Gill Bradnock - obituary

Starting as an IBM punch card operator working with Professor Peter James, Andy Anderson, John Beal and Peter Rock to support management of dental epidemiology data, Gill worked on fissure sealant trials and national and local surveys. This included the famous Somerset studies which highlighted the then contentious phenomenon of declining caries prevalence in children, Gill being an author on the landmark 1982 paper.

Gill completed a PhD at Birmingham and became an independent researcher and teacher, eventually leading dental public health as Senior Lecturer and head of education for the School.

For many years Birmingham ran taught postgraduate programmes in community dental practice and special care dentistry and Gill played a key role in these as well as being instrumental in establishing behavioural science in the undergraduate curriculum at in the early 1990s. She supervised untold numbers of postgraduate students, as evidenced by the groaning shelves of bound theses in her office.

Gill's role in promoting the academic disciplines of behavioural science and oral health promotion at national level was also considerable. Her immense personal qualities, from her courage and honesty to her empathetic nature, well suited to her later role as senior tutor counselling generations of anxious undergraduates. Gill made a unique contribution to oral health and to the lives of many in the field.