Population Oral Health

Substantial progress has been made in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of oral diseases, yet a disproportionate and unacceptable disease burden still falls on certain populations more than on others. Oral health disparities and inequities continue among low-income populations and minority groups; rural, remote, and Indigenous communities; and those with disabilities and/or mobility challenges, including the frail elderly. The Population Oral Health research division focuses on oral epidemiology, Indigenous oral health research, health care services and policy research, clinical research, and dental education research.

Our professors conduct research using sophisticated conceptual frameworks that recognize a range of health determinants at multiple levels of influence (e.g., individual, family, community, health services) and develop and test intervention strategies to improve vulnerable populations鈥� oral health.

Mission

To nurture and facilitate learning in undergraduate and graduate students and provide them with a supportive academic environment.
To foster outstanding clinical and public health research that responds to the populations' needs, and promotes positive change in oral health, health care and access to care.
To serve the population through the development of health promoting projects, including novel approaches to health care delivery and knowledge translation.

Several core values and principles drive us, including:

Social justice and human rights;
Partnerships with health professions, communities, and society;
Scientific interdisciplinarity;
Excellence and leadership.

We prepare trainees to be聽high-level leaders who will聽make a difference in the fields of dental public health and oral health care. Using collaborative, interdisciplinary, and small-group learning environments, we provide students with advanced training in protocol development, research methodology, and data management to analyze complex oral health problems and to evaluate, design, and implement interventions to address these problems.

Research priorities

Oral Epidemiology

Oral epidemiology聽research focuses on the occurrence, distribution, and determinants of oral disease, including biological, psychological, social, cultural, and environmental factors and their complex interactions. We conduct innovative research that emphasizes the integration of substantive knowledge and cutting-edge epidemiologic methods. We teach and conduct research on the epidemiology of cancer (such as head and neck cancers, oral cancer, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, etc.) and more common chronic diseases, including dental caries and periodontal disease, and their potential links with systemic diseases (e.g., obesity, cardiovascular disease).

Indigenous Oral Health Research

Oral health research can help reduce health inequities that currently exist between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples in Canada. By working closely with Indigenous communities in urban, rural and remote settings,聽Indigenous oral health research聽works towards implementing effective and equitable oral health policy, in addition to facilitating dental care access and improving聽of oral health professionals聽competencies in northern or remote Indigenous communities ().

Health Care Services and Policy Research

The Health Care Services and Policy Research cluster promotes innovative research and knowledge translation initiatives to improve the way oral health care services are organized, regulated, managed, financed, paid for, used, and delivered, in the interest of improving all Canadians鈥� oral health and quality of life.

Clinical Research

Clinical research is focused on the quality, safety, and effectiveness of clinical interventions designed to improve the populations鈥� oral health and quality of life.

Dental Education Research

The Dental Education Research cluster promotes research oriented toward improving the quality of dental education, including curriculum design, interdisciplinary course implementation, teaching activities, mentoring, and student learning.

Knowledge translation goals

Generating knowledge about聽complex problems in dental public health;
Helping address these problems by developing聽recommendations, guidelines, and interventions;
Evaluating subsequent implementation with the ultimate goal of improving oral health outcomes and increasing health equity in Canada.

Tenured and Tenure-Track Researchers

A man with short hair and rectangular glasses smiling. He is wearing a dark jacket over a striped white and light blue shirt.

Paul Allison

Oral cancer
Quality of life
Psychosocial determinants of health
Clinical epidemiology

A man with wavy hair and large dark circular glasses. He is wearing a black top.

Christophe Bedos

Public health
Access to care
Sustainable dentistry
Social justice
Poverty
Qualitative research

A woman with neck-length brown hair smiling widely. She is wearing a dark jacket over a dark top., and is in front of a dark greay background

Elham Emami

Intervention: Prosthodontic treatment, Innovative intervention
Access : access to care for rural, remote and Indigenous communities
Impact: impact of oral health on general health

In black and white. A portrait of a man with hair. He is wearing a checkered shirt.

Richard Hovey

Qualitative research
Patient-centred care
Chronic illness
Medical education / communication

A woman with black shoulder-length hair smiling widely. She is wearing a dark jacket over a white top.

Pascaline Kengne Talla

Evaluation of health innovations
Digital solutions: theories, assessment, implementation
Behaviour change
Psychosocial and organisational theories
Knowledge mobilization

A man with a goatee smiling. He is wearing a dark jacket over a light blue shirt and navy blue floral-pattern tie.

Sreenath Madathil

Epidemiology
Data science
Machine learning
Bayesian statistics

A woman with long blonde hair smiling widely. She is wearing an orange scarf over a beige top.

Belinda Nicolau

Head and neck cancer
Life course epidemiology
Periodontal disease
Obesity

A woman with collarbone-length dark brown hair smiling widely. She is weaing a dark jacket.

Samira Rahimi

advanced digital health technologies
AI-enabled decision support tools in primary health care
prevention and management of diseases in vulnerable populations

A man with curly hair and browline glasses. He is wearing a blue checkered jacket over a light blue shirt.

Faleh Tamimi

Machine learning
Tissue pathologies
Biomaterials
Bone fractures
Osteoperosis
Oral cancer

A man with short black hair and thick-rimmed rectangular glasses faces the camera. He is wearing a patterned shirt with pockets on the chest.

Paul Wankah

Health services and policy research
Implementation science
Integrated primary health care
Equity in health and health care

Contract Academic Staff Researchers

A man smiling. He has thick-rimmed rectangular glasses and a beard, and is wearing a dark top.

Samer Abi-Nader

Prosthodontics
Implant Dentistry

A woman smiling widely. She has long wavy brown and blonde hair, earrings, and wears a brown silk buttoned shirt.

Julia Cohen-Levy

Clinical Orthodontics
Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome

A woman with brown hair tied in a pony tail smiling. She is wearing a dark jacket and a dark top with rhinestone details on the collar.

Beatriz Ferraz dos Santos

Children鈥檚 oral health
Public health
Vulnerable populations
Access to care

A woman with long brown hair smiling widely. She is wearing a black top.

Jessie Fuoco

Diagnostic challenges of intraoral salivary gland tumors

A woman with short black hair. She is wearing a dark collared shirt.

Amal Idrissi Janati

Oral health
Oral cancer
Periodontal disease
Dental rehabilitation
Clinical trials
Cancer epidemiology
Patient-centered research)

A man with short hair and transparent-framed glasses smiling widely. He is wearing a light blue and white checkered shirt.

Bassel Kano

Endodontics

A man with short hair dark circular glasses smiling widely. He is wearing a dark jacket over a white shirt , and has lapel pins in the shape of a circle and a flower.