The Shirley Glasstone Hughes (SGH) Trust Fund has launched its annual competition for primary care dental practitioners to win up to £200,000 of funding for research.
The Fund is this year seeking applications for research projects that investigate the environmental impact of plastics in restorative dental materials.
Bids for the funding must come from teams led by a primary care dentist. Applicants have until Monday 29 April to submit their research proposals. Applications will be assessed by a panel of experts, with the winning bid expected to be announced in September.
In recent years, funding has been won by London GDP Russ Ladwa to research the effect of social deprivation on oral health, Sutton Coldfield GDP Peter Thornley to examine different lining strategies on amalgam restorations and Helen Chapman a GDP based in Solihull researching dentists’ emotions and clinical decision making.
At the same time the Fund has launched brand new web pages at: www.bda.org/curiousabout.
Dentists are invited to post questions and comments on four topics that have already been raised – patients’ attitudes to the phasing out of dental amalgam, occupational risks associated with clinical dentistry, the effects of cognitive behavioural therapy on phobic or fearful patients, and the relationship between dental and systemic disease – and contribute further suggestions of areas for investigation. Evidence summaries will be produced in response to suggestions, and areas for which an evidence base is lacking will be considered for the research grant competition in 2014.
Professor Elizabeth Kay, chair of the SGH Management Committee, said:
‘We are committed to supporting research in primary dental care. We believe that dentists being involved in, and aware of, research evidence creates a questioning culture that drives up standards and benefits oral health. I encourage all primary care dentists to join the debate at Curious About.’
