Frances O'Leary
I am a Paediatric Dental Registrar at Glasgow Dental Hospital and School and the Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow. I work within a multidisciplinary team providing Specialist-led dental care for children and adolescents; very often, they have multiple long-term conditions (MLTC), also known as multimorbidity, which can influence their oral health and dental needs.
Undertaking a PhD project in the field of multimorbidity and oral health research aligns with my motivation to reduce health inequalities in children and improve dental service access. My PhD will be supervised by the experienced research team within the Community Oral Health department at Glasgow Dental Hospital and School, University of Glasgow.
I joined the profession of Dentistry as a qualified dental nurse. This unique entry fostered my passion for patient advocacy and tackling oral health inequalities. I graduated from the University of Sheffield in 2014, with Honours in a Bachelor in Dental Surgery, the Roger Ball Prize for oral and maxillofacial surgery, and the GlaxosmithKline Dentistry Prize for my finals poster presentation. Postgraduate clinical roles across the Midlands (in England) and Glasgow have afforded a range of experiences and responsibilities within research, teaching and leadership. Of note, I was awarded a bursary from Health Education England to complete a Diploma in Human Factors and Ergonomics for Patient Safety.
My PhD project is a population-wide, data linkage study of around 500,000 children; the overarching aim is to establish the relationship between MLTC and dental caries in childhood and adolescence, plus identify any socioeconomic inequalities. In addition, data will be linked across health, administrative and education datasets to evaluate the reach and impact of the Childsmile programme (Scotland’s child oral health improvement programme) among children with MLTC, and the intersection with other socioeconomic factors. The skills I will develop from the programme and the outputs from this project will frame future research priorities within this field of research. I aim to address these through post – doctoral training, and eventually as a consultant and clinical academic in paediatric dentistry.
PhD research area: Dental caries and multiple long-term conditions in children and adolescents across Scotland; the trends, inequalities, and the reach and impact of Childsmile.
Primary supervisor: Professor Andrea Sherriff (School of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing, MVLS, University of Glasgow)
Secondary supervisors: Professor David Conway (School of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing, MVLS, University of Glasgow) and Dr Barbara Nicholl (School of Health and Wellbeing, MVLS, University of Glasgow)
