The remit of the Oral & Dental Specialty Group is to support a national portfolio of structured research studies in the field of dental and oral health and the management of dental and oral disease. An entire profession (dentistry), and a supporting professional team is built around oral health and the management of oral disease. Dental caries (decay) and periodontal disease are two of the most common chronic diseases in the UK with impacts in a wide range of areas. Because of the specific professional group and the way that services are arranged, the Oral and Dental Specialty Group faces some unique challenges in terms of establishing and supporting a national portfolio. Not least is that the vast majority of dental and oral care is provided in primary care, yet most research expertise resides in a very small academic secondary care sector.
The Group’s portfolio is still very small but is growing. The profession needs to demonstrate that it can deliver high quality clinical research studies in both primary and secondary care in the UK, and the Oral and Dental Specialty Group has a key part to play in facilitating this goal.
Specialty Group Lead: Professor Tara Renton Biography
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Professor Tara Renton, Specialist in Oral Surgery, is a Dentist with a particular interest in trigeminal nerve injuries and pain. After completing her Oral and Maxillofacial surgical training in Melbourne Tara undertook a PhD in trigeminal nerve injury at King's College London (KCL) 1999-2003. She was later appointed Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary's University, London and then was awarded her chair in 2006 at Kings' College London. Over the past four years Tara leads the teaching of 180 dental students for each year 3, 4 and 5. She has established an academic training programme which now has eight Oral Surgery SpRs of which three are undertaking PhDs and one are post doc. In collaboration with Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London and Imperial College. Tara and collaborators have established an international leading programme of trigeminal pain research.
Tara is the National advisor for Oral Surgery, she is a council member for BAOS and is an elected member of the RCS England Dental Faculty Committee.
Visit the National Oral & Dental Specialty Group web pages for further information.
