The Primary Dental Care research theme, centred at the School of Dentistry explores a diverse range of research topics focussing on the needs, provision and delivery of oral healthcare at the primary care interface and assessing the effectiveness of treatment modes within this setting.
A key focus to our work is clinical epidemiology, with involvement in national epidemiological oral health surveys, and the analysis of disease trends and healthcare needs in order to provide a robust evidence-base. Clinicians and researchers also explore the performance of new technologies and dental materials within the real world environment of dental practice by way of two well established, research groups administered in Birmingham which are pioneering the increasingly recognised field of Practice-Based Research, thus facilitating translational research and the future development of dental technologies.
Other work includes the interrogation of large (10 million restorations) datasets for restoration longevity to identify survival trends and factors influencing dental material performance, and the determination of optimal treatment approaches to inform future developments and policy on treatment decisions. Factors which prevent dental attendance, in particular severe dental anxiety, also form an increasing focus of our work.