Esben Boeskov Øzhayat

Short presentation

Esben Boeskov Øzhayat do research and teaches in the connection between oral health and society, quality of life, general health, social functioning, and inequality. He is research section leader for the research area Oral Health, Society, and Technology and separate research leader for the subject area Community Dentistry. He is an expert in the individual and societal implications of oral health and disease with expert knowledge of dental care systems incl. legislation and resource distribution, as well as how people are affected by oral disease and its treatment.

Primary fields of research

My research focus is the patient perspective and subjects derived from this including effect of health care systems and the individual and public benefit of oral prevention and treatment. It is about:

• Oral health
• Quality of life
• Society
• Economy
• Policy making
• Inequality
• People in vulnerable situations
• Communication
• Decision making
• Co-creation

I use both quantitative and qualitative research methods and have performed many clinical studies but also population studies, register-based studies, and interviews are used to describe the societal and social aspects of odontology.

I am leading research projects independently and in collaboration with others and my focus is on interdisciplinary collaborations using my robust network of research collaborators. The goal with this is to make the research as relevant as possible with greatest quality and impact. I have experience in all parts and all phases of research and project management. This includes applying and getting funds for projects and supervising PhD students, research assistants, post doc, assistant professors, and pre-graduate researchers.

Current research

Selected current research projects:

1. Lifelong Oral Health

The Lifelong Oral Health project is a co-creation project with the aim of improving the oral health of elderly people in vulnerable situations. The project is carried out in collaboration with the Center for Humanistic Health Research (CoRe), Greve and Frederiksberg Municipality and VIVE. The project creates knowledge that can be used by municipalities and other stakeholders to develop and implement the most relevant efforts to ensure good oral health among older people. The project website can be found here: Sund mund hele livet – Københavns Universitet (ku.dk)

2. Use and effect of a subsidy scheme for dental treatment among people in vulnerable situations

The project examines the use and effect of a municipally administered subsidy scheme for unemployed people in vulnerable situations through questionnaires, registers and interviews. The project is both descriptive and contains tests of an effort. The findings from the project can be used by decision makers for policy making and other stakeholders to improve access to dental care for people in vulnerable situations and thus reduce inequality in oral health.

3. Improved oral health in the middle-aged and elderly

The goal of the project is to identify factors that can be used as intervention targets to ensure good oral health among middle-aged and older Danes. This is done by utilizing data from the Copenhagen Aging and Midlife Biobank (CAMB). Knowledge from the project can lead to fewer comorbidities and reduce the societal costs related to poor oral health. The project will therefore be of interest to e.g. decision makers and various NGOs.

4. Challenging the notion of coherency in care pathways for vulnerable groups

The project is a qualitative project carried out in collaboration with the National Institute of Public Health and Høje Taastrup Municipality. The aim is to describe the pathways unemployed people in vulnerable situations go through from the perspective of both the citizen and the employees. This knowledge can be used to organize the most relevant pathways for citizens and thus help them further in life, incl. connection to the labor market.

For past projects/studies, please see my publication list.

Teaching

I am course director of courses in community dentistry, large interdisciplinary courses in comprehensive dentistry, and the introduction course for new dental students. I teach and supervise in most areas within community dentistry, including social odontology, communication and decision making as well as subjects within oral rehabilitation and comprehensive dentistry incl. treatment planning. I have knowledge on the general studies and curriculum from work in the study board and experience in constructing smaller and larger courses and have taught all types of session on many different levels including supervising students doing their master’s theses. My style is open and involving with strong focus on maximizing the students’ learning.  

For more details on my teaching experience and philosophy please ask for my teaching portfolio.

CV

EDUCATION

Cand. odont (2006), PhD (2010), odont. dr. (2018)

TIMELINE FOR PROFESSIONAL CAREER

LEADING HIGH-IMPACT RESEARCH

I have led research projects for 17 years, which in combination with UCPH courses on research leading (2018, 2020), has given me a clear view on my criteria for success: value for the society and the citizens that should benefit from it. This has made me the leading Danish expert and a requested international expert in patient-focused dentistry. This has made me a requested opponent nationally and internationally and led to policy making (Act on unpaid dental care for the most socially disadvantaged citizens), participation in NGOs, authority, and ministerial working groups, and resulted in the Zendium Research Award 2021.

I have experience and success in all phases of research and project management and my funding the last 5 years is roughly DKK 25 million. I have prior supervised 46 Masters, 4 pre-graduate researchers, 3 PhD students and 1 post doc. Currently, I supervise 4 PhD students (1 as co-PI). As research section leader I am leading 18 researchers in 5 research groups from PhD level to full professors.

POSITIONS OF TRUST (SELECTED)

CURRENT RELEVANT AND MAJOR RESEARCH PROJECTS AND FUNDING (IN DKK)

Most of my projects involves participatory research and addresses vulnerable patients. My projects most often combine quantitative and qualitative methods to yield the most relevant results with highest impact.

PUBLICATIONS WITH HIGH STANDARDS

My H-index is 12 and my publication list includes 34 published peer-reviewed international articles of which 20 are in the first quartile of their category according to the Journal citation reports in Web of Science. In addition, I have published 8 nationally peer-reviewed articles, 4 book chapters, 2 theses, and 2 reports. See publication list or visit https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8656-0292 for details.

STRONG COMMUNICATOR

I have considerable experience as communicator, which has given me self-assurance and I find my communicative abilities very strong. I have with compliment communicated my research and knowledge at many international conferences and as invited speaker at/for:

• National conferences (2007, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022)
• National and international dental societies (2007, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)
• National and international health authorities (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)

I have further given statements to several reporters from newspapers, magazines, radio, and television programs and written debate letters for newspapers. In 2023 I had 29 citations in written media only. An example can be seen here: ”Stærkt bekymrende” og ”alarmerende”: Mange skrøbelige ældre kommer ikke til tandlæge | Kristeligt Dagblad (kristeligt-dagblad.dk). Further, I feature as an expert in a tv-program and podcast (2022). A course in media training (2015) held by the Danish Dental Association has further helped me understand media and how to use the media in the most suitable way. My communication has further improved as a result of massive under- and post-graduate teaching in the last 17 years.

ROBUST NETWORK

My network includes many different professionals including public health researchers, statisticians, medical doctors, economists, practicing clinicians, anthropologists, and psychologists. In the project “Sund Mund Hele Livet” I for instance collaborate with:

• Center for Healthy Aging and Department of Public Health, UCPH
• The Danish Center for Social Science Research (VIVE)
• Copenhagen, Randers, Svendborg, Varde, Frederiksberg, Aalborg, and Greve municipality
• Copenhagen Center for Health Research in the Humanities, UCPH
• DanAge Association
• Danish Health Authority
• Danish Society for Patient Safety
• Danish Dental Association
• Citizen Science, UCPH

Examples of other institutions I collaborate with in other projects are:

• Department of Economics, UCPH
• National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark
• Citizen Science network, University of Southern Denmark
• Department of Social Dentistry, ACTA Amsterdam
• Radboud Medical Center, Radboud University, Holland
• Hospital units (incl. Immigrant, Social)
• Faculty of Odontology, Malmö University
• Departments of Head and Neck Surgery & Audiology and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Rigshospitalet
• Private dental practitioners
• College of Dentistry, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
• Department of Neurology, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospital
• Institute for Public Health, Århus University
• School of Health Sciences, Swinburne University
• Department of Occupational and Social Medicine, University Hospital Holbæk
• Immigrant medical clinic, Hvidovre Hospital
• Department of Dental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden