Dental Tribune Middle East & Africa Edition

From news report BASEL, Switzerland: The Inter- national Team for Implantology (ITI) has awarded Dr Nikola Saulacic, dentist, oral surgeon and researcher at the University of Bern, Switzerland, with the 16th André Schroeder Research Prize. Mid-June, Prof. Daniel Buser, president of the academic organ- isation dedicated to the promo- tion of evidence-based education and research in the field of im- plant dentistry, presented the prize at the ITI Congress Benelux inAmsterdamintheNetherlands. Forty-two-year-old Saulacic was selected by the ITI Research Committee through an anony- mous evaluation process. The committee honoured the re- searcher for his experimental study on “Bone apposition to a ti- tanium-zirconium alloy implant surface”which is aimed at deter- mining the early healing events oftitanium-zirconium(TiZr)im- plants in comparison with tita- nium implants, both with a mod- ifiedsandblastedandacidetched (SLActive) surface, and an im- plant material with additional strength (Ti6Al4V). The study concluded that TiZr implants showedcomparablyfastearlyos- seointegration than titanium im- plants supporting their use for more challenging clinical situa- tionsinwhichimplantswithare- duced diameter are indicated. The André Schroeder Re- search Prize was established al- most20yearsagoandispresented annuallyinhonourofthelateProf. André Schroeder (1918–2004), founding ITI President, who pio- neered implant dentistry and whose lifework contributed sig- nificantlytomoderndentistry.Itis worth CHF 20,000 (US$24,000) in cash.AccordingtotheITI,itisone of the most prestigious awards in implant dentistry. DT International Team for Implantology awards André Schroeder Research Prize Daniel Zimmermann DTI NEW YORK, USA: New findings using dinosaur teeth could help to explainhowthereptileswereable to regulate their body tempera- ture,researchersfromtheCalifor- nia Institute of Technology in the US have reported. By measuring subatomicparticleconcentrations in fossil teeth in two of the largest dinosaur species, they claim to have found that the animals’ body temperatures were much higher thanthatofotherreptilesandcom- parable to mammals. Since the first species was offi- cially classified, anthropologists have quarrelled over whether di- nosaurs were cold- or warm- blooded. The latest research sug- gests that they were warmer than originally expected and probably able to reduce body heat through special physiological features. Sci- entists, however, were not able to determinethebodytemperatureof the creatures except through indi- rect methods, such as measuring the spacing of dinosaur tracks. The new approach developed by geochemist Robert Eagle and geologistProf.JohnEilerisableto determine body temperature to within one or two degrees, the researchers say. It measures the concentration of rare carbon and oxygen particles that clump and form minerals called bioapatites, a process that is deoendent on heat. The researchers analysed the clumps in 11 teeth of the Bra- chiosaurus brancai and Cama- rasaurus species found in differ- ent locations in the US and Tanza- nia. “Nobody has used this ap- proach to look at dinosaur body temperatures before so our study provides a completely different angle on the long-standing debate aboutdinosaurphysiology,”Eagle commented.HeandProf.Eileran- nouncedthattheywouldbeapply- ing the method to other dinosaurs and extinct animals, including mammals, in order to find out more about how they evolved. DT US scientists measure dino blood Dr Nikola Saulacic (left) and Prof. Daniel Buser. (DTI/Photo courtesy of ITI, Switzerland) News & Opinions DENTALTRIBUNE Middle East & Africa Edition4