Wendell Evans is the Colgate Associate Professor, and Head of Discipline, Community Oral Health and Epidemiology at the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Sydney
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Wendell Evans is the Colgate Associate Professor, and Head of Discipline, Community Oral Health and Epidemiology at the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Sydney

In this role, Dr Evans directs the cariology and preventive dentistry program where the central focus is on the non-surgical management of the initial non-cavitated white spot lesions of dental caries. This work evolved as part of curriculum development in cariology. A protocol, the “Caries Management System” (CMS) was developed for use in student clinics. The system was first tested on very high risk patients attending the Westmead Centre for Oral Health. The next step was to introduce the CMS to general dental practice, the Monitor Dental Practice Program. This was implemented in a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funded multi-centre randomised controlled trial. The results demonstrated the cost effectiveness of the CMS protocols in reducing the need for surgical interventions and included an economic analysis which projected the effect over the life-time of the patients in the intervention arm of the study. Further NHMRC funding has been obtained to assess the sustainability of the intervention, to validate the economic modeling, and to gather qualitative data on the process of implementing the CMS protocol in general practice. The findings at 7 years indicated that the earlier outcomes were sustained; patients at the intervention practices needed around 50% fewer restorations compared with patients attending the control practices.

Dr Evans directs student clinical experience in a newly established Cariology Clinic that is devoted to the non-surgical preventive management of carious lesions and caries risk reduction. In this clinic, the heavy emphasis on coaching personal plaque control will impinge equally on home care prevention and management of both caries and periodontal disease.

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