Professor of Cariology & Operative Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences (FoDOCS), King’s College London, UK. Hon. Consultant & Clinical Lead, Restorative Dentistry, Guy’s & St. Thomas’ Hospitals Foundation Trust, London, UK. 

Hon. Consultant Advisor, Office of the Chief Dental Officer, England.

NIHR Research Delivery Network (RDN) Oral & Dental Speciality Deputy National Lead, National Industry Lead, South London RRDN Lead.

Chair, Faculty of Dentists, College of General Dentistry (CGDent)

Avijit is Chair / Head of Conservative & MI Dentistry and Programme Director of the innovative blended-learning Masters in Advanced Minimum Intervention Restorative Dentistry. He also leads the Cariology & Operative Dentistry research programme at the QS-ranked world’s top 5 FoDOCS @ KCL (within the research Centre of Oral & Clinical Translational Sciences) as a PI, researching, publishing and lecturing internationally about cariology, minimum intervention oral healthcare (MIOC) delivery and minimally invasive operative caries management (MID), adhesive dental biomaterials and clinical implementation trial delivery (165 peer-reviewed publications, >£2.7 million research grant income, supervision of 5 post-doctorate, 22 doctorate and 26 masters students to date). He concurrently holds honorary / distinguished chairs in Hong Kong, Valencia (Spain), Saveetha Dental College & Hospitals, Chennai and the Institute of Dental Sciences, Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.

In 2022, he was awarded the prestigious William H Bowen Caries Research Distinguished Scientist Award from the International Association of Dental Research (IADR) in recognition of his global scientific and clinical research impact in this discipline over the last 25 yrs.

He has been appointed as the deputy national lead of the Oral & Dental UK National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Research Delivery Network, the Oral & Dental Health national industry lead & speciality Lead for the South London RRDN, where he is responsible for the strategic development of primary care clinical trials and their professional / participant recruitment programmes. He has set up a primary care research network in South London, where oral healthcare practice teams are trained and enabled to carry out dental & oral healthcare research. He acts as an international cariology & operative dentistry R&D KOL for many dental industry partners, including GC Europe / UK, Solventum (formerly 3M Oral Care), Septodont France / UK, Dentsply Sirona, Pulpdent, Colgate and Oral B.

Avijit is primary author of a new internationally acclaimed textbook in cariology & operative dentistry, “A Clinical Guide to Advanced Minimum Intervention Restorative Dentistry” (Elsevier, 2024), the successor to “Pickard’s Guide to Minimally Invasive Operative Dentistry” (10^th edition; OUP, 2015), a definitive and globally respected text in its field which he too authored, amongst other book editorships (Minimally Invasive Esthetics, Elsevier (2015), Odell’s Clinical Problem Solving in Dentistry, 4^th ed, Elsevier (2020)) and 12 further book chapter contributions (including, amongst others, caries management in The Principles of Endodontics 3^rd ed, 2019).  He is an editor-in-chief of Oral Health & Preventive Dentistry (Quintessence Ltd), Associate Editor of the British Dental Journal (Nature) and a senior editorial board member of  Dental Update.

He is a senior executive member of the British Dental Association (BDA) Health & Science Committee (2012 - ), contributing to scientific policy direction at the BDA all whilst maintaining wet-fingered specialist clinical practice in Restorative Dentistry, Prosthodontics & Periodontics. He was President of the BDA Metropolitan Branch London Section (2018-19) and currently holds an Hon. Consultant Advisor post to the Office of the Chief Dental Officer, England (2020 - ). In this role he inputs into national NHS oral & dental healthcare strategic policy direction / advice to the UK government’s department of health and social care, focusing on the prevention of dental caries in the most vulnerable, high needs patient groups. He wrote the UK clinical caries management guidelines for general oral healthcare practice teams in 2020, for the post-lockdown recovery of clinical practice in England and more recently, OCDO and NHSE-approved guidance on claiming UDAs for caries prevention in primary care. He also chairs both the Faculty of Dentists and the Career Pathways Programme Board at the new UK College of General Dentistry (CGDent), helping to develop an integrated system for career development for all oral healthcare team members in primary care. He is the UK council member of the European Federation of Conservative Dentistry (EFCD) and  co-chairs the UK chapter of the Alliance for a Cavity Free Future (ACFF). All these national / international roles enable him to influence strategic policy development within the domains of best clinical practice, UG/PG education and translational primary care clinical research, co-developing international clinical guidelines on dental caries management and influencing their clinical acceptance globally, aiming to help implement / translate his cariology & operative dentistry research into primary care clinical practice in the UK and abroad.

Cariology - minimum intervention oral healthcare delivery / minimally invasive operative dentistry - pathology and microbiology of dental caries, microscopy of dental tissues, caries detection and diagnosis, minimally invasive operative caries management techniques (including chemo-mechanical / bioglass air-abrasion research), bioactive dental materials / dental adhesives and bonding to tooth structure R&D, clinical trials (including head and neck oncology / oral rehab trials / dental anxiety / caries management), primary care research networks. Research links / KOL for 3M Oral Healthcare (International Scientific Experts Forum), Dentsply Sirona, Kuraray, Septodont & GCE. Research in dental education - Haptel dental virtual reality simulation programme at FoDOCS, KCL.

