Competitions and Awards

Dental professionals caring for children's oral health

The Australian and New Zealand Society of Paediatric Dentistry is committed to the study and advancement of paediatric dentistry, and the promotion of education in the field of paediatric dentistry. Each year the Society holds two essay competitions, one for undergraduate dental students, and one for postgraduate dental students. A Postgraduate Research Award sponsored by Colgate is offered at each ANZSPD Bienial Congress. In March 2014, the ANZSPD launched the ANZSPD Alistair Devlin Memorial Grant.

Undergraduate Essay Competition
Postgraduate Essay Competition
Essay Competition General Conditions
Historical Essay Competition Topics
ANZSPD Alistair Devlin Memorial Grant
ANZSPD-Colgate Postgraduate Research Award
ANZSPD SA Branch Research Scholarship

For further information on these competitions, contact the Federal Secretary

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Louise Brearley Messer ANZSPD Under-graduate Essay Competition

TOPIC: 2023. Avulsion - should we replant teeth in the growing child? (Discuss the prognossis and treatment considerations involved in decision making).

ELIGIBILITY: Open to all dental under-graduates or students enrolled in a graduate program leading to the student’s first dental degree and who are enrolled in an Australian or New Zealand dental school.

PRIZE: A prize of AU$1,500.00 (or equivalent in New Zealand dollars). The prize winning Essay will be published in “Synopses”, the newsletter of the Australian & New Zealand Society of Paediatric Dentistry Inc.

DEADLINE: Friday 20th October 2023

SUBMISSION: Essays to be submitted by email to the Federal Secretary of ANZSPD (Inc.) fed.secretary@anzspd.org.au. Receipt of your entry will be acknowledged by return email. If a receipt email is not received, please send a further email to fed.secretary@anzspd.org.au and/or carmell@westnet.com.au.

See the ANZSPD Essay Competition - General Conditions - for details.

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Louise Brearley Messer ANZSPD Post-graduate Essay Competition

TOPIC: 2023. E-cigarettes - effects, considerations and how do we educate parents and teens?

ELIGIBILITY: Paediatric Dentistry post-graduate students who are currently enrolled in a Doctorate, Masters or a Post-graduate Clinical Diploma in Paediatric Dentistry program at an Australian or New Zealand Dental School.

PRIZE: AU$2,500.00 (or equivalent in New Zealand dollars). The prize winning Essay will be published in “Synopses”, the newsletter of the Australian & New Zealand Society of Paediatric Dentistry Inc.

DEADLINE: Friday 20th October 2023

See the ANZSPD Essay Competition - General Conditions - for details.

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ANZSPD Essay Competition - General Conditions and Notes

Essays should be initially submitted to the appropriate undergraduate or postgraduate course coordinator as a word processing document in one of the following formats (doc, docx, rtf).
The course coordinator will submit the best undergraduate essay, and all suitable postgraduate essays from their Dental School as email attachments to the Federal Secretary via email, with a note of support
Essays, which are to be submitted by email, must not exceed 3,000 words with a maximum of 50 references. Essays must only be the work of individual candidates. Bibliographic style should follow that of the Australian Dental Journal. They should be typewritten and double spaced.
No names or identifying marks should appear within the essays. The candidate’s name, home address, email address and University name should appear on a separate page to the remainder of the essay.
Essays will be coded for anonymity and sent to two judges. The two judges will be appointed by the Federal Council of ANZSPD Inc. The decision of the judges will be final.
The deadline for the submission of Essays is Friday 20th October 2023.
The winner will be announced by Monday, 21st December 2020. All participants will be advised of the result by mail or email.
As mentioned in the notice of the competition, the prize winner will be expected to have their winning essay published in the newsletter of ANZSPD Inc., “Synopses”.

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Historical Essay Competition Topics

Louise Brearley Messer ANZSPD Under-graduate Essay Competition

TOPIC: 2014. “There is an emerging trend on the use of probiotics and organic diets. Discuss the effects of these supplements and diets on the oral environment of a child.”

TOPIC: 2015. “Deep Dental Caries – to leave or to remove. New Perspectives on an Old Theme.”

