Acknowledgements

This work was carried out under the auspices of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Institute of Dentistry, University of Oulu, Finland, spanning the years of 1991–2002. This work also involved my parent institutions in Canada, The Hospital for Sick Children, The Bloorview MacMillan Children’s Centre, The Toronto General Hospital, Etobicoke General Hospital and the University of Toronto. In addition this work also involved L’Hôpital Enfants Malades Necker and the Clinique Belvedère in Paris, and Boulogne, France.

I wish to express my deepest gratitude and thanks to my supervisor and my very dear friend of many years Professor Kyösti S. Oikarinen, D.D.S., Ph.D., Head of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Oulu and Former Head of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Kuwait University, for providing me with his expert guidance, meaningful criticisms, support and special friendship during these long years. His never ending enthusiasm and encouragement has been extremely valuable for the commencement and completion of this thesis. Professor Oikarinen made this work possible!

I am also most grateful to Former Acting Head, Kai Sundquist, D.D.S., Ph.D., for providing support and research facilities in the Department during Professor Oikarinen’s absence in Kuwait. I would like to thank my close friend and partner, Associate Professor Cameron M.L. Clokie, D.D.S., Ph.D., F.R.C.D.(C), Head Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Toronto, for allowing me the support of the facilities of the University of Toronto and for covering my absences during the time required to complete this work.

I express my very warmest heartfelt thanks to my very dear friend, Assistant Professor Leena P. Ylikontiola, D.D.S., Ph.D., for giving me the courage to undertake this endeavour in the first place and for all her help with the manuscript and every step in the Ph.D. process at the University of Oulu. She taught me by her own example. During her visit to The Hospital for Sick Children, she convinced me that this Ph.D. process was possible and she was right. I would also like to thank her husband Veikko Kujala M.D., Ph.D., Chief Physician Oulu Regional Institute of Occupational Health for all his help, advice and a very thorough review of the manuscript. Kiitoksia Leena ja Veikko!

I express my warmest thanks for the careful revisions and valuable criticism of the manuscript to the official referees, Professor T. Sam Lindholm, M.D., Ph.D. of Tampere University and Professor Lars Andersson, D.D.S., Ph.D., Head of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Kuwait University.

I wish to thank the co-authors of the five publications which form the nucleus of this thesis, Daniel Marchac, M.D., Ph.D., Robert P. Carmichael D.M.D., M.Sc., F.R.C.D.(C), Marco F. Caminiti, D.D.S., M.Sc., F.R.C.D.(C), Iain A. Nish, D.D.S., M.Sc., F.R.C.D.(C), Vesa T. Kainulainen, D.D.S., Brian R. Rittenberg D.D.S., and Olavo Queiroz D.D.S., for their friendly and always very helpful collaboration. My special thanks are due to Mr. Ahti Niinimaa from the University of Oulu for his valuable input into the statistical analysis.

I wish to thank my present and former colleagues and other staff in the Departments of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery both at the Universities of Oulu and Toronto for their congenial support and friendship over these many years. I also like to express my sincere thanks to Professor David J. Kenny, D.D.S., Ph.D., Director of Research, and Associate Professor Douglas H. Johnston, D.D.S., M.Sc., Dentist-In-Chief, Departments of Dentistry, The Hospital for Sick Children and Bloorview MacMillan Children’s Centre for their many years of support and for providing a working environment where research and clinical work can proceed hand-in-hand.

I would like to express many very special gratitudes to my very dearest professional friend Assistant Professor Robert P. Carmichael, D.M.D., M.Sc., F.R.C.D.(C), who suffered the worst of family tragedies, the loss of his dear wife, and my special friend, Janice. Yet Robert was always able to help me as a friend, co-author, and confidant over these many years. Thank you Robert!

I would like to thank all those responsible for my training as a specialist in both my specialties; to those at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Washington in Seattle and to those in the Division of Plastic Surgery, University of Toronto, especially Professor Arnis Freibergs. I owe very special thanks to Professor Paul J.W. Stoelinga, M.D., D.D.S., Ph.D, Head, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Catholic University of Nijmegan and Professor Henk Tideman, M.D., D.D.S., Ph.D., Head, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Hong Kong University, both formerly of the Gemeente Ziekenhuis, Arnhem The Netherlands. Thank you to both of you for being my most important professional role models and providing me with the best clinical research training experience possible. Gaarne wil ik Professoren Stoelinga en Tideman van harte bedanken!

