Takanari Miyamoto DDS

Takanari Miyamoto DDS, 2011 Tarrson Fellow:

1. What is your research focus?

The focus of the series of perio maintenance study is to demonstrate the impact of patient compliance (complete versus erratic) on periodontal tooth prognosis and tooth survival, and to understand the validity of appropriate regular maintenance.

2. What has/have been the most significant contribution(s) of your research to our specialty?

This is the first long term study with 20 or more years of observation to stratify analysis of the periodontal maintenance data into non-molars and molars with the additional confounding variables for molars of furcation involvement status. Importantly, our data suggests that complete compliance with Periodontal Maintenance can be substantially important for ''tooth retention'' among molars and ''alveolar bone retention'' among non-molars.

3. What are some future directions of your research program?

Prognostic Awareness has become a topic of increasing interest in the fields of healthcare communication in medicine. Emerging evidence suggests that accurate Prognostic Awareness is associated with reduced psychological distress, improved end-of-life planning and establishment of advanced directives, and improved quality of life. Prognostic Awareness in relation to Periodontal Prognosis and its impact to the patent's satisfaction and quality of life issues in periodontal care can be my interest.

4. What influence did the support from the Foundation have on your career as a researcher?

Research is the dynamic, life-giving element in our profession and it is critical for young investigators to keep a protected time in our schedule to focus on the research project and have a networking opportunity to connect to respected peers. The support from the Foundation helped me in both aspect.