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Congratulations to emergency department research fellow Dr Colin Mak who has secured not one but two competitive research grants to fund his first clinical trial.
Dr Mak secured a grant from the Emergency Medicine Foundation (EMF) as well as the 2026 Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) Foundation Al Spilman Early Career Researcher Grant to fund the project.
His project, DEXADENT, will investigate whether a single dose of dexamethasone, a steroid commonly used to reduce inflammation, can help relieve dental pain in patients presenting to the emergency department (ED).
“We see patients attend the ED with severe tooth pain because access to affordable dental care can be challenging,” Dr Mak said.
“ED clinicians cannot effectively treat an underlying dental issue because dentistry is specialised and we aren’t dentists, but the study will enable us to trial giving patients a steroid to provide pain relief while they wait for the dentist.”
While dexamethasone is routinely used for conditions such as asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), back pain and tonsillitis, and is commonly used by dental surgeons for procedures, its use for dental pain in the ED’s has not been formally studied in Australia.
If successful, the study could lead to changes in how dental pain is managed in emergency departments across Australia.
“The idea came from a former hypothetical research assignment,” Dr Mak said.
“I’d see people come in with a toothache multiple times and treatment was limited. I realised this was an untapped space and an opportunity to improve people’s treatment.”
Funding from the grants, worth almost $80,000 combined, will support essential trial costs and help fund two research nurses to assist with patient recruitment and follow-up. A small multidisciplinary team, including emergency clinicians, a pharmacist and a dentist, will support the project.
The trial is expected to begin in the next few weeks and run for approximately 12 months.
