Final part of Van der Velden interview focuses on Java Studies of susceptibility

The third and final part of the video interview with perio veteran Ubele van der Velden has just been published on the EFP website.

In ‘The Java Studies’, professor Van der Velden talks to interviewer Tiernan O’Brien about a pioneering research study whose fieldwork took place over a 15-year period.

After working on various research projects in the Netherlands in the 1970s, he wanted to carry out a longitudinal study on a specific population to identify risk factors, risk predictors, and risk determinants for the onset and progression of periodontitis.

The eventual study took place in a village of about 2,000 inhabitants on a tea estate in Western Java, in the former Dutch colony of Indonesia, with all subjects in the research aged between 15 and 25. The project involved a baseline examination in 1987 and follow-up examinations in 1994 and 2002, with an initial group of 255 subjects of which 128 were retrieved in the final examination.

The research identified various risk factors and risk predictors, and also showed that male gender was a risk determinant. It concluded that screening for relevant parameters early in life could be helpful in preventing the onset and progression of periodontal diseases.

The video on the Java Studies follows 'The early years', in which Van der Velden explains how he came to periodontology, and 'Genesis of the EFP', where he describes the early moves to bring together European practitioners of what was then a very young science and practice.

The interviews are part of the recently revamped 'EFP Interviews' section of the EFP website. The aim of the 'EFP Interviews' is to offer today's perio community a perspective on how things used to be and how they have evolved to the present day.