Professor Peter Day

Profile

Background

I qualified from the University of Bristol in 1997. I then spent two years in general practice and hospital dentistry in Newcastle, and a further year in Bolton in oral and maxillofacial surgery. In 2000, I started specialist and academic training in Leeds and undertook a PhD in the field of dental trauma. In 2009, I spent a six-month sabbatical working at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne. In 2010, I was appointed to a joint academic position with the University of Leeds and Bradford Community Dental Service as a Lecturer and Consultant in paediatric dentistry. In 2012, I was promoted to Associate Professor, and in 2020, to Professor of Children’s Oral Health.

Clinical Care

In Bradford, my clinical time is spent providing dental care for children with a wide range of complex dental, medical, physical, social, or learning needs. In Leeds, I focus on caring for children with complex traumatic dental injuries and their sequelae. This includes leading paediatric dentistry input at our interdisciplinary clinic for children with failing front teeth and overseeing the premolar transplantation pathway.

Academic Capacity Building

In 2015, I was appointed as Training Programme Director for dental academics in Yorkshire and the Humber and School Director of Dental Academic Training in Leeds. In this role, I have developed close alliances with the Medical Integrated Academic Training pathway in Leeds and the NIHR Academy. With the support of the undergraduate and postgraduate Dental Deans, I have championed intercalation and the INSPIRE programme for our dental undergraduates; developed academic opportunities and training posts following qualification; and I lead the recruitment and academic monitoring of our Academic Clinical Fellows and Clinical Lecturers in Yorkshire and the Humber. In Yorkshire, we have supported multiple NIHR personal fellowships, including ten Doctoral Research Fellowships (five at the University of Leeds and five at the University of Sheffield), two In-Practice Fellowships (both at the University of Sheffield), and three Pre-doctoral Clinical Academic Fellowships (all at the University of Leeds and held by dental therapists).

I am passionate about developing research capacity, supporting junior academics, and increasing the quality of the research undertaken. In 2016, I was appointed as NIHR CRN co-lead for the oral and dental specialty for Yorkshire and the Humber. This role allows me to support high-quality research, increase the number of studies adopted to the portfolio, and grow research capacity within the region.

PhD

My PhD was in the field of paediatric dental trauma and was completed within five years on a part-time basis (2004-2009). I led a multi-centre Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) involving a medicinal product requiring full MHRA and other regulatory approvals. Three papers have been published from my PhD, including a Cochrane review. I won two research prizes at international conferences (International Association of Dental Traumatology conference in Nagoya, Japan, 2008, and International Association of Paediatric Dentistry conference in Munich, Germany, 2009). The findings from my PhD have been cited in international and national guidelines and informed the advice they give.

Indirect Outputs

• Editorial Board – Following my PhD, I was asked to join the editorial board of Dental Traumatology (2009-present). This is the leading journal in the field of dental trauma.

• Leadership roles for national and international trauma organisations – I served as a director of the International Association of Dental Traumatology (2011-2015) and sat on the board of trustees for a dental charity, Dental Trauma UK (2014-2018). I was part of the scientific committee for the IADT conferences in Brisbane (2016) and San Diego (2018).

• Research leadership for International Association of Dental Traumatology – I was chair of the Research Committee (2014-2018). In this capacity, I led, with Dr Kenny, and published the development of a core outcome set for dental traumatology (Kenny & Day, 2017). I have supported Dr Kenny in her successful application for research funding from the Royal College of Surgeons and the National Institute for Health and Care Research. Her project has taken forward the core outcome set and developed a minimal dataset for use in routine NHS practice (Kenny, 2023).

• Guideline development – I have co-authored multiple guidelines focused on the treatment of different traumatic dental injuries. These include the latest International Association of Dental Traumatology guidelines (Day, 2020; Bourguignon, 2020; Fouad, 2020; and Levin, 2020) and the BSPD national guidance during the Covid pandemic. The guidelines are widely used around the world and are highly cited.

• Educational websites – I was part of the peer review team for dentaltraumaguide.org website. It supports clinicians with diagnostic and treatment decisions and receives over 1,000 hits per day.

• Book authorship – I am a co-author of a chapter in the 5th edition of the Textbook and Color Atlas of Traumatic Injuries to Teeth (Andreasen, 2019).

• Presentations – I have lectured extensively in the field of dental traumatology, including invited keynote lectures at international, national, and regional conferences. These opportunities have allowed me to disseminate our research findings and clinical experiences.

Responsibilities

• Head of Department (shared with Professor Richard Balmer)
• Training Programme Director for Dental Academics in Yorkshire & Humber (NHS England)
• School Director for Dental Academics (University of Leeds)

Research interests

I co-authored (with Professor Marshman) the Child of the North - Child Oral Health report published in September 2024. This describes the oral health of children living in the north of England and provides evidence-based solutions. (https://www.n8research.org.uk/media/CotN_Oral-Health_Report_8.pdf)

Key recommendations for the new government included:

• Implementation of a National Child Oral Health Strategy: A comprehensive approach to improve dental health across the country.

• Expansion of the Soft Drink Industry Levy: Extending the levy to cover all sugar-sweetened beverages to reduce sugar consumption.

• Introduction of a National Supervised Toothbrushing Programme: Targeting nurseries and primary schools in the most deprived areas, aimed at children aged 3-6 years.

• Improving Access to NHS Dentistry: Ensuring that children, especially those in underserved areas, have better access to dental care services.

I provide leadership in children’s oral health as part of several research collaborations. These include CHORAL (Child Health Outcomes Research at Leeds), CAER (Centre for Applied Education Research), Bradford Institute for Health Research, and Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust.

