The Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Orthodontics and Maxillofacial Surgery was established in November 1989 due to the need to improve the level of training of a dentist in a specifically complex area of his work – pediatric dentistry.
The department was founded by PhD, Associate Professor Vladimir Ilyich Shulzhenko, who has been involved in the surgical treatment of children with congenital cleft lip and palate for more than 40 years, focusing his efforts on developing an extremely comprehensive and promising topic “Prevention of secondary deformities of the upper jaw in the surgical treatment of children with cleft lip and palate.”
During the development of the department, thanks to the personal interest of each employee of the team, it was possible to partially reconstruct the premises, equip dental offices and classrooms.
Through the efforts of the head of the department, assistants, laboratory assistants and doctors, the children’s department of the KSMU dental clinic was opened in 1994 (4 Sedina St., Building 5).
Currently, students are trained at the Department of Pediatric Dentistry in the disciplines of “Pediatric therapeutic Dentistry”, “Pediatric Surgical Dentistry”, “Orthodontics and children’s dental prosthetics”, “Pediatric maxillofacial surgery”, “Restoration technologies in pediatric dentistry”, “Propaedeutics of pediatric dentistry”.
The department conducts educational and methodological work, tests for the course exam in pediatric dentistry, orthodontics and children’s dental prosthetics, maxillofacial surgery have been created, complex situational tasks have been compiled, textbooks in all disciplines taught at the department have been prepared for publication and updated.
An integrated approach to planning scientific work at the department allowed the head to turn the multidisciplinary nature of scientific potential from a disadvantage to an advantage. Interaction with patients is based on the principle of a “family dentist”. The scientific direction of the department is an integrated approach to the treatment and rehabilitation of children with pathology of the maxillofacial region.
The department’s contribution to science and practice is quite significant:
1. A multi-stage, multidirectional rehabilitation program has been developed and implemented at the Center for the Treatment of Children with Congenital Malformations of the Face (Children’s Diagnostic Center, 18 Postovaya St., office 428). It includes medical, pedagogical, and socio-psychological rehabilitation.
2. Gentle methods of anatomically oriented cheilo-, velo- and uranoplasty have been developed and used for more than 30 years.
3. A database of disabled children with IDPs and their families in the Krasnodar Territory is being formed.
4. Modern technologies have been introduced (for the first time in the region). These are: the edge technique, the facial mask, lingual and self-ligating braces systems. The orthodontists of the department are constantly improving, actively participating in congresses, symposiums and seminars. The leading orthodontists of the country, on the initiative of the department, constantly hold their seminars in Krasnodar.
5. Schemes of interaction between an orthodontist and a maxillofacial surgeon have been developed and are constantly being used in the process of correcting complex anomalies of the maxillofacial region in children and adolescents (mandibular macro- and micrognathia, maxillary macro- and micrognathia, apical base deficiency, autoosteoplasty of alveolar process defects, etc.).
6. An operation has been developed and is being successfully used – correction of the upper lip and cartilaginous part of the nose during autosteoplasty of the alveolar process of the upper jaw.
7. Epidemiological studies are being conducted on the prevalence and intensity of caries in children in Krasnodar and the Krasnodar Territory.
8. New technologies have been introduced in the therapeutic section of pediatric dentistry (Vector, Optodan, Piezon-master).
9. A system of training students and residents has been developed. The concept of educational work with students – “learning through a specialty” – has been developed.
In 2005, the department initiated the Cathedral student Olympiads in pediatric dentistry. The initiative was taken up by other departments of the faculty. The impetus was the successful participation of the department’s students in the student Olympiads of Moscow medical universities.
From March to September 2010, the department was headed by Associate Professor Olga Vladimirovna Gulenko, and from October 2010 to the present – Associate Professor Marina Nikolaevna Mitropanova. The department employs 14 faculty members, including 7 associate professors and 7 assistants.
