Professor Hal Duncan

Let us think about endodontics differently......

Aims and objectives: The aim of this lecture is to discuss where we are now in 21st century endodontics, where we may go next and where we should go next. The major questions facing endodontic practitioners and the profession as a whole, as well as the strength of evidence supporting our clinical guidelines will be highlighted along with examples and discussion around challenges and obstacles to change. How will the profession look in 30 years’ time, much the same, slightly different or completely different?

Objectives:

To consider what issues and questions we need to address in Endodontics

To highlight the challenges and obstacles to progress in the management of pulpitis and apical periodontitis

To evaluate whether new materials or techniques possible or likely

To discuss whether we should advocate avoidance of pulp exposure or whether we should embrace and manage pulp exposure as it occurs

To understand the threats or opportunities for endodontics now and in the future

Henry (Hal) Duncan 

BDS, FDS RCS, FFD RCSI, MClin Dent, MRD RCS (Endo), PhD 

Professor Hal Duncan received his dental degree from the University of Glasgow and his 4-year endodontic speciality training in Guy’s Hospital, King’s College London. For ten years, he worked part-time in specialist referral endodontic practice. He completed his PhD in the University of Birmingham on the subject of ‘Epigenetic approaches to the role of Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors (HDACi) in promoting dentine-pulp reparative mechanisms’. As an Academic Professor and Consultant in Endodontics, he has led endodontic teaching, service delivery and research in Dublin Dental University Hospital (DDUH) for the last 16 years. He has published over 160 international peer-reviewed scientific articles, 60 research abstracts, 20 book chapters as well as editing 3 textbooks. He was the primary author of the recent European Society of Endodontology (ESE) position statement on ‘Management of deep caries and the exposed pulp’ and is the inaugural ‘ESE S3-level Guidelines for the Treatment of Endodontic Disease’. He is the current Editor-in-Chief of the International Endodontic Journal after being an Associate Editor for the International Endodontic Journal since 2014. Hal has completed three sponsored research fellowships in New York University/Rutgers University investigating the role of epigenetic-modifying agents on tooth development and regeneration as well as receiving multiple research grants as principal investigator. In DDUH, he currently maintains a research lab and is the principal supervisor of clinical and scientifically trained PhD students and postdoctoral researchers in basic and translational pulp biology and endodontics. Currently, he is the Director of Research in the DDUH, the President of the ESE and the Past-President of the Pulp Biology and Regeneration Group of the IADR. He is a past president of the Irish Endodontic Society as well as an external examiner at home and abroad.