TOPIC: 2016. Children who brush their teeth at least once a day with a toothpaste that contains fluoride will have less tooth decay. Twice a day use increases the benefit. Marinho et al, Cochrane 2003. “Discuss the amount of fluoride contained in the toothpastes in widespread use for children in Australia and New Zealand. What are the differences in the minimum fluoride concentrations of these toothpastes between the two countries for different age groups and how have these changed over time? What are considered to be the net benefits in increasing fluoride concentration in toothpaste used for younger children?”

TOPIC: 2017. Over the last decade, endodontic treatment has changed significantly with access to technologies including NiTi files, reciprocating motors and advanced obturation techniques and materials. Discuss the application of this advance to primary dentition endodontics, indications and contra indications and alternate treatment modalities.

TOPIC. 2018. Dental caries in children - infectious disease or parental lifestyle choice? Discuss your views based on current knowledge of aetiology and epidemiology of the disease.

TOPIC. 2019. Biosilicates have been found to have multiple applications in paediatric dentistry. What are they and are they as good as the alternatives?

TOPIC: 2020. Does Water Fluoridation still have a place in today’s world? Explore the arguments for and against and summarise your findings to form an opinion.

TOPIC: 2021. The use of resin infiltration in uncavitated enamel lesions is considered a novel technique. Based on the evidence, would you implement this preventive approach for your own patients in practice? Discuss.

TOPIC: 2022. Discuss the risks and benefits of silver diamine fluoride. What cases do you think would most benefit? Shoudl this be a public health initiative?

Louise Brearley Messer ANZSPD Post-graduate Essay Competition

TOPIC: 2014. “Discuss the management of the oral biofilm in paediatric dental patients.”

TOPIC: 2015. “Discuss tooth coloured crowns in the primary dentition: Developments, improvements and limitations.”

TOPIC: 2016. “Over the last five years there has been increasing awareness of the role of the labial and lingual frenulae on a neonate’s attachment and efficiency during nursing. Discuss the oral physiology of a baby nursing, factors that can decrease a baby’s ability to nurse efficiently and problems these cause. Also discuss management options and the possible relation between poor nursing efficacy and the risk of early childhood caries.”

TOPIC: 2018. A new class of anticoagulant drugs, the new oral anticoagulants or NOAC's, have begun to play a role in the management of thrombotic diseases. Discuss: (1) Thrombotic disease in children and whether there may be a place for NOAC's in the management of these children, and (2) The dental management of patients on anticoagulants and how this would need to be altered for any children taking NOAC's.

TOPIC. 2019. We are into a new era in which parental-based research from internet searches and social media exposure is having a significant influence on what oral health care services they are wanting their children to receive. Discuss examples of services that may be requested by parents from you based on their research that may be deemed alternative to conventional oral health care practice. How you would approach each of these situations? Include in your answer evidence for and against both alternative and conventional treatment option outcomes.

TOPIC: 2020. Discuss the indications for using cone beam CT radiography to all aspects of paediatric oral assessment and management compared to traditional radiographic investigations. Where CBCT is indicated, what are the barriers or precautions to be considered in obtaining these images as the first line investigation?

TOPIC: 2021. Paediatric Obstructive Sleep Apnoea is considered the most severe in the spectrum of sleep disordered breathing and affects up to 1-4% of children. Discuss the role of the dental professional in proper screening, diagnosis and earlier treatment of paediatric obstructive sleep apnoea.

TOPIC: 2022. Discuss the dental implications of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease in children and how these might be managed.

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The ANZSPD Alistair Devlin Memorial Grant 2019

At the ANZSPD Federal Council meeting in Melbourne in February 2014, it was decided that the existing ANZSPD Grant be renamed The ANZSPD Alistair Devlin Memorial Grant in honour of Alistair’s memory and to acknowledge his most significant contribution to the society.

One grant per year will be provided to the value of AUD $2000 with eligibility restricted to current Full Members of ANZSPD (Inc.)

The grant is available for:

An oral health initiative in Australia or New Zealand which may be an educational resource or a broad community initiative
A community research project directly related to child oral health
Support for an oral health project in Asia, Oceania or the Pacific which might be for materials, instruments, books for a school, etc.

Applications are open for the ANZSPD Alistair Devlin Memorial Grant on 1st June 2019 and close on the 30th June 2019.

Applications will need to contact the Federal Secretary ANZSPD (Inc.) (fed.secretary@anzspd.org.au) for full application guidelines.

Federal Council will then adjudicate.

