Food, Oral Health and Social Interaction

The Food, Oral Health and Social Interaction project is a collaboration between researchers based at Warwick Dentistry and Sociology. We were initially funded by an Institute of Advanced Study Incubation Award to develop a multidisciplinary network for oral health research. The main focus was on food, feeding and oral health practices as social activities which carry meaning both in individuals’ lives and in their social interaction. The project ended in July 2011; however, our work carries on through the Diabetes Research Network Group in Oral Health and Diabetes which was launched in November 2011.

Click here for a project summary

The project comprised an initial scoping of the literature, two research workshops we will explore avenues of research and develop research questions at and one student workshop.

The Project Team:

Jeremy Dale (Professor of Primary Care; Head of Oral Health Research at Warwick Dentistry)

Liz Dowler (Professor of Food and Social Policy; Department of Sociology)

Antje Lindenmeyer (Senior Research Fellow in Oral Health; Warwick Dentistry)

Anne Harris (Public Health Nutritionist, Department of Sociology)

Network Members:

Vicky Bowyer (Research Fellow in Primary Care, Warwick Medical School)

Robert Ireland (Professor Emeritus, Module Leader at Warwick Dentistry)

Jane Kidd (Reader in Medical Education)

Rebecca Lang (Public Health Nutritionist, Warwick Medical School)

Edward Lynch (Head of Warwick Dentistry)

Jill Thistlethwaite (Professor of Clinical Education and Research)

Karen Throsby (Department of Sociology)

Workshop 1: Oral Health and Ethnicity (November 2010)

Professor Mark Johnson (De Montfort, Leicester): Ethnicity, Oral Health and Equity

Professor Emeritus Sonia Williams (University of Leeds): Diet and Oral Health - some cultural perspectives

Themes explored at this workshop were:

• Relationship between oral health, ethnicity and health inequality
• Complex interaction between food, culture and oral health (e.g. Food geographies and living environments; Generational change in immigrant families)
• Existing health promotion programmes that work (e.g. post weaning interventions; engaging school children as agents for change)

Workshop 2: Parenting, Deprivation & Oral Health (March 2011)

Professor Ruth Freeman (University of Dundee): Doing Best For Children: An Emerging Grounded Theory of Parents’ Policing To Regulate Between – Meal Snacking

Professor Richard Watt (University College London): Exploring the Social Determinants of Oral Health Inequalities

Themes explored at this workshop were:

• Tensions between oral health messages and other priorities in parents' lives
• Varying levels of success in healthy eating programmes aimed at children
• Challenges in developing realistic and meaningful outcomes in oral health promotion for children