To Daniel Marchac, M.D., Ph.D., Head of Craniofacial Surgery, L’Hôpital Enfants Malades Necker, my mentor, co-author, I would like to extend my thanks for providing me with the most excellent craniofacial and cosmetic surgery training possible and making such excellent research material available to me. Je vous remerci Docteur Marchac!

I must thank with the deepest of gratitude my dear friends of many years, Jean-Louis Patat, M.D., D.V.M., Ph.D. and his wife Brigitte for their great support in Paris and for the introduction, encouragement and support I have received from them in working with Coral-Derived Granules. Merci beaucoup Brigitte et Jean-Louis!

Special thanks are due to my former Fellows in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery who trained under me at the University of Toronto during the preparation of this work including Marshall M. Freilich, D.D.S., M.Sc., F.R.C.D (C) for his undying support, Vesa T. Kainulainen, D.D.S., and Tom C. Lindholm, D.D.S., Ph.D., for being such excellent research partners, clinicians and for all their hours of advice regarding the Finnish Ph.D. process. Most recently I must also thank Deborah Iera, D.D.S., F.R.C.D.(C), for tolerating all my times away.

I would like to thank my former and present residents for tolerating my diverted attention during this process. Each of you helped in your own special way. They include Iain A. Nish, D.D.S., M.Sc., F.R.C.D.(C), Benjamin R. Davis, D.D.S., F.R.C.D.(C), Julia R. Pompura, D.D.S., F.R.C.D.(C), Dimitri Aderriotis, D.D.S., Marco F. Caminiti, D.D.S., M.Sc., F.R.C.D.(C), Lesley A. David, D.D.S., F.R.C.D.(C), Ian M. Furst, D.D.S., M.Sc., F.R.C.D.(C), Hani Ab-dul Salam, D.D.S., Ph.D., Tina Meisami-Fard, D.D.S., F.R.C.D.(C), Nick Blanas, D.D.S., F.R.C.D.(C), Hassan Moghadam-Ghaderi, D.D.S., M.Sc., F.R.C.D.(C), Brian R. Rittenberg, D.D.S., Samuel S. Barkin, D.D.S., Albert J. Haddad, D.D.S., Stephen Ho, D.D.S., Christopher Fenton, D.D.S., Tom Kertész, D.D.S., Peter Gioulos, D.D.S., and Taylor McGuire, D.D.S.. They are all enumerated here because these young women and men are the focus of our educational efforts, and most importantly, they will have to proudly carry the banner of the future of our specialty.

I would also like to thank my friend of many years John O’Keefe, D.D.S., M.Sc., F.R.C.D. (C), Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of the Canadian Dental Association for his very thorough review of this manuscript.

I wish to express my sincerest appreciation to the People of Finland for allowing me the opportunity to complete this work at one of their very fine universities, Oulu University. This occasion gives me the opportunity as a Hungarian to publicly thank your country for its special friendship and for all of the support shown to my country over the great many years gone by.

I owe a great deal of loving thanks to my mother and father for all their support and encouragement during these many years. While my father never lived to see this achievement, during his life he and my mother were always there to be the best possible parents. They were examples of boundless honest hard work to me. They constantly encouraged me to study hard with vigour and enthusiasm. I owe them my deepest gratitude.

Finally, I wish to express my most loving thanks to my dear and understanding wife, Cecilia Bajusz, D.D.S., H.B.Sc., and our three very special children, Kinga, Enikő and Hunor. Drága családom, nagyon mély szeretettel szeretném meg köszöni nektek mindent!

This work was supported in parts by grants from industry including Straumann AG, Waldenburg, Switzerland and Socièté Inoteb, St Gonnorey, France.

Oulu, April 2003                                       George Kálmán Béla Sándor.

                                                                  (Sàndor György Kálmán Béla).