Researching smiles in America

Head of Community Dental Health at United Dental Hospital (UDH), Dr Natalie Oprea, has been awarded a prestigious Churchill Fellowship to investigate the best approach to oral care for the most medically and socially disadvantaged.

Dr Oprea will travel to Canada and Iowa universities in the new year, visiting facilities that lead the world in dentistry for the disadvantaged.

In Australia, there is limited expertise in the provision of public health services for special care/special needs groups and Dr Oprea said she hopes to redevelop her department at UDH into the country's most modern facility.

"This fellowship will give me the opportunity to see the world's most advanced facilities and acquire knowledge to establish the best oral care facility for the disadvantaged, here at UDH," she said.

"The people we will be helping are mainly disabled and we also treat the homeless and elderly in nursing homes.

"With the implementation of innovative and evidence-based best practice, we will be able to attract a whole new generation of professionals to the field and therefore dramatically improve quality of care to patients with special needs," Dr Oprea said.

Natalie graduated with honours in 1981 from the Institute of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania and completed two postgraduate degrees. She worked as a clinical dentist before migrating to Australia in 1993 and has been working at UDH since 1996.

The Churchill Trust is an Australian trust established in 1965 to honour the memory of Sir Winston Churchill by granting travelling fellowships.

A Churchill Fellowship is the provision of financial support to ordinary Australians to undertake a period of study that cannot be readily undertaken in Australia.