Mohammed Nadeem Bijie is currently a final year PhD student in Paediatric Dentistry at the Faculty of Dentistry. He won the 2019 IADR Colgate Research in Prevention Travel Award, a global award for researchers in the field of dentistry.  Nadeem was invited to present his research titled “A novel synergistic arginine-fluoride varnish targeted for cariogenic microenvironments” at the 2019 IADR General Session and Exhibition in Vancouver, Canada. His academic background includes a Master of Dental Surgery in Paedodontics and Preventive Dentistry in India. Furthermore, he had been working as an Assistant Professor in Paediatric Dentistry for four years in India and Saudi Arabia.

“He understood that there is no substitute for hard work.”

The well-known quote “Prevention is better than cure” is Nadeem’s motto as a researcher. His research interest revolves around prevention of dental caries, with an emphasis on incorporating arginine in a “professionally deliverable fluoride-containing varnish”. In the current practice, fluoride varnish is applied to high-risk patients to prevent dental caries. He hopes to incorporate both arginine and fluoride as an intervention for patients of all ages and financial ability.

Contracting oral diseases can be detrimental to one’s quality of life. These include the downturn of physical health, oral-health, and psychosocial health.  Nadeem aims to address the global health disparities and inequalities. His abstract submitted to the IADR addresses both primary and secondary prevention of dental caries. Nadeem recalls that the conference was very interactive and fruitful. Through discussion about the research work of other award recipients, he understood further that “there is no substitute for hard work”.

Written by:
Teresa Chung
Year 3, Faculty of Social Sciences
April 2020