Professor Zoe Marshman

BDS, MPH, DDPH, FDS (DPH), PhD

School of Clinical Dentistry

Professor in Dental Public Health

Honorary Consultant in Dental Public Health

Photo of Zoe Zoe Marshman, Professor in Dental Public Health
Profile picture of Photo of Zoe Zoe Marshman, Professor in Dental Public Health
z.marshman@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 215 9398

Full contact details

Professor Zoe Marshman
School of Clinical Dentistry
19 Claremont Crescent
Sheffield
S10 2TA
Profile

I joined the University of Sheffield in 2002 as a Clinical Lecturer and Honorary Specialist Registrar in Dental Public Health. Since then I have completed specialist training and was awarded a PhD in 2008. I am currently a Professor and Honorary Consultant in Dental Public Health.

Research interests

My main interest is child-centred dental research to improve the oral health and treatment experiences of children and their families. I have led, published and presented internationally and nationally many child-centred research projects and have become recognised as an advocate for involving children in high quality oral health research, using innovative participatory methods. I lead the Transforming Oral Health theme of the School of Clinical Dentistry and the joint University/NHS CREATE research theme.

My current projects include:

Self-help Cognitive Behavioural Therapy resource for young people with dental anxiety

I am the principal investigator on a project to develop and evaluate a self-help Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) resource for young people with dental anxiety. This project involved collaboration with Kings College London, University of Reading and University of Glasgow. This project resulted in the first self-help CBT resource for young people with dental anxiety and accompanying resources for parents and dental teams.

The CALM trial

Since then, further funding has been obtained from the NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme for the CALM trial to investigate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of the self-help CBT resource to reduce dental anxiety in children seen in primary dental care.

CALM is being conducted in collaboration with universities in Cardiff, Leeds, Newcastle, London & York with help from children, parents, dental professionals and patient representatives. Around 600 children with dental anxiety with a parent/carer will be recruited from 30 dental practices across England and Wales.

BRIGHT Trial: Brushing RemInder 4 Good oral Health

I am co-PI on the BRIGHT Trial (Brushing RemInder 4 Good oral HealTh), funded by the NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme. BRIGHT is a multi-centre UK-wide trial evaluating the clinical and cost-effectiveness of a Short Messaging Service behaviour change programme to improve the oral health of young people living in deprived areas.

BRUSH: Optimising toothbrushing programmes in nurseries and schools

This project is investigating the implementation of supervised toothbrushing programmes in nursery and school settings and how to increase their uptake and success in the longer term.  The project will lead to the co-production of a toolkit to optimise their implementation across England.

Learn more about BRUSH

Other projects

PIP: Pulpotomy for the management of Irreversible Pulpitis in mature teeth

SCRIPT: Selective Caries Removal In Posterior Teeth

Public health research projects: Public Health Practice Evaluation Scheme - First Dental Steps

Collaborative networks

Yorkshire and Humber Applied Research Collaboration

Internationally-funded research projects

Norwegian Research Council. #Care4YoungTeeth, 2022 - present

Publications

Journal articles

Conference proceedings papers

Reports

  • Marshman Z (2023) A behaviour change intervention (lesson and text messages) to prevent dental caries in secondary school pupils: the BRIGHT RCT RIS download Bibtex download

Preprints

Research group

Research associates

  • Dr Jennifer Kettle
  • Dr Sarab El Yousfi
  • Dr Tom Broomhead

PhD student

  • Sultan Attamimi: Investigation on the feasibility and utility of electronic administration of patient-reported outcome measures in Paediatric Dentistry. September 2020-. Funded by the Saudi Arabian Cultural Bureau (SACB) office, the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, London.
  • Ashwag Alotaibi: Oral health of children in special schools in Saudi Arabia. 2019-present. Funded by Saudi Arabia government.
  • Bhupinder Dawett: The implementation and acceptability of Minimum Intervention Dentistry in children attending NHS dental practice – a feasibility study. October 2017-present. Funded by NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship.
  • Fiona Noble: No need(le) to worry: development and feasibility study of a self-help cognitive behavioural therapy resource for children with needle fear. June 2021-. Funded by NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship.
  • Laura Timms: Silver diamine fluoride for the management of dental caries in children in primary dental care – a feasibility study. March 2022-. Funded by NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship.
  • Ziyad Alaskar: Development and Evaluation of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for the Reduction of Dental Fear and Anxiety Among Children in Saudi Arabia. March 2023-s
Teaching interests

I teach undergraduate dental students, dental hygiene and dental therapy students and on the Masters in Dental Public Health programme. My main teaching interests include dental epidemiology and the organisation of dental healthcare systems.

Teaching activities

I am the dental public health lead for the BDS programme and teach several modules on the masters in Dental Public Health. 

I am an external examiner for several undergraduate and postgraduate programmes across the UK.

Professional activities and memberships
  • Invited speaker at International Association of Dental Research and International Association of Paediatric Dentistry conferences  
  • National policy work for Department for Education and Public Health England  
  • Chair of the North of England and Yorkshire Dental Public Health Audit group: 2014 - present  
  • NIHR Yorkshire and Humber Oral and Dental specialty group lead 2016 - present
  • Academic director for Charles Clifford Dental Services, Sheffield Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, 2017- present
  • Journal referee for Journal of Dental Research, Community Dentistry & Oral Epidemiology, Community Dental Health, Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, International Journal of Paediatric Dentistry, Quality of Life Research, British Dental Journal.
  • Chair and member of various trial and project steering committees.