Infant oral health and food choices: supporting parents making right choices

About the Project

This PhD will investigate how early-life food choices and oral hygiene behaviours shape infant oral health, and design actionable strategies to reduce preventable dental disease in early childhood.

Despite advancements in tackling dental disease, pockets of high disease prevalence remain especially in areas of high deprivation and high need. There is substantial variability in child oral health according to where they live. For example, in areas in the Northwest of England, 4 out of 10 children have cavities (holes) in their teeth. In areas in the South, only 2 out of 10 children have issues with their teeth. Problems with teeth can cause pain, sleepless nights, and absences from school. In the UK, if children have a lot of teeth which have dental decay, they may have teeth removed in hospital under general anaesthetic with over 7,000 children admitted to hospital costing the NHS over £80m a year. To prevent these problems, good oral health routines including optimal dietary habits, low in sugar intake are important.

The proposed doctoral work integrates dental public health, behavioural science and implementation research to answer three questions:

(a) what multilevel factors drive dietary and oral hygiene practices in families with infants from 6+ months old;

(b) how do family, community and system barriers vary by socioeconomic position, cultural background and geography; and

(c) which low-burden interventions are most feasible, acceptable and scalable within routine maternal–child and primary dental care.

Expected outputs include validated, scalable prevention tools; implementation blueprints for embedding them into routine contacts from families with young children; and high-impact publications and policy briefs addressing upstream and downstream drivers of infant oral health. By centring caregivers’ lived realities and the contexts in which choices are made, this programme aims to close persistent gaps in early childhood oral health and provide a model for binational, equity-focused prevention science.

Eligibility

Applicants must have obtained or be about to obtain a minimum Upper Second class UK honours degree, or the equivalent qualifications gained outside the UK, in a relevant discipline.

Before you Apply

Applicants mustmake direct contact with preferred supervisors before applying. It is your responsibility to make arrangements to meet with potential supervisors, prior to submitting a formal online application.

How to Apply

To be considered for this project you MUST submit a formal online application form – on the application form select PhD Dental Health Sciences Programme. Full details on how to apply can be found on the Website: How to apply for postgraduate research at The University of Manchester

If you have any queries regarding making an application please contact our admissions team FBMH.doctoralacademy.admissions@manchester.ac.uk

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Equality, diversity and inclusion is fundamental to the success of The University of Manchester, and is at the heart of all of our activities. The full Equality, diversity and inclusion statement can be found on the website: Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI | Postgraduate Research | Biology, Medicine and Health | University of Manchester

Funding Notes

Applications are invited from self-funded students. This project has a Band 1 (low) fee. Details of our different fee bands can be found on our website View Website