Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to bring forward a strategy for dental health research.

The Department invests over £1.6 billion each year on research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

Whilst there are currently no plans to develop a dental health research strategy, the NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including dental research. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.

The Department, through the NIHR, funds clinical academic training for doctors and dentists through the Integrated Academic Training Programme. This includes Academic Clinical Fellowships (ACFs) at the pre-doctoral level and Clinical Lectureships (CLs) at the post-doctoral level. Over the last five years, 91 ACFs and 24 CLs were recruited in dentistry.

The Department also funds the NIHR Oral Health Research Incubator, which is a researcher-led initiative aimed at building dental research capacity at the national level.

Ongoing research at Newcastle University is investigating the roles and skill utilisation of professionals in dental practice.

In addition, investments in NIHR infrastructure support the country’s leading experts to develop and deliver high-quality translational, clinical, and applied research that is funded by the NIHR’s research programmes, other public funders of research, charities, and the life sciences industry. For example, through the NIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre’s Oral and Dental Medicine research theme.