Professorship of Dental Training

(Vienna, 14 June 2010) Since 1 June the Bernhard-Gottlieb University Department of Dentistry at MedUni Vienna has had a Professor of Dental Training with Univ. Prof. DDr. Andreas Moritz. Moritz's goal is to train medical staff at the top international level to benefit patients directly.

In his scientific work Univ. Prof. DDr. Andreas Moritz concentrates on aesthetic filling techniques, restorative dentistry, endodontics (general dentistry), periodontology and laser dentistry. At the University Department of Dentistry Moritz has been entrusted with tasks including quality control for all technical work and worst case management for the Conservative Dentistry Division. It was on his initiative that a special outpatient ward for laser therapy was set up at the Conservative Dentistry Division. Under his leadership this developed into the biggest dental laser centre in the world. Moritz also implemented special outpatient wards for endodontics and aesthetic dentistry, which ensure treatment at the highest level. Another focus of his clinical activities is basic therapy in terms of extensive competent and quality-oriented basic care.

His teaching activities at the Conservative Dentistry Division have concentrated on laser therapy, supervising specialists in training and also the practical training of students in the newly established 'Dr. med. dent.' course. To improve this support, Moritz took the initiative to introduce a small group system and daily case planning, which has improved the quality in treatment and training and has also clearly improved performance in technical work.

Moritz sees his goals in the coming years as integration of a new unit system which, with interdisciplinary support for treatment, will lead to even more efficient therapy for patients and also to a further increase in the quality of student training. Another concern mentioned by Moritz is the further development of various new and integrative forms of learning such as e-learning, for example.

 
Short biography:
Univ. Prof. DDr. Andreas Moritz, born in 1960 in Klagenfurt, mainly focused on periodontology and conventional endodontics at the start of his scientific career.
In this connection he also went on study trips to the University of Boston and the University of Aachen, where his interests also extended to laser-assisted dentistry. This also led to numerous publications dealing with the use of laser in the entire conservative dentistry and periodontology. His scientific activities also focused on filling therapy, conventional endodontics (preparation and filling techniques) and cariology.
His work continued with the creation of an interdisciplinary cooperation project with the Vienna University of Technology (Institute of Photonics, Institute of Solid State Physics, Institute of Higher Mathematics) and the Division of Microbiology at the Medical University of Vienna, which led to many further publications and also more than 36 diploma theses/dissertations. Here, both in 2005 and 2006, diploma theses supervised by Moritz were awarded the prize for the best of the year.
Moritz holds positions including chief editor of the international Journal of Oral Laser Applications (JOLA), honorary president and honorary member of many scientific associations, co-founder and chairman of the Working Group for Clinical Laser Technology and president of the Austrian Endodontic Society, president of the ESOLA (European Society for Oral Laser Applications) and president of the SOLA INTERNATIONAL (International Society of Oral Laser Application).