Dr Amrit (Bhatti) Chauhan

Profile

I am a Psychologist by background, working as a Qualitative Researcher within the School of Dentistry, University of Leeds. I completed my BSc in Psychology and research PhD at the University of Huddersfield. My PhD research explored the experiences and perceptions of adolescent alopecia using qualitative online methods. This followed a broadly interpretive phenomenological approach, using thematic analysis to organise the data and convey the lived experiences of participants. Throughout my undergraduate and postgraduate degree, I worked as an Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) tutor, providing 1:1 support for verbal and non-verbal autistic children in their homes and schools. With over six years of experience, I continue to support families and autism charities on a voluntary basis. 

I am currently a project manager for a research project called toothPASTE, which aims to reduce the prevalence of tooth decay for autistic children by empowering families to establish good oral health habits for their children. As well as this, I support several research projects with health professionals and early-years professionals to develop and evaluate complex oral health interventions that help improve the oral health of young children. I also teach and supervise postgraduate students within the School of Dentistry and provide training around having behaviour change conversations with parents of young children to a wide range of early years professionals, including health visitors and dental team members. 

I am also proud to be a member of the Athena SWAN and its commitment to gender equality, as well as Aurora. 

Research interests

My research interests are qualitative research, autism, patient and public involvement in research, complex oral health intervention development and evaluation, and behaviour change in dentistry. I am currently supporting several research projects to help improve the oral health of young children. These include: 

• toothPASTE- a co-designed oral health intervention to support families in undertaking optimal oral health behaviours for their young autistic children. This is a NIHR-funded study. 
• HABIT - an oral health intervention to support health visitors to have effective oral health conversations at their universal child development contacts with parents of young children. This is an MRC and Better Start Bradford-funded study. 
• "Strong Teeth" - an oral health intervention to support dental teams in having effective behaviour change conversations with parents of young children. This is a Procter & Gamble (P&G) Company (Oral B) funded study. 
• Health Education England (Starting Well)- Providing training and resources for dental teams to help support behaviour change and how to have effective behaviour change conversations with parents of young children. This is an HEE-funded study. 

Qualifications

• PhD Research
• BSc (Hons) Psychology

Professional memberships

• The British Psychological Society

Student education

I teach Social Sciences Related to Dentistry and MClinDent complex case management. 

<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>We welcome enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>