Prof M S Muthu (MDS, PhD, MFDS RCPS) is currently the Chair of Centre for Early Childhood Caries Research (CECCRe), Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research. His research over the past 10 years has focused on understanding both the risk factors of Early Childhood Caries (ECC) and its management. He along with Dr Kirthiga has proposed the first classification of inter proximal contacts in primary molars named “OXIS classification.” Longitudinal prospective and retrospective studies have shown that these variations appears to be a significant risk factor for ECC susceptibility. He has published more than 80 plus scientific articles in indexed peer reviewed journals, of which many are in the field of ECC. He is the author and editor of textbook - Pediatric Dentistry - Pricniples and Practice (Elsevier). He is the Co-PI in the OXIS Classification - Global Collaboration for Calibration and Database Management website development project funded by Ajman University.

Kirthiga M (MDS) is presently an Assistant Professor and a part time research scholar at Centre for Early Childhood Caries Research (CECCRe), Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research (SRIHER), Chennai, India. She is the first dentist in the country to receive the Early Career Fellowship award and research grant of 1,02,74,110/- from the Wellcome Trust DBT India Alliance. She has been instrumental in the development of OXIS classification and in detecting OXIS as a risk factor in Early Childhood Caries.