Editorial Board

 

Professor Paul Batchelor, BDS, DDPH, MCDH, MPH, PhD, FCGDent, FDS, FFPH, UCLan and University College London, UK

Paul qualified in 1980 and worked within the CDS and GDS. He subsequently moved to the London Hospital. A former President of the British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry, he has acted as advisor to a number of international governments and organisations, twice Vice Dean of the FGDP(UK), Advisor to the Irish Department of Health, the National Association of Primary Care and is Chair of the ISFE for Dental Public Health. Currently, he holds honorary positions at UCL and UCLan, advisor for Healthworks, associate at the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare, and a member of the European Health Policy Group.

 

Habib Benzian, PhD, MScDPH, New York University, USA

Habib is Research Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Health Promotion, College of Dentistry, New York University, and Co-Director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Quality Improvement and Evidence-based Dentistry. In various capacities during the last 20 years, Habib has been at the forefront of global advocacy to end the neglect of oral health. As expert in international (dental) public health, health policy, and NCDs he works at the intersection of academia, policy and practice, advising the WHO, UNICEF, governments and donor agencies. He is a member of the Lancet Commission on Oral Health and is co-lead of the working group on Advocacy, Global Policy and Governance. Together with the group of 13 co-authors, he was awarded the IADR Aubrey Sheiham Award for Best Scientific Paper in Dental Public Health (2020) for the landmark Lancet Series on Oral Health. In 2023, he received the IADR Distinguished Scientist Award for his research in global oral health.

Dr Bhupinder Dawett, BDS, MDPH, University of Sheffield, UK

Bhupinder qualified in 1993 and has maintained working in NHS general dental practice ever since. He is currently a Doctoral Research fellow at the University of Sheffield, and also teaches on the distance-learning Masters in Advanced Minimum Intervention Dentistry at the Faculty of Dentistry, Oral and Craniofacial Sciences at King's College London. Alongside this he is principal dentist at Dental Practice in Derbyshire which focuses on minimum intervention dentistry and practice-based research, and is also Oral and Dental Speciality lead for the NIHR East Midlands Clinical Research Network.

 

Professor Jennifer E. Gallagher MBE, PhD, MSc, DCDP, DipHE, BDS, FDS RCS(Eng), DDPH RCS(Eng), FHEA, King’s College London, UK

Jenny holds the distinguished Newland-Pedley Chair in Oral Health Strategy at King’s College London, where she is an Honorary Consultant in Dental Public Health with King’s Health Partners, and a College Ambassador for International, Engagement & Service. She has held the post of Dean for International Affairs for her Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences (2017–2023) contributing to partnership development and global initiatives. She received an MBE for services to oral health in 2015. Jenny contributes nationally and internationally on Dental Public Health education and training and health policy. Her research, which takes a public health and life course perspective on how to shape the future dental workforce to better meet the needs of the population, is influencing change locally, nationally, and globally. Jenny’s work with the World Health Organisation on the global oral health workforce has included contributing to the Global Oral Health Baseline Report and presenting at the African Regional Launch of the Global Strategy and leading academic workforce publications. Jenny has held many professional leadership roles including President of the British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry and Copresident of the European Association for Dental Public Health. She is an active member of the International Association for Dental, Oral & Craniofacial Research (IADR) including the role of President of the Global Oral Health Inequalities in Research Network (2022–2023). 

 

Zoë Hoare, PhD, CStat, Bangor University, UK

Zoë is Director and Principal Statistician of NWORTH (North Wales Organisation for Randomised Trials in Health), a UKCRC-registered clinical trials unit based at Bangor University in North Wales. Zoë joined NWORTH in 2008 after a short period working in private industry after gaining her PhD. She has expertise in designing and analysing randomised trials of complex interventions in a variety of clinical contexts including a number of dental and oral health-related studies, collaborating with research groups across the UK. Her particular research interests are in randomisation, composite outcome measures and quantitative evaluation of complex interventions.

 

Sarah Murray MBE, MA, Dip DH, Dip DT, SFHEA, FDTFEd, Queen Mary University of London, UK

Sarah is Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London – Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, and has a clinical background as a dental hygienist and a dental therapist. Sarah has made substantial contributions to the advancement of dental therapy education and the profession, by shaping the current scope of practice with the addition of new skills and was a key contributor for changes that enabled Direct Access for the public to access dental hygienists and dental therapists directly. Sarah is actively involved in the British Society of Dental Hygiene and Therapy and has held roles at Executive, Council and regional level over many years. Sarah is particularly interested in social responsibility and how this shapes a dental professional's life course, in addition to having an interest in teamworking and interprofessional learning. In 2017, Sarah was presented an MBE for services to oral health by the late Queen.

 

Professor Nicola West, BDS PhD FDS RCS (Eng) FDS (Rest Dent) FDS RCS Ed FHEA, University of Bristol, UK

Nicola is Professor and Honorary Consultant in Restorative Dentistry at Bristol Dental School, and the Director of the Clinical Trials Unit conducting research in the international forum, attracting substantial funding from industry, charities and NIHR funding streams.  Current research interests are investigating the associations between periodontal diseases and systemic diseases and conditions including Alzheimer’s Disease & Parkinson’s Disease, cardiovascular diseases and cystic fibrosis. Novel clinical periodontal research methodologies are developed alongside the scientific evaluation of oral health care products for gingivitis, tooth wear, dentine hypersensitivity, tooth staining and whitening. Research is also conducted into oral hard and soft tissue augmentation and peri-implant lesions and conditions. Nicola is the Secretary General of the European Federation of Periodontology and President elect for the British Society of Periodontology and Implant Dentistry. Nicola was Treasurer of the highly successful international Europerio 10 meeting in Copenhagen 2022 and has instigated UK adoption of the European periodontal guidelines on management of periodontal diseases. In parallel, Nicola has maintained a thriving periodontal and dental implant specialist practice in the centre of Bristol; a particular sphere of interest includes the management of peri-implantitis lesions.   