The successful applicant will be required to provide a report to the Federal Council, suitable for publication in the Society’s newsletter, Synopses, by September 2020.

The Federal Council may choose not to award a grant in the event of there being no suitable applications.

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ANZSPD-Colgate Postgraduate Research Award 2019

Background

The award was set up in 1993. Postgraduate Students who are currently enrolled in a Masters Degree, Doctorate of Clinical Dentistry (or equivalent) or Ph.D. programme at a university in Australia or New Zealand or who have completed one of these programmes since the last ANZSPD Federal Convention, may enter for the award to be judged on an oral presentation at the ANZSPD Federal Convention. The research must be completed for presentation and must be related to Paediatric Dentistry. Entrants will need to be ANZSPD members.

The Award

The award consists of support from Colgate Oral Care to attend an international paediatric dentistry meeting as determined by the Federal Council of ANZSPD. The award will comprise of a return economy class airfare and a AU $750.00 cash prize to assist in the payment of registration and accommodation.

Conditions

The judging panel retains the right to withhold the award for any reason.
No correspondence into the award judging will be entered into.
Award winners must be willing to present their research at an international conference, in a form determined by the organising committee of the international conference. The award winner must acknowledge the support of Colgate Oral Care when presenting at the international meeting.
All participants must be prepared to have the abstract of their presentation published in Synopses.
Finalists will be limited to the number of presentations that can be accommodated in a single session of the conference. If necessary, the Keynote Speaker will determine the finalists based on the abstracts submitted.
The award winner must advise ANZSPD Federal Council of their choice of conference within 30 days of the prize being awarded.

The Judges

The judging panel shall be:
A representation from Colgate Oral Care
The ANZSPD Federal Convention Colgate Key Note speaker
A member of the ANZSPD with specialist registration as determined by the Federal Council

Members of ANZSPD who have had some supervisory role in any of the research being presented shall be exempt from the judging panel.

Proposed Judging Criteria

The criteria used to determine the recipient of the award shall be:

**Judging Criteria**
		Weight
Abstract		10%
Presentation	Organisation of material	10%
	Quality of audio-visual material	10%
	Manner of presentation	10%
	Answering of questions	10%
Research	Methology/protocol	10%
	Interpretation/statistics	10%
	Conclusions	10%
Value	Value of research to Paediatric Dentistry	20%
Total		100%

Applications

Applications for the award must be made at least three calendar months prior to the ANZSPD Federal Convention. The Closing Date for 2019 Applications is Midnight (AEST) 05/12/2019. Applications are to be to the Federal Secretary of ANZSPD. Applications must be accompanied by a supporting letter from the supervisor of the applicant to ensure compliance with the Award Protocol. Nominations will only be accepted when accompanied by an abstract. The abstract should be structured and include the following sections: Objectives, Design, Setting (where relevant), Sample and Methods (where relevant), Results and Conclusions. The abstract should not exceed 300 words.

Abstracts will be provided to the judges prior to the meeting where possible, and if the abstract does not comply, the applicant shall be given the opportunity to rewrite the abstract. If the abstract still does not comply, the applicant may be excluded.

Chairperson

A Chairperson will be appointed by Federal Council. This person shall meet with the judges and then with the applicants prior to the presentations. The purpose of these meetings will be to confirm the rules which will apply for the presentations.

Presentation Rules

The order of presenting will be determined by a draw from a hat, to be conducted by the Chairperson. Presentations will be of 10 minutes duration, with a bell sounding at this time and also 2 minutes before this time (ie at 8 minutes). Presentations will be followed by a 5 minute question period, with the judges having first right of question, followed by questions from the floor.

Previous Applicants

No previous applicant will be eligible to compete again.

Revisions

Rules issued August 1995
Amended February 2002
Amended September 2003
Amended June 2015

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ANZSPD SA Branch Research Scholarship 2019

The Australian and New Zealand Society of Paediatric Dentistry SA Branch Research Scholarship aims to provide opportunity for local specialists, dentists, dental auxiliary sta and students to further develop their knowledge and skills in the eld of paediatric dentistry. It is aimed to support community projects and volunteer dental work that will provide services for communities in need.

