Rate My Professor Peter Day

Professor Peter Day is Professor of Children’s Oral Health and Consultant in Paediatric Dentistry at the University of Leeds School of Dentistry within the Faculty of Medicine and Health. He qualified with a BDS from the University of Bristol in 1997, followed by two years in general practice and hospital dentistry in Newcastle upon Tyne, and one year in oral and maxillofacial surgery in Bolton. In 2000, he commenced specialist and academic training in Paediatric Dentistry in Leeds, completing a part-time PhD focused on dental trauma between 2004 and 2009, along with an M Dent Sci, PGCLTHE, and qualifications including FDS (Paeds) RCS (Eng), M Paed Dent RCS (Eng), MFDS RCS (Eng), and FRCD (Canada). He undertook a six-month sabbatical at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne in 2009. Appointed as Lecturer and Consultant in a joint academic-clinical role with the University of Leeds and Bradford Community Dental Service in 2010, he advanced to Associate Professor in 2012 and Professor of Children’s Oral Health in 2020. Day holds leadership positions as shared Head of Department, Training Programme Director for Dental Academics in Yorkshire and Humber (NHS England), School Director for Dental Academics (University of Leeds), and NIHR CRN co-lead for the oral and dental specialty in Yorkshire and Humber since 2016.

His research specializations encompass children’s oral health, paediatric dentistry, dental traumatology, tooth auto-transplantation, lifecourse epidemiology and data linkage, and the design and evaluation of complex oral health interventions. Notable projects include BRUSH (supervised toothbrushing programmes), toothPASTE (empowering families with autistic children), HABIT (supporting health visiting teams), BRIGHT (behaviour change to prevent dental caries), Strong Teeth (supporting dental teams), CALM (guided self-help for dental anxiety), CHOICE (preventing tooth decay recurrence), and Bradford birth cohorts oral health studies. Key publications feature a Cochrane review on paediatric dental trauma, international guidelines for dental traumatology (2020), chapters in 'Textbook and Color Atlas of Traumatic Injuries to Teeth' (2019) and multiple editions of 'Paediatric Dentistry', and recent outputs on BRUSH, BRIGHT, HABIT, and the 'Child of the North - Child Oral Health' report (2024). His work informs global guidelines, and he has supervised four PhDs, eight professional doctorates, and 14 Master’s students to completion, supporting numerous NIHR fellowships. Awards include research prizes at international conferences in 2008 and 2009. Day delivers keynote lectures worldwide, served as Director (2011-2015) and Research Committee Chair (2014-2018) of the International Association of Dental Traumatology, and sits on the editorial board of Dental Traumatology since 2009.