 

Professor Helen Whelton, BDS, MDPH, PhD, FFPH, FFD, PGDipTLHE, University College Cork, Ireland

Helen is Head of the College of Medicine and Health, University College Cork, Ireland and Chief Academic Officer to the HSE South South West Hospital Group. She is currently leading a large consortium including a partner HEI and eleven industry partners in an innovative approach to develop the next generation of graduates for the health & life sciences industry sector. Her research interests include epidemiology and health services research, and she has coordinated a number of EU grants and directed several large national oral health surveys.  She acts as consultant to epidemiological studies internationally and consults with the oral care industry on an ongoing basis. Her research has informed the development of dental services and she has also expanded her research contribution to the areas of overweight and obesity, and to women’s general health issues. Internationally her research focus has been on health services research incorporating fluoride research. Helen is the IADR representative on the FDI Science Committee. She has contributed to the development of the agenda for dental research nationally and internationally through her leadership of research organisations including the International Association for Dental Research.

John Tay, BDS, MDS, FAMS, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore

John is a Clinical Assistant Professor at Duke-NUS Medical School. His research examines the relationships between oral and systemic health, with a focus on applying epidemiological and causal inference methods to address questions in dental public health. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore, and holds Membership in Specialist Dental Practice (Periodontics) with the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons. He has received competitive national funding from Singapore’s National Medical Research Council to support work in health services and systems research. He also works as a periodontist at the National Dental Centre Singapore and is actively involved in clinical teaching and institutional academic programmes.

Dr Diego Jazanovich, BDS (Lond), MFDS RCS (Eng), MFGDP(UK), CELTA, Universidad Finis Terrae, Chile

Diego is Assistant Professor and leads the Office of Education at the Faculty of Dentistry, Universidad Finis Terrae in Santiago. He qualified in 1998 from the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy’s and St Thomas’s Hospitals, now part of King’s College London, and gained clinical experience across hospital, community dental services, and general practice settings in the UK, both NHS and private. Now based in Chile, he has significantly contributed to national reforms improving the recognition of foreign dental qualifications. His academic work focuses on teaching Cariology and Operative Dentistry, and he created and coordinates an online diploma course in minimum intervention oral care. He also designs academic English courses for health professions students, drawing on his Cambridge CELTA qualification. He is currently completing a Master’s in Medical Education at the University of Dundee. His research interests include curriculum innovation in health professions education, wellbeing in dental students, and technology-enhanced learning.

Dr Nighat Naved, BDS, FCPS (trainee), Aga Khan University Hospital, Pakistan

Graduated with a Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) as gold medalist and best graduate in 2019, Dr Nighat Naved is a restorative dentist, endodontist and a postdoctoral researcher affiliated with the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), Pakistan. She completed her FCPS postgraduate training in Operative Dentistry and Endodontics at AKUH, having graduated as the best researcher, receiving Excellence in Research Award for Residents in December 2024. She has extensive expertise in clinical dentistry and health economics, with a strong focus on cost-effectiveness analysis and patient-reported outcome measures in healthcare. With numerous international peer-reviewed publications to her name, she has also collaborated with international experts in developing multiple in-house health economic models, shaping the future of value-driven dentistry. Additionally, she serves as the Head of Analytics and Research at Medentec, an AI-powered company committed to providing reliable, equitable and accessible dental healthcare for all. 

Professor Antonino Lo Giudice, DDS, MSc Orthod, PhD Orthod, MSc Dental Sleep Medicine, University of Catania, Italy

Antonino Lo Giudice is Associate Professor of Pediatric Dentistry at the University of Catania. He is Director of Pediatric Dentistry Unit and Main Clinical Supervisor at the Post-Graduate Orthodontic Residency Program of the University of Catania. He is Director of the one-year post-graduate Program in Dental Sleep Medicine of the University of Catania. He has published over 130 peer-reviewed papers. His research activity is focused on digital technologies and advanced 3D imaging techniques in orthodontics and pediatric orthodontics.

 

Aws Alani, BDS, MFDS RCS Eng, MSc, FDS RCS Eng, LLM, MFDT, FCGD, FHEA, King's College Hospital and Peninsula Dental School, UK

Aws is an NHS Consultant in Restorative Dentistry at King's College Hospital and Associate Professor at Peninsula Dental School. He qualified from KCL in 2003, subsequently completing foundation training in Essex and junior hospital positions at Guy's Hospital and King's College Hospital, before enrolling on the MSc in Endodontics at the Eastman. He then moved to Morriston Hospital in Wales to work in their Maxillofacial Unit, and he subsequently completed his specialist training in Newcastle. During his training, he led relief work trips to Romania and Ghana with ‘Young Smiles for Romania’ and ‘Global Brigades’. A previous ITI Scholar in Toronto, Canada, Aws specialises in the management of aqcuired and congenital abnormalities such as dental trauma and hypodontia. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers, individual chapters and textbooks and has a masters degree in Medical Law. Alongside clinical duties, he has been teaching or leading on postgraduate degree courses for 20 years.