Dr. Christoph Staudigl is an Attending at the Department of CMFS at the Kepler University Clinic (KUK) in Linz, Austria, and is a specialist in dental surgery and implantology. He studied medicine at the Medical University of Vienna, graduating in 2010, before becoming a university assistant in Anatomy as well as an external lecturer. Dr. Staudigl obtained his degree in Dentistry (DMD, 2019) from the Medical University of Vienna and is a board-certified dentist as well as a maxillofacial surgeon. After gaining experience in plastic and trauma surgery, he is currently working as a specialist in craniomaxillofacial and oral surgery at the Kepler University Hospital of the Johannes Kepler University Linz. In 2017, he was appointed Vice-chair and in 2021, Chair of the Next Generation program of the Austrian Society of Dental Implantology. Since 2019, he has headed the Anatomy module for dentists at the Sigmund Freud University’s dentistry curriculum in Vienna.

‍Could you describe the main tasks that the Kepler University Clinic will be working on and how these will be contributing to the EU’s goal of developing personalized medicine for Europe’s elderly population?

One of the main tasks of the KUK in the project is to offer expertise and advice from a clinician's standpoint during the scientific development process  This job brings us into contact with almost all aspects of the project. Having already collaborated with Lithoz in a clinical setting, we came up with the idea for one of the use cases in the project - the subperiosteal implant. We created the design criteria and devised certain experiments in the pre-clinical setting, and now we are working with BTI to design simulations for medical training as well as a small conference.

We believe that our use case, the subperiosteal implant, has the potential to significantly increase the quality of life in a subpopulation of the elderly. Ill-fitting dentures have been linked in scientific publications to malnutrition, increased risk for certain diseases, and, of course, a reduced quality of life due to the inability to chew. With the invention of conventional dental implants, maxillofacial and orofacial surgeons have been given a toll to anchor dentures in the jaws and to improve the overall function. But, in order to place those implants, a sufficient residual bone level is necessary. Unfortunately, bone remodels after the loss of the teeth, i.e. it reduces in volume since it is no longer needed, resulting in atrophic jaws.

Some patients with extremely atrophic jaws require extensive surgeries in order to graft bone for conventional implants. With a reduced general condition due to their age, some patients are not eligible. We want to close this gap and provide all of our patients with the option of dental implants in order to improve their quality of life.

It is hoped that 3D printing will revolutionize regenerative medicine in the future. How do you see the role of 3D printing in the medical industry and are there other medical technologies that you are excited about?

Maxillofacial surgery was one of the first specialties that have included 3D printing in their workflow. For the last few decades, it has already been used to print out models of the patient’s skull in order to help plan complex surgeries. In these special cases, 3D printing has the potential to replace the current generation of CNC machined, patient-specific implants and, hopefully, to reduce the financial impact of this aspect of personalized medicine. Like most other surgical specialties, we are looking for a breakthrough in the work with stem cells, which will allow us to replace damaged tissues or defects from oncological surgeries with new lab-grown tissues.

What would you say have been Kepler University Clinic’s best achievements?

With the KUK being a very young faculty, we hope that the INKplant project will be our first major scientific achievement. Regarding the KUK’s predecessor, the General Hospital of Linz, one former department head, Professor Friess, has developed a new surgical technique to replace a subtotal resection of the lower lip.

Can you tell us about any significant advances that have already been made in the INKplant project?

We are finalizing the design of the implants and are currently working with Lithoz, an MUW, on establishing the printing process of these complex shapes.

What do you hope to achieve during the project and what are the main goals you are hoping to meet?

Our goal is to develop a new kind of dental implant, that will better integrate with the patients’ bodies due to the new materials and coatings being produced within INKplant. Since this kind of implant does not require extensive grafting procedures in order to work, it could provide treatment options for people with highly atrophic jaws.