Chinchilla Dental Research Project

Who is doing the research?

The chinchilla dental research project is based at the Unit of Oral Pathology, University Dental Hospital of Manchester, UK. It is being led by David Crossley, a veterinarian with a special interest in animal dentistry, with contributions from university staff, practising veterinarians, students, chinchilla owners and breeders.

David qualified as a veterinarian in 1978 from the Royal Veterinary College, London. He spent 18 years working in general small animal practice before becoming a dental and oral surgery consultant at a veterinary referral center. In 1993 David was awarded a Fellowship of the Academy of Veterinary dentistry (USA) and in 1998 he became a Diplomate of the European Veterinary Dental College.

David has been studying dental disease affecting elodont (continuously growing and erupting) teeth since 1987. He started teaching this subject in 1993 since when he has regularly lectured in mainland Europe, the UK, South Africa and the USA. He has contributed sections on small mammal dentistry to a number of veterinary text books and published several clinically based scientific articles on related subjects.

In 1997 David formalised his research into disease of elodont teeth by enroling as a postgraduate student at the University of Manchester. He is researching dental disease in chinchillas in the hope of gaining an understanding of the nature and causes of dental disease in this and related species. It is hoped that this will lead to development of methods for:

• early detection of disease
• prevention of disease
• effective treatment

David belongs to several veterinary dental organisations:

•    European Veterinary Dental College (EVDS)
•    The Academy of Veterinary Dentistry(AVD)
•    British Veterinary Dental Association (BVDA)
•    European Veterinary Dental Society (EVDS)
•    American Veterinary Dental Society (AVDS)
•    Italian Veterinary Dental Study Group* (SIODOV)
•    Slovenian Veterinary Dental Study Group*
  * associate, not full member

in addition to being a member of the:

•    Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons
•    British Small Animal Veterinary Association
•    British Veterinary Association
•    British Veterinary Oncology Study Group

Veterinary Clinical Research

Note: Clinical research does NOT involve use of experimental animals.

What does it involve?

In most cases clinical research projects involve:

• Analysis of medical records
  
• Determination of disease patterns
• Clinical and post-mortem examinations
• Investigation of naturally occuring disease
• Assessment of the effects of treatments

Clinical research has provided a lot of information on the cause and effects of various diseases including dental disease.

Here is an example of a clinical study

Several years ago an investigation was undertaken into jaw width relationships in dogs. The study was performed with the help of many veterinarians from the UK, Europe, South Africa, Australia and the USA:

There is a condition ('base narrow lower canines') where the dog's lower canine teeth do not erupt into the correct position and end up damaging the roof of the mouth. The condition occurs quite frequently in some breeds but not others.

In order to get accurate results a vast number of animals must be measured, so data will continue being collected over several years. It is hoped that by obtaining the cooperation of many veterinary dentists from around the world enough measurements will be obtained for the results to give an accurate picture of what is normal for most breeds and what is different in the affected animals.