Bristol Dental School supports world-class research that strives to improve health and wellbeing, and to make oral healthcare more effective and accessible, both for patients and dental practitioners.

The research community is organised across three cross-cutting themes:

• Epidemiology and health services research (EHSR)
• Microbiology and materials (M&M)
• Education research (ER)

Embedded within each research theme are the clinical research and patient communities, providing an infrastructure that - through high quality clinical trials, biobanking and recording, and cohort studies - delivers translation of pre-clinical research aligned with the research themes, as well as the clinical specialties fundamental to dental research.

Epidemiology and health services research (HSR),  and Microbiology and materials (M&M)

Epidemiology and health services research (HSR) and Microbiology and materials (M&M) articulate combined research strength across the school to address critical national and global health challenges. Key areas of focus include the links between oral health and systemic disease, antimicrobial resistance, next generation materials, head and neck cancer, cleft lip and palate, health services research methodology and developing trauma-informed care pathways.

Education research (ER)

Education research (ER) encompasses a range of pedagogical studies, including decolonising the dental curriculum, and approaches that exploit our educational platform to ensure that undergraduate dental students are engaged in clinical research and so graduate as research-informed, research-active dentists who continue this commitment into primary care.