present and appreciated Tehran University of Medical Sciences for initiating this program and considered Dr. Mohammad Hossein Nekoofar as the founder, also Iran as a country with innovative ideas in the field of Endodontics.

In the aforementioned article, Prof. Nessrin Taha, an outstanding professor of Endodontics at the University of Jordan, discusses the challenge of Vital pulp therapy (VPT). Even though the field of Endodontics has its own classic treatments the (Vital pulp therapy (VPT) recently has its own proponents but it also has its critics as well. However, understanding the histopathology and histobacteriology of the pulp prone to caries and the healing of the potential inflamed pulp can guide the decision-making process towards super conservative management of these teeth. Nevertheless, choosing the right patient and choosing the right materials are crucial to long-term success of this healing process.

In this article numerous adult samples were examined with main factors such as age, pulp sensitivity test, radiographic evaluation, microbial control, pulp tissue removal rate and homeostasis as an indicator of inflammation, with the given results it can be said that clinically the teeth that are asymptomatic and with no sensitivity to touch, impact, swelling or sinus ducts should respond to the sensitivity test. However, in teeth with complete pulpotomy is expected to have no response to the sensitivity test, and if there’s no clinical and radiographic symptoms, the radicular pulp can be considered normal and the treatment successful. Radiographically speaking there should be no signs of internal root resorption, new periapical injury and improvement of periapical pathosis.

For further information on this Online Journal Club you can visit this link.

The 3rd APEC and the 8th TUMS International Online Endodontics Journal Club was held online on the 19th of February 2021 to discuss “the Outcome Assessment of Teeth with Necrotic Pulps and Apical Periodontitis Treated with Long-Term Calcium Hydroxide” with Dr. Sheldon Best (a full-time clinician, DDS, M.Sc.) being the first author, Dr. Ahmad Abdulah the appraiser and Dr. Mohammad H. Nekoofar (DDS, M.Sc, PhD) the Moderator of this session. You may review the recorded video of the session in this link.

The 4th APEC and 9th TUMS International Online Endodontics Journal Club was held online on the 26th of March 2021 to discuss “Current Status on Minimal Access Cavity Preparations: A Critical Analysis and a Proposal for a Universal Nomenclature” with the presence of the first author Dr. Emmanuel Silva (an adjunct professor to the undergraduate and graduate programs at the University of Grande Rio, the State University of Rio de Janeiro and the Federal Fluminense University), Dr. Arvin Rezaei the appraiser and Dr. Mohammad H. Nekoofar the Moderator of this session. You may review the recorded video of the session in this link.

For further information on the authors or to watch the video file of these sessions online, you can check out the Journal Club section of our website:

http://en.tums.ac.ir/appraisetoraise/en/content/287/journal-clubs

The presence of the first author in the Online Journal Club was initially introduced and executed by Dr. Mohammad Hossein Nekoofar, an Iranian member of the Association Endodontic Club. The main feature of these online journal clubs, which is held under the Appraise To Raise program, is the presence of the first author of the articles, which provides the opportunity for the participants and experts to get acquainted with the main opinions of the author and eliminate the possibility of personal misinterpretation and perceptions which gives the experts the opportunity to analyze and share new ideas in various fields of medical science.

It should be noted that the Appraise to Raise project is one of the new programs of the TUMS Directorate of International Relations after the Corona Virus Pandemic, designed for developing virtual academic activities, whose one of the main purposes is to analyze valuable and new articles in the field of medical sciences. Also these Online Journal Clubs provide the opportunity for young researchers to get familiar with the principles of writing articles and observing systematic methods of research and a fundamental step for professors and students in the development of specialized networks for professors and students. These meetings help improve young researchers the analytic view of published articles and to have better scientific conclusions.

Those interested can learn more about the Appraise To Raise’s activities and also download the videos of previous meetings through this link: http://en.tums.ac.ir/appraisetoraise/en