Professor Zoe Marshman
BDS, MPH, DDPH, FDS (DPH), PhD
School of Clinical Dentistry
Professor in Dental Public Health
Honorary Consultant in Dental Public Health
+44 114 215 9398
Full contact details
School of Clinical Dentistry
19 Claremont Crescent
Sheffield
S10 2TA
- Profile
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Zoe Marshman joined the University of Sheffield in 2002 and currently holds the position of Professor of Dental Public Health, as well as serving as an Honorary Consultant in Dental Public Health at Sheffield Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. Zoe was appointed as an NIHR senior investigator in April 2025 and is the co-lead for the NIHR-supported incubator aimed at building oral health research capacity to inform policy.
- Research interests
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Zoe's main interest is child-centred dental research to improve the oral health and treatment experiences of children and their families. She has experience of leading large multi-centred randomised controlled trials, integrating qualitative research into trials and conducting process evaluations. She has published widely on topics including oral health promotion, behaviour change and dental anxiety.
Current projects
- BRUSH: Optimising toothbrushing programmes in nurseries and schools
This project is investigating implementation of supervised toothbrushing programmes in nursery and school settings and how to increase their uptake and success in the longer term.
- Self-help Cognitive Behavioural Therapy resource for young people with dental anxiety
Zoe was 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.
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.
- The CALM trial
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 450 children with dental anxiety with a parent/carer have been recruited from 40 dental practices across England and Wales.
- NIHR-supported incubator
Zoe is the co-lead for the NIHR-supported incubator to build oral health research capacity to inform policy.
NIHR-supported incubator in oral health research: informing policy across the UK
- BRIGHT Trial: Brushing RemInder 4 Good oral Health
Zoe was 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.
NIHR-funded research
Zoe is also involved with other NIHR-funded research including:
PIP: Pulpotomy for the management of Irreversible Pulpitis in mature teeth
SCRIPT: Selective Caries Removal In Posterior Teeth
Collaborative networks
- Publications
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Journal articles
- Supervised toothbrushing: What oral healthcare teams in practice need to know. BDJ In Practice, 38(9), 298-301.
- The ‘sugar tax' seven years on. British Dental Journal, 238(8), 638-639.
- Supervised toothbrushing programmes in England: a national survey of current provision and factors influencing their implementation. British Dental Journal, 1-6.
- Your Teeth, You Are in Control: A Process Evaluation of the Implementation of a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Intervention for Reducing Child Dental Anxiety. Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology.
- Educational interventions and retention of the primary care workforce: what has been done before? A scoping review. British Dental Journal, 1-7.
- First Dental Steps intervention: feasibility study of a health visitor led infant oral health improvement programme. BMC Oral Health, 25(1).
- Melatonin versus midazolam in the premedication of anxious children attending for elective surgery under general anaesthesia: the MAGIC non-inferiority RCT. Health Technology Assessment, 1-25.
- Dentists’ perspectives on selective caries removal for the management of deep carious lesions in permanent teeth. BMC Oral Health, 25(1).
- Supervised Toothbrushing Programmes: Understanding Barriers and Facilitators to Implementation. Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology.
- Acceptability of midazolam and melatonin as premedications for anxious children undergoing general anaesthesia: a qualitative interview study with children, caregivers and health professionals participating in the MAGIC trial. Trials, 25(1).
- Process Evaluation of a Secondary School‐Based Digital Behaviour Change Intervention to Improve Toothbrushing: The
BRIGHT Randomised Controlled Trial. Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology.
- An ‘explosion in the mouth’: The oral health experiences of autistic children. Autism.
Conference proceedings papers
- P51 Community readiness for child oral health improvement across three cities in the Yorkshire and Humber region of the UK. SSM Annual Scientific Meeting (pp a62.2-a6a62)
- Supervised toothbrushing: What oral healthcare teams in practice need to know. BDJ In Practice, 38(9), 298-301.
- Research group
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Research associates
- Dr Sarab El Yousfi
Current PhD students
- Jessie Tebbutt: Improving oral health for people living with Parkinson’s: a co-designed intervention and feasibility study. October 2024-present. Funded by NIHR doctoral fellowship
Past PhD students
- Fiona Sotir: No need(le) to worry: development and feasibility study of a self-help cognitive behavioural therapy resource for children with needle fear. June 2021-2025. 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 2022-2025. Funded by NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship.
- Bhupinder Dawett: The implementation and acceptability of Minimum Intervention Dentistry in children attending NHS dental practice – a feasibility study. October 2017-2024. Funded by NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship.
- Sultan Attamimi: Investigation on the feasibility and utility of electronic administration of patient-reported outcome measures in Paediatric Dentistry. September 2020-2024. Funded by 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. 2019-2024. Funded by Saudi Arabia government.
- Teaching interests
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Zoe teaches undergraduate dental students, dental hygiene and dental therapy students and on the Masters in Dental Public Health programme. Her main teaching interests include dental epidemiology and the organisation of dental healthcare systems.
- Teaching activities
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Zoe is dental public health lead for the BDS programme and teach on various Masters modules.
She is also an external examiner for several undergraduate and postgraduate programmes across the UK.
- Professional activities and memberships
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- Invited speaker at International Association of Dental Research and International Association of Paediatric Dentistry conferences
- National policy work for Department for Education, Office of Health Improvement and Disparities and Public Health England
- Chair of the North of England and Yorkshire Dental Public Health Audit group, 2014 – present
- NIHR Yorkshire and Humber Regional Research Delivery Network 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 and funding committees.