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Staff Profile

Dr Susan Bissett

Lecturer/Honorary Clinical Lecturer

  • Email: s.m.bissett@ncl.ac.uk
  • Address: School of Dental Sciences, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, Framlington Place, Newcastle upon Tyne. NE2 4BW.
Background

Roles and responsibilities

Lecturer/Honorary Clinical Lecturer

Deputy Director of BSc (Hons) Dental Therapy

Director of Stages 1-3 BSc (Hons) Dental Therapy

BSc Stage 1 Chair of Board of Examiners

NIHR NENC Oral & Dental Speciality Group Lead

Newcastle BRC PPIE Lead for Oral & Dental

Associate Editor for International Journal of Dental Hygiene

Editorial board member for Dental Health (journal of BSDHT)

Trustee of Oral & Dental Research Trust


 

Qualifications

FHEA 2024

Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2019

Masters in Clinical Research 2012

Advanced Diploma in Further Education and Training 2004

Diploma in Dental Hygiene 1994

Research

Research Interest

I am interested in the development and implementation of innovative and targeted interventions to improve oral and dental health and reduce health inequalities.

My research has involved me working in the context of diabetes and periodontitis; periodontitis and atrial fibrillation; head and neck cancer screening in community pharmacy services; developing knowledge of robust biomarkers to evaluate the safety of oral hygiene products; and improving access to NHS dental Health Services for adults with learning disabilities.

As an independent researcher I have been awarded research funding totalling £976,010 that includes two pump-priming awards from Oral & Dental Research Trust; two personal awards from NIHR; an award from NIHR North East North Cumbria Applied Research Collaboration (Prevention, Early Intervention & Behaviour Change theme), and the current NIHR Health & Care Services Delivery Research grant called SCOPE https//blogs.ncl.ac.uk/scope/

I have experience of working on over 30 oral and dental clinical trials.

I have presented in the UK and internationally.

I am also interested in:

  1. Developing the roles of dental care professionals.
  2. Inter-professional communication between medical and dental teams.



Teaching

I am interested in the continued development of the BSc (Hons) in Dental Therapy Programme, which started in 2015 with an initial cohort of 8.

We now have 20 places and I am particularly interested in embedding a culture of team working, to improve health outcomes of patients and integrate collaborative practice within our dental surgeon and dental therapy undergraduates.

I am also interested in training our future dental therapists and dentists to be able to adapt their practice to make dentistry accessible for everyone. I have co-produced an educational intervention to raise awareness of barriers to care and improve undergraduate self-efficacy with regard to communicating with adults with learning disabilities in an NHS setting. The idea for this project came from a review of special care dentistry that was commissioned as part of the NHS Five Year Forward View that included Special Care Dentistry; and the General Dental Council recommended that undergraduates should be better prepared to manage special needs patients in their 2020 Preparedness to Practice executive summary. Further more, research conducted in 2019 with our final year dental students showed varying levels of preparedness and self-efficacy in meeting the needs of patients with disabilities. The project has been produced in collaboration with a local charity called The Lawnmowers, ran for and by adults with learning disabilities. The education involves a film and interactive workshop, using a concept called forum theatre. The project was piloted last year and evaluation data was very positive: “…this (workshop) is really important”; “…I know what I can do now to improve someone’s quality of life”; “…before the workshop I assumed I would need to refer a patient with a learning disability, but now I have more confidence to manage their care”; “…this workshop should be mandatory as it makes you reflect on the responsibility you have and how you can really help people”. It has now been incorporated into the curriculum in our Human Diseases course and will be delivered to our undergraduates in the second term of the first year of their clinical practice.

Publications