My current research is focused on the (i) design, evaluation, and implementation of complex primary prevention interventions to improve children’s oral health; and (ii) lifecourse epidemiology and data linkage. Projects include:

• Implementation of supervised toothbrushing programmes: The project is called BRUSH and is funded by NIHR ARC Child Health and Maternity Priority programme. Please visit www.supervisedtoothbrushing.com for our implementation toolkit or our research papers (Gray-Burrows 2023 & 2024, Broomhead 2024).

• Empowering families with autistic children to adopt optimal oral health behaviours: The project is called toothPASTE and is funded by NIHR RfPB. Please visit https://linktr.ee/toothpastestudy for further information or our research paper (Chauhan 2024). With funding from West Yorkshire ICB, we are building the toothPASTE website and content, with a beta version ready in October 2024.

• Supporting health visiting teams to have effective oral health conversations with parents of young children: The project is called HABIT with funding from MRC, Better Start Bradford, and West Yorkshire ICB. Please visit www.toothbrushinghabit.com for our parent and professional-facing website or our research papers (Eskyte 2018 & 2021, Bhatti 2022, Giles 2022, Owen 2022, Chauhan 2024).

• Behaviour change intervention (education and text messaging) to prevent dental caries in secondary school pupils: Led by Professors Innes and Marshman, the project is called BRIGHT and was funded by NIHR HTA. Please visit https://pshe-association.org.uk/resource/bright-dental-health for detailed lesson packs or our research papers (Marshman 2021, 2023, 2024, Innes 2024, Ainsworth 2023, Elyousfi 2022).

• Supporting dental teams to have effective behaviour change conversations with parents of young children: The project is called Strong Teeth, was based in primary care dental practices and funded by Oral-B. Please visit https://www.oralbprofessional.co.uk/s/childrens-dental-health-of-educate-my  or our research papers (Tull 2019, Bhatti 2020 & 2021, Giles 2021). The Strong Teeth resource packs have been distributed to over 50,000 dental practices across the UK and Europe.

• A guided self-help cognitive behaviour therapy intervention to reduce dental anxiety in children: Led by Professor Marshman, the project is called CALM, is based in primary care dental practices and is funded by NIHR. Further information is available at https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/dentalschool/research/calm or our research paper (Marshman 2023).

• Supporting families to prevent the recurrence of tooth decay in children: Led by Professor Adair and Dr Burnside, the project is called CHOICE, is based in primary care dental practices and is funded by NIHR. Further information is available at https://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/psy/Research/OurResearchGroups/HealthandWelfare/CHOICETrial/.

• Bradford birth cohorts (including Born in Bradford, Born in Bradford Better Start, and Born and Bred in): I lead on oral health projects and the integration of dental data within the Bradford birth cohorts. This includes funding from NHS England Yorkshire and Humber Secure Data Environment. Through this funding, we aim to add further dental datasets to the Bradford Birth Cohorts, Connected Bradford, and the Born and Bred network. Examples of our work include linking dental data to wider health and education records within the Born in Bradford cohort (Giles 2024, Uerlich 2021, Day 2018).

• Exploring the impact of premature extractions of primary teeth on future orthodontic treatment need: The study is called Bradford Smile Study, is embedded within the Born in Bradford birth cohort, and was funded by the British Society of Orthodontics. Further information is available at https://linktr.ee/platoonstudy or our research paper (Brown 2019).

Dental Traumatology and Premolar Transplantation

I have supervised several research degrees. These have focused on minimum datasets for dental trauma and their implementation (Kenny 2023, 2024), gumshields (Alqarni), and parents’ and children’s experiences and outcomes of tooth transplantation (Barber 2023, Albalooshy 2023). My earlier research is described in the academic background and publication sections.

Paediatric Dentistry

I have supported research across paediatric dentistry including molar incisor hypomineralisation, pulp biology, child protection, amelogenesis imperfecta, and dental care under local anaesthetic, sedation, and general anaesthetic.

Qualifications

• PhD, BDS
• FDS (Paeds) RCS (Eng), M Paed Dent RCS (Eng), MFDS RCS (Eng)
• FRCD (Canada)
• M Dent Sci, PGCLTHE,
• FIADT, FHEA

Professional memberships

• BDA (British Dental Association)
• IADT (International Association of Dental Traumatology)
• EAPD (European Association of Paediatric Dentistry)
• BSPD (British Association of Paediatric Dentistry)
• Royal College of Surgeons of England
• Royal College of Dentists of Canada
• FHEA (Fellow of the Higher Education Academy)
• DTUK (Trustee and Member of Dental Trauma UK)

Student education

I contribute to the teaching and overall delivery of paediatric dentistry modules for undergraduate and postgraduate students. I have acted as an external examiner for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and have examined at specialist level for the Royal College of Surgeons.

I have supervised to completion 4 PhD, 8 Professional Doctorates, and 14 Master’s students. To date, 15 students have gone on to publish their research projects in peer-reviewed journals. I am currently supervising 3 PhDs and 6 Professional Doctorates. I have supported 12 students to win undergraduate and postgraduate research prizes at national and international conferences.

I have co-authored a book, Clinical Problems in Orthodontics and Paediatric Dentistry (“Millet and Day,” 3rd edition), as well as co-written chapters in Paediatric Dentistry (“Welbury, Hosey, and Duggal,” 3rd, 4th, and 5th editions) and the Textbook and Color Atlas of Traumatic Injuries to Teeth (“Andreasen, Andreasen, and Andersson,” 5th edition). I have co-authored four national e-learning packages for junior doctors and dentists.

Research groups and institutes

• Clinical and Population Science
• Translational and clinical research