What is the overarching theme of your research?
I am interested in how oral health fits into people’s overall health. Our dental and oral health needs are not one-size-fits-all, and they can change quite substantially over the lifespan, or if a person has a medical condition.
Can you give us an example?
I’ve done a lot of work with people who live with cystic fibrosis, or CF. The CF community had identified that their oral health and the appearance of their teeth were concerns for them, but there was very little evidence about their dental needs. My team at UCC worked with Cystic Fibrosis Ireland, the Cystic Fibrosis Registry of Ireland and the CF care team at Cork University Hospital. In a project funded by the Health Research Board, we identified that adults with CF are more likely to have issues such as enamel defects, plaque and gum inflammation, and we developed educational resources and recommendations for dentists.
What are you working on now?
I’m looking at what happens when a doctor or medical team sends a patient to the dentist to be certified as dentally fit. That might happen when someone is preparing for a hip replacement or a heart procedure. But it can be vague. The dentist doesn’t always know exactly what the medics are asking. And for the patient there’s the expense and the time, and the fear that their surgery could get delayed if they don’t have the cert. I’m looking for evidence, so we can improve guidance and reduce the pressure on patients.
How do you come up with research questions?
I’m lucky because the dental hospital here in Cork is co-located on the campus of Cork University Hospital. Often, I can meet with somebody in the coffee dock and talk to them about how dental care could be relevant for their patients; that’s where the ideas for research often come about. So far I’ve been able to work on different projects with the CF unit, the acute stroke ward, dietitians and geriatricians.
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Why did you become a dentist?
When I was in transition year in school, I did work experience with a dental practice. By the end of that week I knew it was what I wanted to do. I just loved that somebody could come in with a problem and when they walked out it was fixed. So I studied dentistry in Cork, and I worked in the UK and Galway. Then I got the opportunity to do a PhD part time and I did my specialist training in restorative dentistry, where you are managing complex cases where the dentition is very broken down.
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What would you like to see done to improve dental health?
Sometimes in dentistry research, we can have hot topics like the bacteria that live in the mouth, or how we might use stem cells to grow teeth. But we need to get on top of the more basic issues too, like dental caries and decay, and that includes getting the basic evidence. We haven’t had a national survey of oral health in Ireland for around 25 years. That’s a time that has included a financial crisis, a pandemic and a cost-of-living crisis, and we need another national survey to get more up-to-date information about oral health in Ireland.
When you are not working as a dentist and as a researcher and lecturer, what do you like to do?
Chill-out time centres on the family. My husband is a dentist too and we have two young kids. We also love travelling as a family.
