The College of Dentistry Research Center (CDRC) is the product of the University’s aspiration of bringing about a more research-oriented institution especially in the area of dentistry. Founded in 1981, its primary goal is the encouragement of viable research potentials from among the dental professionals in the Kingdom. The Center realizes that this objective can be achieved by extending support in all kinds of research work and providing state-of-the-art equipment complemented by highly trained technical staff in all its laboratories.

Physical Laboratory

One of the main laboratories in the College of Dentistry Research Center is the Physical Laboratory where most of the materials are being tested for their physical strength, tensile, compressive and flexural characteristics that are commonly used in the field of Dental Medicine. The purpose of this Laboratory is to test all the materials being supplied by different manufacturers to ensure the quality and durability of their products and compatibility of materials under the approval of Saudi Dental Society before it will be disseminated to the different clinical fields of dentistry. We have the Instron machine for material testing, the Coloreye Spectrophotometer for color/shade differentiation, Atomic Absorption Spectrometer for elemental analyzing and Microhardness machine. The laboratory usage is rising tremendously under the supervision of Prof. Mohammed T. Bukhary as the Director of the Research Center and Mrs. Lourdes J. Alegado as Research Lab Technician.
 

Clinical/MICROBIOLOGY RESEARCH LABORATORY

The laboratory was established mainly to help performing any research related to oral infectious

diseases such as dental caries and periodontal diseases. These research projects are carried out by faculty members, postgraduate students and interns. In addition, the microbiology laboratory offers

the service of routine investigation upon the request from various dental staff in the clinics. This investigation usually includes identifying microorganisms which might involve in dental lesions and doing the antibiotic sensitivity tests of the isolated microorganisms.  

Histopathology Research Laboratory  

This is just one of the Laboratory facilities that College of Dentistry Research Center offered in the college. In relation to this Routine Histopathology Technique deals on Maxillo-Facial Cases which are done in the college through Specialist Clinic and referral of rare cases are submitted to us from King Khalid University Hospital and other clinic or hospital that needs the assistance of our laboratory. The surgeon makes their own evaluation to the patients and necessary operation is done case to case basis. Thereafter specimen is submitted to Histopathology Laboratory proper logging is done as to Patient data; give its corresponding surgical number. The Pathologist will make the necessary grossing of the specimen in relation to the size, shape, color and measurement. It is the Pathologist who decides which of the site of the specimen will be submitted for Tissue processing which entails for 16 hours thru our Tissue Processor by the technician concerned, who will do the rest from Embedding, Sectioning, Staining and Mounting of the slides.  Special Staining are requested as needed which will help for further confirmation of the diagnosis.  The slides eventually given to the Pathologist for Pathological interpretation which will leads to the Diagnosis of the case. Then necessary pathological report follows, concerned clinics and Doctor take the report for their own information regarding the status of the case.

The next is the Research Laboratory wherein Professors, Assistant Professors, Postgraduate and Undergraduate student do research in the Laboratory. They have fill up the necessary papers and secure the approval of the Director of the CDRC.  and properly recorded. Their specimen is submitted to us like soft tissue and bone will undergo decalcification before it can be processed thus entails to follow the procedure of a Routine Histopathology technique, Special stain is requested as well. Some of the research are funded wherein the Researchers provides all the reagents and others materials needed to accomplished the said research while the Non-funded the Research Center will provide all what is needed until it is done.

SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY LABORATORY (SEM)

The Scanning Electron Microscope Laboratory was put up solely for research purposes. It is equipped with JSM-6360LV Scanning Electron Microscope capable of doing many applications such as; Secondary Electron Digital Photographs, Backscattered Electron Images, analyses of Surface Topography and Composition Images, as well as the Quantitative and Qualitative Elemental Analyses of specimens using the EDS Dispersive System