The incidence of cleft lip and palate in Indonesia is still quite high. This greatly affects the aspects of a child’s growth and development, both in terms of physical and psychosocial. By raising the topic of the urgency of innovation in cleft lip and palate therapy in Indonesia, a team of students from the Faculty of Dentistry, Universitas Indonesia (FKG UI) consisting of Febriola Berliani Wanyodiharjo, Irene Chriscentia Leonardy, and Maria Amanda won 1st place in the Literature Review category at “Soedirman Dental Scientific Meeting 2022” competition held by Universitas Jenderal Soedirman.
“Besides seeing the urgency of innovation in cleft lip and palate therapy in Indonesia, the need for treatment, which is quite complex, and the limitations of health services make us interested in finding solutions to these problems. We hope that with this scientific study, cleft lip and palate treatment can be further developed to improve the quality of life and advance the welfare of Indonesian people,” said Febriola.
In the competition, Febriola and the team studied various national and international research with directions from their supervisor, drg. Citra Fragrantia Theodorea, M.Sc., Ph.D. For this effort, the team succeeded in synthesizing a paper entitled “Stem Cells from Human Exfoliated Deciduous Teeth and Collagen-Hydroxyapatite Scaffold for Cleft Lip and Palate Reconstruction”. This paper describes the use of stem cells from deciduous teeth in a collagen-hydroxyapatite scaffold for the treatment of cleft lip and palate reconstruction.
In the same category, three other FKG UI students Farsya Nadira, Ellena Vianne, and Hanin Assa Adinda won 3rd place with the title of the work “Effectiveness of VELscope® as an Early Detector of Oral Potentially Malignant Disorder and Oral Cancer”. This work examines the efficacy of the VELscope® as a tool for detecting oral mucosal abnormalities utilizing autofluorescence of oral tissues. This achievement is inseparable from the role and guidance of Dr. drg. Indriasti I Wardhany, Sp.PM(K).
“Our paper departs from the high mortality rate in advanced stages of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (or what we call OSCC for short), which accounts for up to 90% of all oral cancer cases in the world. The mortality rate of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma reaches 60-70% at an advanced stage. Indonesia is one of the populations at risk due to smoking habits, with 69.1 million people who are adult smokers in 2021,” said Febriola on behalf of his friends.
By reviewing six cross-sectional studies in international journals, Febriola and the team concluded that VELscope® has proven effective as an early detection of Oral Potentially Malignant Disorder and oral cancer, with an average sensitivity and specificity of 0.879 and 0.717.
Dean of FKG UI Dr. drg. Nia Ayu Ismaniati, MDSc., Sp.Ort(K) expressed her pride for the achievements of the two FKG UI teams. “We are proud and grateful for the achievements made by FKG UI students. These achievements add to a number of other achievements, both national and international, that have been obtained by FKG UI students. Hopefully, this success can continue to motivate students to always hone their knowledge and experience in scientific competitions at the international level,” said drg. Nia.
Soedirman Dental Scientific Meeting (SDSM) is a national level competition organized by the Dentistry Student Association of Universitas Jenderal Soedirman. This year SDSM presented the theme “Upgrading Skills to be a Grow and Glow Dentist”. There were four categories in this competition, which were literature review, public posters, educational videos, and dental carving. This competition took place from July to August 2022 and the winners were announced at the closing ceremony, Saturday (17/09).
