Congratulations to Fourth Year Dental Science Students Sara Atherley and Holly Geary, who won the prestigious O’Mullane Award at the Irish Society of Dentistry for Children (ISDC) Annual Scientific Meeting, in Portlaoise, Co. Laois.
Their project, which was supervised by DDUH Dr Darshini Ramasubbu, and can be viewed on the link below, explored the development of an e-module for Irish Public Health Nurses (PHNs) to support oral health guidance for children aged 0–6 years.
PHNs are uniquely positioned to provide preventive oral health advice during routine developmental checks, offering an opportunity to strengthen interprofessional collaboration within primary care and align with the objectives of Smile agus Sláinte.
Throughout the project, PHNs highlighted common parental concerns during feedback sessions, including the timing of a child’s first dental visit, management of dental injuries, and appropriate toothbrushing practices. Discussions also revealed variation in PHNs’ previous exposure to oral health education, emphasising the need for an accessible, nationally standardised training resource.
These findings, along with consultations with a professional dental advisory group, guided the refinement of the final e-module, which was later presented to the National Oral Health Office (NOHO) and trialed within a postgraduate PHN degree programme at University College Cork.
Sara and Holly would like to thank Dr Ramasubbu for her support, as well as the PHNs, advisory group members and collaborators, DDUH Dr Maria Van Harten and the wider project team including: Ali Shabazi, Abrar Abdul, Aoibhinn Walsh, Aoife Winters O'Donnell, Angelina Si Qi Tan and Xiaoying Li.
The link to the project can be found here: https://qr.scan.page/uploads/pdf/9CcwB3_d8f5be3dcf6997aa.pdf
(Pictured, left to right: Holly Geary, Sara Atherley and Dr Paul Leavy: ISDC President 2025–2026)
