Dental Public Health

Dental Public Health research is concerned with the health of populations and healthcare delivery to populations. The dental institute facilitates high quality research in support of oral health improvement and the delivery and organisation of high quality evidence-based care. It involves a health systems approach that seeks to understand health and the wider determinants of health, influence pathways to care and the delivery of healthcare, together with the recruitment and retention of the appropriate workforce skill-mix.

Dental Public Health involves a range of research methods from epidemiology to qualitative research involving interviews and focus groups. It includes quantitative methods such as questionnaire surveys, secondary analysis of health related data and operational research modelling. This involves working closely with clinicians, educationalists, social and behavioural scientists and statisticians in multidisciplinary health services research on the following key areas:

• Evaluation of the organisation and delivery of oral health care services
• Dental workforce recruitment, motivation and skill-mix rn
• Promotion of oral health and wellbeing and health outcomes