I am a dentist and clinical fellow in the North East of England. I have experience and also an interest in treating patients who have extra needs. Because of this interest and experience, I wanted to carry out a project that would involve patient groups that are often overlooked.

I carried out a Patient and Public Engagement project in Summer this year, as I was awarded funding by Newcastle University’s Faculty of Medical Sciences (Tilly-Hale). As part of this I wanted to find out how best to engage people with substance dependency, as they are often a hard to reach cohort.

I visited a substance dependency recovery service in Newcastle (CGL) and talked to service users to develop a research question around getting people with substance dependency engaged in their oral health. I produced a film with a Newcastle University film student using the thoughts and feelings of service users. This film can be viewed below. Our aims are to develop the relationship between Newcastle Dental Hospital and CGL.

[https://vimeo.com/394017957]