Maria Pigg
Associate Professor/Program director/Senior lecturer/senior dental officer

Presentation

I am a Senior Lecturer in Endodontics at the Faculty of Odontology, and teach in the Dentistry programme and the Complementary programme for dentists with a dental degree from outside the EU/EES and Switzerland. I supervise students and dentists on advanced and doctoral level. I am licensed to practice dentistry since 1993, a board-certified clinical specialist in Endodontics since 2013, and associate professor (docent) in Endodontics with focus on Orofacial Pain since 2017.

In 2011, I presented my doctoral dissertation (Odont. Dr./Ph.D.) titled ”Chronic intraoral pain – diagnostic methods and prognosis”. My research is mainly related to development of diagnostics in the field of orofacial pain, in relation to inflammatory dental disease and other pain causes such as neuropathy. Another research interest is risk assessment and decision-making in dentistry.

I am a researcher in the Faculty's research profile "Advancing Oral Health" with the projects "Validation of Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (DC-TMD) in children and adolescents: TMD pain" and "Placebo in orofacial pain diagnosis (POP-Dx)"

I am also engaged in educational research regarding AI-based aids for communication training in the professional role, as well as regarding students' and dental teachers' attitudes towards and strategies for managing uncertainty.

In collaboration with the European Society of Endodontology, I contribute to quality development through the development of guidelines for reporting in scientific studies, as well as guidelines for postgraduate (specialist) education, including certification of postgraduate programmes in Europe in the discipline of endodontics. Since 2021, I have been active in the organization's "Education and scholarship committee" which works with educational issues in endodontics, such as guidelines for curriculum in dental education.