About CRIL
Mission
The Craniofacial Research Instrumentation Laboratory is devoted exclusively to clinical research into the effects of therapeutic interventions designed to correct dentofacial malocclusions and craniofacial malformations by orthodontic and/or surgical means. Its long-range objective is to improve the quality of care for malocclusions and craniofacial anomalies by rigorous quantitative analysis of the effects of treatment or of failure to treat. It has four areas of primary focus:
- The conduct of clinical studies of treated patients and untreated control subjects using the best available sampling and measurement techniques.
- The development of improved systems, both physical and conceptual, for the conduct of clinical studies.
- The construction of shareable electronic databases and image bases for the dissemination of information derived from our own studies and from the investigations of others.
- The education and training of a cadre of investigators with skills focused on the needs of clinical research in the craniofacial region.
The goal of these enterprises is to create better future conditions for evidence-based orthodontic practice.
Copyright
This website has been developed by the Craniofacial Research Instrumentation Laboratory (CRIL), Department of Orthodontics, University of the Pacific.
All content embodied in this site, such as text, graphics, logos, button icons, images, data compilations, and software, is the property of CRIL and others and is protected by United States and international copyright laws.
Content on this site may not be used without prior permission from the copyright holders. If you wish to use content from this site, or if you have questions or feedback, please contact CRIL.
History
The Craniofacial Research Instrumentation Laboratory was founded by Dr. Sheldon Baumrind at the University of California San Francisco in 1979. CRIL has been the site of studies which have generated more than 80 original papers and 71 abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature of orthodontics, engineering, medicine, and statistics. CRIL has also been a leader in the construction of orthodontic records bases and data bases and has participated strongly in collaborative efforts to develop efficient means for sharing clinical information from treatment records. The analog library of the Lab now includes records for more than 1400 patients, randomly sampled from the offices of more than thirty experienced orthodontic clinicians specializing in edgewise, Begg, and functional appliance therapies. Of these, the cephalometric, intra-oral x-ray, and facial photographic images for approximately 300 treated cases have already been converted to high resolution digital form.
Founder Sheldon Baumrind, DDS, MS
(1924-2017) Dr. Baumrind was Director of the Craniofacial Research Instrumentation Lab and Professor of Orthodontics at the University of the Pacific and the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey. He is the author of more than 100 original publications in the orthodontic, medical, statistical, and engineering literature. His primary research interest was the development of integrated three-dimensional craniofacial measurement systems for use in clinical dentistry. He was Principal Investigator of several National Institute of Dental Research (NIH) supported studies in that area, and served as a founding officer and co-chair of the Joint University of California Berkeley-University of California San Francisco Graduate Program in Bioengineering. He was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a Professor Emeritus of the University of California San Francisco.