Dr. Robert Carmichael

Specialties: Prosthodonist

About The Speaker

Dr. Robert Carmichael is a prosthodontist with over 25 years of experience in oral rehabilitation of patients of all ages with complex needs including: cleft lip and palate, oligodontia, craniofacial anomalies, trauma, tumor resection, and other rare disorders. He has well-established track records in clinical practice, teaching, research, hospital administration and outreach to communities in northern Ontario where he supervises the care of individuals with cleft lip and palate and other craniofacial disorders.

Dr. Carmichael is Chief of Dentistry and Director of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care Cleft Lip & Palate/Craniofacial Dental Programme at Holland Bloorview Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto. He is also Coordinator of Prosthodontics at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children. At both hospitals, Dr. Carmichael has pioneered dental treatments and technologies that have given several thousands of individuals with craniofacial and dental deformities the tools to participate fully in life. At Holland Bloorview, Dr. Carmichael leads a department fully affiliated with the University of Toronto, that offers the full range of specialized dental services, including pediatric dentistry, orthodontics, oral maxillofacial surgery and prosthodontics for children, adolescents and young adults with special health care needs. He has built a multidisciplinary department that integrates cutting­-edge research and teaching of future oral health­care specialists in the field of special care dentistry.

Dr. Carmichael is a life-long learner and educator. He received his undergraduate training at the University of British Columbia and his graduate training at the University of Zurich, Switzerland and the University of Toronto. At Holland Bloorview, Dr. Carmichael has created a department which has garnered recognition at every level – internationally, nationally, and provincially. In education, Dr. Carmichael has supervised the training of many dozens of general dentistry residents, pediatric dentistry residents, prosthodontics residents and oral and maxillofacial surgery residents who have since gone on to pursue leadership positions across the country and beyond. He has been recognized nationally and internationally, notably by the International Team for Implantology (ITI) in Switzerland with their designation of his department in 2007 as a Clinical Scholarship Centre (along with 19 other centres around the world). The primary goal of the ITI Clinical Scholarship Program is to help young clinicians further their training in implant dentistry. The program also aims to foster international exchange as an enriching educational experience. Scholars have come from countries around the world, including Germany, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, India, Thailand, UK and Japan. Again, under Dr. Carmichael’s leadership, Holland Bloorview was selected by the International Team for Implantology in 2009 to join an international network of 6 other educational institutions around the world, including Harvard, the aim of which is to enhance dental implant education worldwide through formal educational programs.

Dr. Carmichael has been tireless in his pursuit of knowledge for the betterment of patient care. He values scholarship and has spent his career advancing the study of dental implantology. He has lectured worldwide, has more than 50 publications, and has translated several texts from German to English.  Currently his research ranges in scope from documenting the impact of dental implant therapy on the quality of life of youth with congenitally missing teeth, to the effects of antidepressant therapy on the success of dental implants in youth, to the use of virtual reality technology in managing the behaviour of children with autism undergoing dental treatment, and to the effect of inflammation around dental implants on circulating immune cells.