Postgraduate

MSc Dental Public Health

Academic Staff

The following are some of the staff involved in the development and support of the MSc in Dental Public Health.

Tim Newton
Tim is Professor of Psychology as Applied to Dentistry and Head of the Department of Oral Health Services Research & Dental Public Health. As Course Director for the MSc in Community Dental Practice and the MSc in Dental Public Health he hopes to encourage students to develop knowledge and skills which will enable them to plan, develop and evaluate health services in their locality. Tim qualified as a psychologist in 1984 and worked as a researcher for a number of years before gaining his PhD in 1992. He then took up a teaching and research post within the dental school at Guy's hospital. His particular research interests include the analysis of patients' views of treatments, workforce planning in dentistry and the cultural variations in perceived oral health.

Barry Gibson
After achieving a BSc (Hons) First Class in Sociology at the University of Ulster, Barry subsequently completed an MMedSc in Paediatric and Preventive Dentistry at Queen's University Belfast. He then went on to complete a PhD in Medical Sociology and subsequently started working in King's Dental Institute, becoming a Lecturer in Sociology and Informatics as Applied to Dentistry at the newly formed GKT Dental Institute. Dr Gibson teaches Sociology as Applied to Dentistry to dental students throughout the curriculum. He is involved in the teaching and supporting of the undergraduate Dental Public Health teaching programme and is actively involved in supervising and examining PhD students. His research interests include: analysing the emergence of differentiated forms of infection control in oral health systems; analysing the meaning of oral health and oral health-related quality of life for different groups in society; looking at inequalities over and in the life course and studying associations between the experience of oral disease and other chronic conditions. Dr Gibson has a strong sociological interest in systems theory and the development of grounded theory.

Nicola Pearson
Nicola graduated from the London Hospital Dental School in 1986 and completed an MSc in Gerodontology there in 1994. She works in the Community Dental Service and her particular clinical interests include management of the older patient and the delivery of domiciliary care. She also has responsibility for clinical governance. Her research interests include ethnic minority elders, the provision of domiciliary care and the use of Oral Health Related Quality of Life measures to evaluate oral health care for the older person.

Pat Pratelli
Pat qualified at the Royal Dental Hospital in 1963. She worked briefly in the (then) schools dental service. After raising her own family, her interests turned to education and to mathematics. She began teaching mathematics in London secondary schools. From 1990 to 2000 she taught statistics to dental undergraduates and postgraduates at King's College. She gained an honours degree in statistics and social psychology at the Open University, which gave her experience of distance learning. Therefore it was of particular interest to her to be part of the initial team which launched the MSc in Community Dental Practice for External students in 1993. She has taught continuously on this course apart from a two-year respite during which she completed her PhD. Her research has examined some psychosocial aspects of dental services.

Farrah Ashley
Farrah graduated with a degree in Social Policy Research. After obtaining an MSc from the University of Hull, she worked as a research assistant in the Oral Health and Ethnicity Unit at the Leeds Dental Institute. She now works as a full-time lecturer within the Department of Dental Public Health, teaching social science-related subjects to undergraduates and postgraduates. She is also responsible for running community dental health education programmes for ethnic minority groups. Her interests lie in social research related to dentistry.

Jane Elliott
Jane is the Postgraduate Programmes Administrator for both the Community Dental Practice and Dental Public Health courses. Jane has been with the Department since 1995 and was appointed as Course Administrator in July 1999. Her keen interest in the Distance Learning programmes and excellent interpersonal skills have won her a central place in the programme. On many occasions, Jane is the first point of contact for students, both before they enrol and during their courses.