About the Sir John Walsh Research Institute

Oral health is essential for well-being and poor oral health may also directly affect general health through the promotion of systemic disease. The direct and indirect financial and societal costs of oral disease are huge, but (to a large extent) are ignored in New Zealand, where there are significant challenges to the improvement of oral health. The country's ageing population is retaining natural teeth for longer, with concomitant increases in dental caries and periodontal disease, and in the demand for advanced oral care in areas such as rehabilitation of the dentition, regeneration of periodontal tissues, and in oral disease prevention in medically compromised patients. Social and ethnic inequalities in oral health are also a serious problem.

Confocal microscope image showing bacterial invasion of a root canal lumen

The Faculty of Dentistry is the only one in New Zealand and all of its research is now channelled through the Sir John Walsh Research Institute (SJWRI). The Faculty of Dentistry has always been dedicated to research and scholarship of the highest quality over a focused range of disciplines and is the home of an increasing number of important publicly funded research projects. In the recent Performance Based Research Fund (PBRF), the University of Otago was ranked 1st out of all New Zealand universities and the Faculty of Dentistry is now one the top-ranked faculties within it.

An innovative, future-focused set of inter-connected research programmes, including those listed below, address the significant barriers to achieving improved oral and general health:

Biomechanics and Oral Implantology
Dental Epidemiology and Public Health
Education Research
Oral Molecular and Immunopathology
Molecular Microbiology

The Institute also fosters and supports the Oral Microbiology and Dental Health Research Theme.