Dr Peter Day

Profile

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 appointment 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.

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 disabilities. In Leeds, I focus on caring for children with complex traumatic dental injuries and their sequalae. This includes providing the lead for paediatric dentistry at our interdisciplinary clinic for children with failing front teeth and overseeing the premolar transplantation pathway.

Research leadership and capacity building

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 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.

In 2015, I was appointed as Training Programme Director for dental academics in Yorkshire and 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 NIHR Academy. I sit on the NIHR Dental Working Group. With 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, HEE currently support several NIHR personal fellowships, including four Doctoral Research Fellowships (2x University of Leeds and 2x University of Sheffield), one In Practice Fellowship (1x University of Sheffield) and one Pre-doctoral Clinical Academic Fellowship (1x University of Leeds held by a dental hygiene therapist).

PhD

My PhD was in the field of paediatric dental trauma and was completed within five years on a part time basis (2004-9). 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 have served as a director of the International Association of Dental Traumatology (2011-2015) and sit on the board of trustees for a dental charity, Dental Trauma UK (2014-present). I have sat on the scientific committee for the last two IADT conferences in Brisbane (2016) and San Diego (2018).

* Research leadership for International Association of Dental Traumatology – I am chair of the Research Committee (2014-8). In this capacity, I have led and published the development of a core outcome set for dental traumatology (KENNY & DAY 2017). I have supported Kate Kenny in her successful application for research funding from the Royal College of Surgeons. Her project will take forward the core outcome set and develop a minimal dataset for use in routine NHS practice.

* Guideline development - I have led one guideline and co-authored three others which focus on the treatment of different traumatic dental injuries. These include: the International Association of Dental Traumatology (ANDERSSON 2012, MALMGREN 2012), the European Academy of Paediatric Dentistry (DUGGAL 2017) and the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry (DAY 2012). The Andersson guideline has been cited over 400 times.

* International collaborations - I have developed international collaborations with research groups from Australia (Professor Parashos) and Brazil (Professor Feldens) and published our findings from these research projects (DANG 2015, FELDENS 2016).

* Educational websites - I collaborated with the development and peer review of the www.dentaltraumaguide.org website. It supports clinicians with diagnostic and treatment decisions and receives over 1000 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 (in press - 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

• Training Programme Director for Dental Academics in Yorkshire & Humber (Health Education England)
• School Director for Dental Academics (University of Leeds)
• Joint Speciality Lead for Oral and Dental research portfolio (NIHR Clinical Research Network, Y&H

Research interests

Paediatric Dentistry;

I have supported research in a number of different fields in paediatric dentistry including molar incisor hypomineralisation, pulp biology, child protection, amelogenesis imperfecta and dental care under local anaesthetic, sedation and general anaesthetic. While I continue to support a few projects in these areas my research is focused under three themes.

Dental Traumatology and premolar transplantation;

I am part of the expert group updating the IADT guidelines. I am supervising several research degrees focused on the core outcome sets, gumshields, and parents and child experiences of tooth transplantation. My earlier research is described in the academic background and publication sections.

Design and evaluation of complex oral health interventions and behaviour change;

I lead an interdisciplinary team undertaking a programme of oral health projects embedded within the Yorkshire and Humber NIHR CLAHRC. Working with qualitative researchers, psychologists and public health dentists, we have developed a generic Parental Supervised toothbrushing (PSB) intervention following complex intervention methodology (GRAY-BURROWS 2016).

Complex intervention projects and funding:

[1] I am principal investigator on HABIT, a MRC PHIND funded study, which is a co-designed oral health intervention delivered by Health Visitors. We are currently undertaking an early phase study to assess acceptability, feasibility, how the intervention works and develop robust measures of PSB. The protocol paper is published (ESKYTE 2018).

[2] I am principal investigator on "Strong Teeth", an Oral-B funded study. The project is a co-designed complex oral health intervention, which is delivered by dental teams to parents of young children. We are currently undertaking an early phase study to assess acceptability, feasibility and to explore how the intervention works.

[3] I am a co-applicant on BRIGHT, a NIHR HTA funded study. This project is evaluating the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of a complex intervention delivered by text messages to adolescent children to brush their teeth and thereby reduce dental caries. I am clinical lead and with Professor Pavitt co-ordinate school-based recruitment and dental data collection in West Yorkshire .

[4] I am co-principal investigator on a HEE funded grant, which aims to develop and evaluate an e-learning module and small group training package that supports dental teams to have effective behaviour change conversations with parents of young children.

[5] We have received several small grants, which have supported:

    (i) A review of oral health materials aimed at parents of young children (Leeds City Council). Our findings have been published (GRAY-BURROWS 2017).

    (ii) Co-design and early phase evaluation of oral health resources for nursery staff (Sue Overton Allied Productions) and group facilitators (Healthy Eating and Nutrition for the Really Young) to support oral health activities with parents of young children.

[6] Our team supports two dental therapists who have received funding (NIHR and Oral Dental Research Trust) to develop and evaluate different complex oral health interventions.

*Academic recognition: I have been invited to speak about our complex intervention work at national and international conferences (British Society of Paediatric Dentistry annual conference 2016 and 2018, National Oral Health Promotion Group 2017, European Academy of Paediatric Dentistry 2018 and Australian and New Zealand Society of Paediatric Dentistry 2019). I have presented our research at the national PHE Child Oral Health Improvement Programme Board and the national meeting of Local Dental Network chairs. I am a member of the programme management board of Better Start Bradford.

*PHE funded projects: I worked with York Health Economic Consortium as a Co-Applicant to develop the PHE Return on Investment Tool for Local Authorities. This is a national PHE tool and recommended for use by all Local Authorities. It provides salient information when considering which preventive oral health programmes to invest in. (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/improving-the-oralhealth-of-children-cost-effective-commissioning)

Lifecourse epidemiology and data linkage

Over the last four years, we have secured funding to work with two birth cohorts:

(i) In Southampton, I am the principal investigator on a British Society of Paediatric Dentistry funded project. The project examines the lifecourse determinant of Molar Incisor Hypomineralisation in a cohort of 10-year-old children participating in the Southampton Women’s Survey. Our collaboration has already led to a publication (NTANI 2015).

(ii) In Bradford, we have secured funding for several dental data linkage projects (Wellcome Trust ISSF; 2x Oral and Dental Research Trust funding). To date the projects have linked routine dental data, from the Dental Epidemiology Survey and dental general anaesthetic data held by the Community Dental Service, with the Born in Bradford birth cohort. This collaborative work has led to one publication (DAY 2018).

(iii) I am the principal investigator on a British Orthodontic Society Foundation grant. The project will work with the Born in Bradford cohort and explore the impact of premature loss of primary teeth on future orthodontic need.

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 lead the paediatric dentistry modules for the hygiene and therapy students, as well as contributing to both undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. I am an external examiner for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and was involved in the development of the new curriculum for specialist training in paediatric dentistry. I examine at specialist level for the Royal College of Surgeons. 

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, Andersson" 5th edition). I have co-authored four national e-learning packages for junior doctors and dentists. 

I have supervised to completion 12 Master’s and 5 Professional Doctorate students. To date, 10 students have gone on to publish their research projects in peer-reviewed journals. I am currently supervising 3x PhDs (Kenny, Albalooshy, Mudawi), 2x Professional Doctorates (Alshahrani, Alqarni) and 1x MRes (O’Donnell). I have supported 14 students to win undergraduate and postgraduate research prizes at national and international conferences.

Research groups and institutes

• Clinical and Population Science
• Translational and clinical research