Dr Vanessa Muirhead, BSc (hons), BDS, MSc (Distinction), PhD, FHEA, FDS(DPH) RCS

Profile

I am a Clinical Reader and an Honorary Consultant in Dental Public Health. I gained a first-class BSc honours degree in Experimental Pathology and a bachelor’s degree in dental surgery (BDS) at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, QMUL.

After working as a community dentist for Portsmouth and Wandsworth Primary Care Trusts, I returned to QMUL to complete a MSc degree with Distinction in Dental Public Health (DPH). I was awarded an international scholarship to pursue a PhD at the University of Toronto, Canada and complete fellowship-supported postdoctoral research at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. I returned to QMUL to complete my specialty training as an NIHR Clinical Lecturer/ Specialty Registrar in Dental Public Health, where I successfully completed the Intercollegiate Specialty Fellowship Examination (ISFE) in Dental Public Health in 2016. I am a UK registered specialist in Dental Public Health on the General Dental Council (GDC) specialist list.

I am currently the Programme Director of the online MSc/PGDip/PGCert in Dental Public Health, Policy and Leadership course at QMUL. I am also the course developer of the “introduction to leadership skills and practice in healthcare” short course – a flagship online course led by the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry Digital Education Studio.

My additional leadership roles include serving as the Academic Lead for dental NIHR Academic Clinical Fellows and Clinical Lecturers and the Chair of the Academic Training Oversight Panel (ATOP) in the Institute of Dentistry, QMUL. I also lead the Institute of Dentistry Teaching Community of Practice online group.

Externally, I am the Associate Editor of JDR Clinical and Translational Research and the Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology journal. I am also a member of the NIHR In-Practice Fellowship Selection Committee and a Trustee for the Medical College of St Bartholomew’s Hospital Trust.

Centre: Dental Public Health and Primary Care

Teaching

Programme Director for the MSc / PG Dip / PG Cert in Dental Public Health, Policy and Leadership courses (https://www.qmul.ac.uk/postgraduate/taught/coursefinder/courses/dental-public-health-policy-and-leadership-online-msc/). 

Module Lead for Dental Public Health and Policy module.

Module Lead for the Leadership and Planning in Health and Public Services module. 

Module Lead for the Health Economics module.

Undergraduate Dental Public Health tutor in the Population Health and Evidence Based Dentistry module. 

Research

Research Interests:

My research uses mixed methods and innovative participatory research to explore, develop and evaluate oral health interventions to support socially excluded populations and vulnerable groups. My research was featured in the REF2021 Impact Case Study “Developing Interventions to Improve the Oral Health of Vulnerable Children” (https://www.qmul.ac.uk/dentistry/research-centres/featured-research/improving-the-oral-health-of-vulnerable-children/).

My applied research has co-produced resources fsor Looked after Children (LAC) and foster carers (https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:117d9a4a-ce81-48d5-88df-f453330ec4a1) and created an oral health toolkit to support key stakeholders to identify children’s oral health needs and plan and deliver dental services Looked After Children Oral Health Toolkit V8.pdf.

The co-designed film “My Story, My Words, My Mouth”: showcased the dental experiences of community returners (ex-offenders) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_UupJJxbaA).

Since 2020, I have published a series of critical reviews examining underexplored areas in oral health research including intersectionality, vulnerability, inclusion oral health and stigma. 

Publications

Key Publications

1. Muirhead V.E, Milner A, Freeman R, Doughty J, Macdonald M E. What is intersectionality and why is it important in oral health research? Community Dent Oral Epidemiol 2020; 48(6): 464-470 (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cdoe.12573)
2. Fleming E, Neville P, Muirhead VE. Are there more women in the dentist workforce? Using an intersectionality lens to explore the feminization of the dentist workforce in the UK and US. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol.2023;51: 65-372. doi: 1111/cdoe.12796
3. Freeman R, Doughty J, MacDonald M E, Muirhead V. Inclusion oral health: a theoretical framework for policy, research and practice. Community Dent Oral 2020; Epidemiol 48(1) 1-6
4. Muirhead V E, Quayyum Z, Markey D, Weston-Price S, Kimber A, Rouse W, Pine C. M. Children's toothache is becoming everybody's business: where do parents go when their children have oral pain in London, England? A cross-sectional analysis. BMJ Open 2018 8(2): e020771
5. Muirhead V, Subramanian S K, Wright D, Wong F S L. How do foster carers manage the oral health of children in foster care? A qualitative study. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol 2017; 45(6): 529-537

All publications

Public Engagement

See link to Centre of Dental Public Health and Primary Care Public Engagement page

Grants

The “Big Mouth” Tower Hamlets project: Shaping Oral Health Research Priorities through Community Conversations funded by the Centre of Public Engagement large grant

The DEEP Study: DEntal patient Encounters in general medical Practices funded by Barts Charity