Success for Dr Ashwin Jawdekar

Success for Dr Ashwin Jawdekar and "Team YMT” at the Global Summit of International Academy of Paediatric Dentistry, Bangkok 2018

Among more than 110 presentations, Dr Ashwin Jawdekar, Professor and Head of the Department of Pediatric Dentistry at YMT Dental College, Navi Mumbai (and Global Ambassador for Global Child Dental Fund, UK), won best presentation in his session and an overall third place for his presentation: "Development and Testing of a Caries Risk Assessment Tool ‘CRAFT’ for Indian Children" at the Global Summit of International Academy of Paediatric Dentistry held in Bangkok from November 1-4. Dr Jawdekar is an alumnus of the Senior Dental Leadership Programme (SDL7) of GCDFund (held at Harvard School of Dental Medicine in 2013) and a recipient of Tony Volpe Award. Taking part in the SDL programme and association with the GCDFund have been instrumental in his progress: in his own research and academic contributions, the collective progress of his team (see below for details) and the ability to make an impact at an international level.

Of the two travel awards by the Japanese Society that covered registration, travel and stay at the conference; YMTian ex-student and now a Senior Lecturer Priyanka Acharya was one winner! In her successful application, she submitted an essay based on her MDS dissertation under the supervision of Dr Ashwin Jawdekar: Feeding practices, "Severe Early Childhood Caries" and "General Health Status" in one to two year-old Indian urban children – A cross-sectional study.

Six presentations are on record from the Department of Pediatric Dentistry of YMT Dental College, Navi Mumbai from India; maximum from any one department across India! This is testimony of the commitment to research and academic excellence of the Department. Dr Ashwin Jawdekar, Dr Amar Katre, Dr Shraddha Natekar, Dr Nikhita Gune, Dr Krutika Gedam and Dr Priyanka Acharya participated in the Global Summit and contributed to the process of consensus-building that led to the 2018 Bangkok Declaration on Early Childhood Caries of IAPD.

Dr Priyanka Acharya, Dr Krutika Gedam, Dr Nikhita Gune, Dr Shraddha Natekar, Prof Amar Katre and Prof Ashwin Jawdekar
From l to r: Dr Priyanka Acharya, Dr Krutika Gedam, Dr Nikhita Gune, Dr Shraddha Natekar, Prof Amar Katre and Prof Ashwin Jawdekar