Bridging the gap between pharmacy and dentistry through a PhD

 

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Life after graduate research: Dr Leanne Teoh

Dr Leanne Teoh began developing the first prescribing tool for dentists in Australia during her PhD. With the continued support of the University of Melbourne, she has launched the tool commercially with partner MIMS Australia.

Leanne Teoh is an Asian woman with long black hair and a bright smile

“As a dentist, I like to say that doing a PhD is a bit like getting your wisdom teeth out. There’s never really a good time to do it,” says University of Melbourne PhD graduate Dr Leanne Teoh.

“But if you feel like you really want to do it, you should just do it.”

Dr Teoh had wanted to do a PhD for a long time.

“I was trying to find what I was passionate about – and how I could make a difference,” she says.

Dr Teoh thought her training and experience in both dentistry and pharmacy would help her contribute something unique in a PhD in Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences. She received a scholarship to support her graduate research.

Better medication information supports dentists to care for patients

“Drugs4dent® is the first clinical decision prescribing tool for dentists in Australia,” says Dr Teoh.

During her PhD, Dr Teoh researched dental prescribing practices and barriers to appropriate prescribing in Australia.

She found that dentists didn’t feel confident understanding patient medications and how those medications would affect dental treatment. In addition, there were no drug information resources available that were specific to dentists.

She developed Drugs4dent® to close this gap.

“It's an efficient and comprehensive tool to help dentists with appropriate medication management, and also safe prescribing,” Dr Teoh says.

Drugs4dent® is based on Dr Teoh’s PhD research. She consulted dentists during its development. Ultimately, it will lead to better care for dental patients.

Learn more about our graduate research options

Research at the best dental school in Australia

Dr Teoh had previously worked with researchers on writing dental therapeutic guidelines for Australia. She was inspired by the people she worked with – including her eventual PhD supervisor, Professor Michael McCullough.

“I decided maternity leave was as good a time as any to start a PhD,” she says.

Dr Teoh had completed her bachelors degree in dentistry at the University of Melbourne, and wanted to return for her PhD.

“The University of Melbourne has the best dental school in the country,” she says.

Her son was two months old when Dr Teoh started her PhD. But she could mostly work from home.

“My type of PhD – because I'm not lab-based as such – was relatively flexible,” she says.

Build a career and network with a PhD

Dr Teoh enjoyed having the support of her supervisors to explore even unconventional ideas on her own.

They really let me explore all ideas. If I had an idea that wasn’t going to be good, they would guide me in the right direction. Dr Leanne Teoh
The Royal Dental Hospital of Melbourne is a modern building right on Swanston Street in the heart of Melbourne
The Melbourne Dental School is located across three sites, including the Royal Dental Hospital of Melbourne

Drugs in dentistry is a relatively new field, with few researchers in Australia. It meant Dr Teoh needed to work harder to network.

“We ended up setting up a global researcher network with the FDI World Dental Federation because of this very problem,” she says.

“Now I have quite a lot of researchers from different parts of the world to work with, which has helped with collaboration.”

There were other advantages to working in a niche area.

Leanne Teoh poses with her book, titled Handbook of Dental Therapeutics, authored by Leanne Teoh, Geraldine Moses and Michael McCullough

Dr Teoh had noticed that educational resources for dentistry students and practitioners were missing, too, while teaching during her PhD. She decided to work with her supervisor to write a book about medications for dentistry.

After signing a contract to publish the book in the third year of her PhD, the Handbook of Dental Therapeutics was published in 2024 by Cambridge University Press.

The University of Melbourne supports early-career researchers to thrive

After her PhD, Dr Teoh had approached MIMS Australia for a reliable source of up-to-date information about medicines.

“The problem with maintaining a drug compendia is that drug information changes all the time,” she says.

“MIMS is Australia’s most widely used and comprehensive medicines information provider to healthcare professionals for over 60 years.”

The Melbourne Dental School supported Dr Teoh to continue developing the tool after her PhD.

“Professor Alastair Sloan was really supportive of my role. I had a part-time position at the University, and I was a recipient of the Brian and Ann Dooley early-career fellowship.”

Dr Teoh also received a Dean’s Innovation Grant and proof-of-concept funding from Research Innovation and Commercialisation, and a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHRMC) Investigator grant.

“We managed to develop and co-design the tool further,” she says.

This post-PhD support from the University of Melbourne and NHMRC allowed her to eventually enter licensing negotiations with MIMS.

MIMS Drugs4dent® is now available to dentists, having launched in August 2024.

“I had a lot of support from the University in order to be able to get it to this point,” Dr Teoh says.

Dr Teoh is now a Senior Research Fellow at the University. She continues to work on influencing the use of drugs in dentistry through her research and teaching activities.

Learn more about a PhD in Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences

First published on 4 September 2024.

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