The knowledge and experience gained by scholarship winners will be shared among members at the completion of the project in the form of a report written according to a template and submitted to the Executive Committee and a 10–15 minute oral presentation at the final annual dinner meeting (October 2019). The scholarship value is $1500 and will be awarded annually provided that the ANZSPD SA Branch is in a favourable financial position to be awarding the scholarship and a suitable application is received. Both of these requirements are assessed and approved by the Executive Committee on an annual basis. Submissions for the scholarship are open from the 1st March 2019 and close on 1st May 2019.

The successful applicant will be announced by the Executive Committee by 1st July 2019. The project must be completed (funds utilised) by 30th June 2020. Applications must be received electronically in the form of a PDF or word document by the 1 May 2019 to be eligible for consideration. The email address for submissions is sa.treasurer@anzspd.org.au.

If you have any questions regarding the application, please contact the ANZSPD SA Branch Secretary.

Click for a PDF description and criteria of the scholarship.

Section 1.0 Eligibility.

To be eligible for the ANZSPD SA Branch scholarship you must meet each of the following criteria.

Are you a current member of the ANZSPD SA Branch?
Are you a practicing Paediatric Dentist, Dentist, Dental Therapist or enrolled as a full time Dental Student that at the completion of your current degree will graduate with a Bachelor of Dental Surgery or Bachelor of Oral Health degree?
Have you completed and attached the ‘Project Summary’ Appendix?
If a full time student, have you attached an authorised copy of your academic transcript?

Section 2.0 Applicant Contact Details and Academic Biography

Primary Contact Details

Full name:
Contact address:
Email:
Phone/mobile:
Principal place of practice:
Qualifications:
University:
Year of study if current full time student:
Academic biography (100 word limit)

Details of Additional Members of the Research Team

Full name:
Quali cations:
University:
Year of study if current full time student:
Academic biography (100 word limit)

Section 3.0 Project Information

Project title:
Project address:
Project start date:
Project end date:
(note: project must be finished by June 30 2018)
Is this a new project? YES/NO
Is this a continuing project? YES/NO
Does this project require ethical approval from an associated University or Health Network? YES/NO

Section 4.0 Project Summary

Please include a project summary as an appendix to this form (maximum of 2000 words typed in size 10–12 point size typed in Times New Roman or Arial) that addresses the following points. Note Section A is relevant to research projects and Section B to a professional development activity.

SECTION A

Project title
Background
Description of the project in lay terms (100 words)
Hypothesis
Aims
Population
Methodology
Importance/relevance of the project to ANZSPD members
Brief itemised budget of how the funds will be utilised
Details of ethical approval as required/appropriate for the project

SECTION B

Description of activity
Background research
Intended outcomes of activity/personal professional development goals of activity
Provide a bio describing the volunteer project/centre/ lecturer/supervisor that is involved
Importance/relevance of the activity to ANZSPD members
Brief itemised budget of how the funds will be utilised
Details of ethical approval as required/appropriate for the activity

Section 5.0 Selection Criteria

The Executive Committee will review and evaluate each of the applications using the following unweighted criteria:

5.1 Significance. The extent to which the application meets the Project Summary criteria and offers an original approach to improving the applicants’ knowledge and skills in the area of paediatric dentistry and the signi cance of this advancement to the ANZSPD SA members.
5.2 Outcome Measure. The extent to which the application sets specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time appropriate outcome measures.
5.3 Feasibility. The extent to which the application demonstrates logical and sound planning processes for implementing the project and follows a timeline with appropriate goals and outcomes. Additionally, the extent to which the project indicates long term sustainability or improvement once the scholarship is completed.

Section 6.0. Reporting Requirements of Scholarship Winners

If you are successful in receiving the ANZSPD SA Branch Scholarship you will be required to report on the successful completion of your project/activity by July 1st 2019. The Executive Committee will be in touch with the successful applicant and provide a Reporting Template Form that is required to be completed and returned. A 10–15 minute oral presentation is also required to report on the project’s success to members at the final annual dinner meeting.

Note: More than one application per professional will be accepted provided that each application shows merit and is not considered to be a duplicate. Only the requested information will be accepted, any additional material, photos, videos etc. will be discarded and not returned.

Current members of the Executive Committee may apply for the scholarship but must not be involved in any aspect of the review process. The Federal ANZSPD member or any other member of the General Committee can replace the Executive Committee Member(s) as required on the selection panel as required in these circumstances.

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