Cariology - minimum intervention oral healthcare delivery, minimally invasive dentistry - caries pathology / microbiology; microscopy; operative management techniques; dental adhesive biomaterials; clinical trials.

• Professor of Cariology & Operative Dentistry / Hon. Consultant, Restorative Dentistry. Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences, King’s College London / Guy’s & St. Thomas’ Hospitals Trust, London.                                                               (Dec 2011 - )
• Hon Consultant Advisor, Office of the Chief Dental Officer England                                                                                 (2020 - )
• Visiting Scholar / Professor, Universidad CEU Cardenal Herrera, Valencia, Spain                                                                      (2021 - )

• Hon Professor, Faculty of Dentistry, Hong Kong University         (2022 – 2023)
• Distinguished Adjunct Professor, Dept of Conservative Dentistry & Endodontics, Saveetha Dental College & Hospitals, Chennai, India                                                                                     (2022 - )
• Distinguished Adjunct Professor, Siksha “O” Anusandhan Univ, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India                                             (2023 - )
• Chair, Faculty of Dentists, College of General Dentistry                  (2024 – 2027)

RESEARCH

To date, I have authored 162 peer-reviewed papers in international scientific journals (Research Gate H index: 45; citations: 6750).  My scientific / translational research profile focuses on the following inter-related domains:

Cariology & MI Operative Dentistry:

My research has developed the underpinning knowledge-base in histopathology, molecular microbiology, clinical detection and operative excavation technologies for treating dental caries (tooth decay).  My work on dental cutting instrument interactions with diseased tissue has pioneered development of novel operative clinical technologies to the global market in collaboration with KCL-spin out companies and other commercial partners, with clinical peer acceptance/scrutiny.  I am PI on several clinical trials - bio-active glass air-abrasion (two grants awarded by Osspray Ltd); chemo-mechanical caries removal with Carisolv™ gel (grant awarded by Mediteam/Orasolv™); chemo-mechanical caries removal with experimental Biosolv gel (3MESPE – chief investigator of a European multi-centre clinical trial); development of caries control treatment protocols in dry mouth patients (oncology, Sjögren’s syndrome – PI on a GSTFT Charity grant) and a deep caries management trial using Biodentine™ (Septodont industry grant). More recently I am a co-investogator on to national UK clinical trials, SCRiPT and PiP. It is critical that lab-based research translates to clinical practice and I am one of the PI’s in the Dental Institute (Cariology & Operative Dentistry) with an active and relevant translational research profile (DI collaborations with Oral Medicine, Orthodontics, Sedation & Special Care Dentistry, Oncology). I am the lead scientific member of international Advisory Boards for (Solventum (formerly 3M Oral Care) and GC Europe, facilitating clinical implementation of “MI” dentistry at European level.  “MI” (Minimum Intervention / Invasive Dentistry – a form of clinical dentistry promoting better biological understanding and increased patient involvement rather than relying solely upon invasive surgical intervention, for the treatment of dental caries) underpins my research and education in the BDS curriculum, highlighting integration between my research domains, clinical output and educational activity.

Microscopy:

Autofluorescent confocal microscopy of carious tissues, SEM.  My research in this field has an international impact with research labs globally using the techniques I developed to characterize dental caries with an optical biomarker for both in-vitro and in-vivo studies. This has been adapted for in-vivo use using endoscopic objective lenses and further grant acquisition will enable this technology to be developed for clinical use with new operative techniques for tooth removal as a negative feedback, self-limiting system to prevent unnecessary removal of sound tooth structure.  Commercial partners have expressed ongoing interest in this technology.

Dental biomaterials science:

Development of new adhesive materials and their interaction with caries-affected tissues. My expertise has secured funding from grant-awarding bodies both local (KCL / GSTFT), national (MRC / EPSRC / NIHR) and international (Septodont USA, 3MESPE (Germany) commercial collaborations) for the development of materials that will adhere to residual diseased dental tissue, retained as part of the “MI” care philosophy.  Further research is ongoing to develop a generation of anti-enzymatic / anti-bacterial adhesives to be used in general dental practice for patient treatment.  This is an area of great commercial and clinical impact as my research has helped drive the changes in dental practice, away from surgical excision of decayed tissue towards a more minimally invasive approach (as alluded to above) – preparing smaller cavities for simpler treatment with bio-active, adhesive, “self-healing” materials.

Dental education research:

Clinical development/ educational evaluation of haptic (the study of human touch through environmental interaction), “virtual reality” operative dentistry simulators for use in the dental curriculum, HapTEL™ project (Haptic Technology Enhanced Learning). As clinical project advisor/investigator to Strands 2 (curriculum design) & 3 (educational evaluation) of this pioneering project (£1.5million, 2007-12, ESRC/EPSRC), I am responsible for directing this programme’s future implementation into the undergraduate curriculum at FoDOCS. 

Having successfully collaborated as PI / research consultant / KOL for concept & materials development with several major international companies, this has translated to gaining financial support for a doctorate training programme (with Septodont USA) as well as project grant funding.  My publications show a purposeful direction in my research, linking scientific and academic endeavour with translational outcome into clinical dental practice.  Structured diversification around the central theme of Cariology & Operative Dentistry is apparent in abundance with publications in the fields of microbiology, operative dentistry, materials science, clinical practice / trials and critical, systematic reviews.