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Oral health is not evenly distributed throughout Society – throughout the world those who are poorest experience the worst oral health. Our research explores the distribution of oral disease according to social factors such as wealth, educational status, age and ethnicity. We identify why such inequalities exist and seek to develop public health approaches to decreasing inequality.
Social & Behavioural Science (Dentistry)
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DESCRIPTION
Oral health is critically dependent on behaviour – attendance at the dentist, dietary behaviour, smoking cessation and self-care routines. Social and behavioural sciences provide a critical insight into the determinants of behaviour and how these can be modified. Among other areas, the team are researching in the following areas:
Fear of dental treatment is relatively common, approximately one in four adults in the United Kingdom avoids dental treatment as a result of anxiety, while phobic levels of fear are found in approximately one in 20 adults. Our research seeks to explore psychological techniques for managing fear of dental treatment in children and adults.Oral health is not evenly distributed throughout Society – throughout the world those who are poorest experience the worst oral health. Our research explores the distribution of oral disease according to social factors such as wealth, educational status, age and ethnicity. We identify why such inequalities exist and seek to develop public health approaches to decreasing inequality.
Associated research programmes
Associated staff research interests
Interests:
Our research interests relate to the delivery of care to special needs groups. We are researching patients' wants, expectations of, and barriers to dental care. Subsequently, we want to develop and research clinical pathways in special care dentistry to promote access to care and develop a set of appropriate clinical and patient focused outcomes.
We are also interested in the outcomes and evaluation of oral health promotion. In particular, how understanding behaviour change and the social and cultural context might be used to inform the design and implementation of oral health promotion.
The questions we want to answer are:
What do patients with special needs want from a dental service, including their key concerns and expectations of dental care?
What is the experience of dental care received and the best way to support autonomy and capacity to consent?
What are important clinical and patient based outcomes for people with special needs?
How can the care for people with special needs be integrated across health and social care?
What are people’s key oral health concerns, motivations and intentions around oral health?
What factors predict behaviour change?
Are interventions underpinned by health behaviour models efficacious?
We are also interested in the outcomes and evaluation of oral health promotion. In particular, how understanding behaviour change and the social and cultural context might be used to inform the design and implementation of oral health promotion.
The questions we want to answer are:
What do patients with special needs want from a dental service, including their key concerns and expectations of dental care?
What is the experience of dental care received and the best way to support autonomy and capacity to consent?
What are important clinical and patient based outcomes for people with special needs?
How can the care for people with special needs be integrated across health and social care?
What are people’s key oral health concerns, motivations and intentions around oral health?
What factors predict behaviour change?
Are interventions underpinned by health behaviour models efficacious?
Email:
Website:
Interests:
Health psychology: CBT for the treatment of dental anxiety, adherence, empowerment in health-care settings, patient-health care professional communication, patients' and health care professionals understanding of risk, cognitive functioning in and self-management of type 2 diabetes and chronic illness in general, psychology as applied to dentistry.
Tel:
020 3299 3272
Email:
Website:
Interests:
Head of the Paediatric Dentistry department, she was among the few dentists in the United Kingdom with training in administering general anaesthesia. Professor Hosey has an interest in the effects of liver disease and transplantation on the oral tissues. She moved to King's College London in 2008. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and physicians of Glasgow and an examiner for the Intercollegiate Fellowship Specialty Examination in Paediatric Dentistry. She wrote the RCS (Eng) clinical guideline on dental paediatric conscious sedation, and is a past council member of the Association of Dental Anesthetists and the Dental Sedation Teachers Group. She has co-authored three dental textbooks and one medical textbook and is editor of four. She has an interest in 3D imaging, particularly in relation to infants with cleft lip and palate, but now devotes her research to the management of anxious children.
Website:
Interests:
Biostatistics in dentistry; planning and evaluation of sequential clinical trials; structural equation modelling; longitudinal studies; missing data; multilevel modelling; propensity modelling; quality of life, health outcomes; bias correction in complex-interventions; samples and surveys.
Tel:
(020) 71888091 (020) 32992746 mobile:07400077797
Email:
Website:
Interests:
Ageing and oral health; chronic illness and disability theory.
Email:
Website:
Interests:
Processes of symptom perception and symptom appraisal; help-seeking behaviour, especially patient delay for cancer symptoms; palliative care in head and neck cancer; stress and the immune system and wound healing; application of psychology to medicine and dentistry.
Email:
Website:
Interests:
My research areas of interest include the following:
- Oral Health Related Quality of Life, particularly amongst minority ethnic groups in the United Kingdom
- The working lives of dental practitioners and professionals complementary to dentistry, including working patterns and quality of working life
- Cognitive Behavioural therapy for dental anxiety
- Patient based evaluation of treatment
- Eating disorders
- The psychometric assessment of individuals with mental retardation.
- Oral Health Related Quality of Life, particularly amongst minority ethnic groups in the United Kingdom
- The working lives of dental practitioners and professionals complementary to dentistry, including working patterns and quality of working life
- Cognitive Behavioural therapy for dental anxiety
- Patient based evaluation of treatment
- Eating disorders
- The psychometric assessment of individuals with mental retardation.
Tel:
020 3299 3481
Fax:
020 3299 3409
Email:
Website:
CONTACTS FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
Professor Tim Newton
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