This special issue of the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand is dedicated to the field of dentistry. The cover art is inspired by four sculptures that adorn the exterior of the Walsh Building at the University of Otago Faculty of Dentistry. The artwork has four parts, which are dedicated ‘To the art of dentistry’, ‘To the physical sciences’, ‘To the medical sciences’, and ‘To the biological sciences’. This aptly illustrates that dentistry, and dental research, encompasses a wide range of disciplines from the arts and sciences. TheWalsh building, where these artworks appear, is named after Sir JohnWalsh, who was a former Dean of the Faculty and a pioneer of dental research. The Walsh building has long been the home of dental education and research in New Zealand. It is currently being refurbished as part of a major construction project that has involved new clinical buildings in Dunedin and Auckland. By the end of 2020, it is expected that all the new facilities will be ready and theWalsh Building will once again be the home of dental academia in New Zealand. New Zealand’s dental profession, from its earliest days, has sought to improve oral health in this country. The first letter published in the first issue of the New Zealand Dental Journal (established in 1905 by the fledgling New Zealand Dental Association) discussed the role of fermentable carbohydrates in causing dental caries. It was stated that ‘if we were to restrict ourselves to a proper regimen... there is not a shadow of a doubt that our teeth would improve, and continue to do so until we as a people became practically immune to caries’. Since then, many efforts have been made to improve oral health, but the issues of excess consumption of fermentable carbohydrates and poor oral hygiene practices remain, seemingly intractable. Ongoing research is needed to find ways to improve oral health, and the current issue of the Journal is dedicated to such research. Imaging and biofabrication technologies are revolutionising many aspects of healthcare. There are great prospects for the development of novel scanners that can detect early stages of oral defects and disease. Intraoral digital scanning has already transformed the design and manufacture of dental restorations and prostheses. Combining intraoral scanning with 3D-printing has enabled the construction of stents to guide oral surgery. Meanwhile, the ability to induce stem cells to differentiate into various tissue types opens up the possibility of incorporating pluripotent cells from patients into novel scaffolds to enable tissue regeneration in those patients, rather than using abiotic restorations. While translation of these novel technologies into the clinic will benefit individuals, benefits to population health can be achieved through community-wide prevention

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新西兰牙科研究的过去、现在和未来

新西兰皇家学会杂志的这一特刊致力于牙科领域。封面艺术的灵感来自装饰奥塔哥大学牙科学院沃尔什大楼外部的四件雕塑。该艺术品分为四个部分，分别是“牙科艺术”、“物理科学”、“医学科学”和“生物科学”。这恰当地说明了牙科和牙科研究涵盖了艺术和科学的广泛学科。出现这些艺术品的沃尔什大楼以约翰·沃尔什爵士的名字命名，约翰·沃尔什爵士曾任学院院长和牙科研究的先驱。沃尔什大楼长期以来一直是新西兰牙科教育和研究的所在地。它目前正在翻新，作为一项重大建设项目的一部分，该项目涉及但尼丁和奥克兰的新临床大楼。到2020年底，预计所有新设施都将准备就绪，沃尔什大楼将再次成为新西兰牙科学术界的所在地。新西兰的牙科行业从一开始就致力于改善该国的口腔健康。新西兰牙科杂志（由初出茅庐的新西兰牙科协会于 1905 年成立）第一期发表的第一封信讨论了可发酵碳水化合物在导致龋齿中的作用。有人说，“如果我们限制自己采取适当的治疗方案……毫无疑问，我们的牙齿会得到改善，并继续这样做，直到我们作为一个民族实际上对龋齿免疫”。从那时起，人们做出了许多努力来改善口腔健康，但过量食用可发酵碳水化合物和口腔卫生不良的问题仍然存在，似乎难以解决。需要进行持续的研究以找到改善口腔健康的方法，而本期杂志致力于此类研究。成像和生物制造技术正在彻底改变医疗保健的许多方面。开发可以检测口腔缺陷和疾病早期阶段的新型扫描仪具有广阔的前景。口腔内数字扫描已经改变了牙科修复体和假体的设计和制造。将口腔内扫描与 3D 打印相结合，可以构建支架来指导口腔手术。同时，诱导干细胞分化成各种组织类型的能力开辟了将来自患者的多能细胞整合到新型支架中以实现这些患者的组织再生的可能性，而不是使用非生物修复。虽然将这些新技术转化为临床将使个人受益，但可以通过社区范围的预防来实现对人口健康的益处