Mr Robert Witton

Research interests

Primary Dental Care
Health Services Research

Research degrees awarded to supervised students

Doctor of Philosophy Martha Paisi ‘Obesity and dental caries in children in Plymouth’ 2014-2017

Grants & contracts

·    £2,500 (external). GSK and Association for Dental Education in Europe. Advancement of dentistry in society scholarship award (2018)

·    £5,800 (external). GSK Oral and Dental Research Trust. Paisi M, Kay E, Witton R (2017)

·    £128,000 (external). PDSE post-doctoral fellowship. To investigate the oral health impact of the dental school and PDSE in Devon and Cornwall. Nasser M, Moles D, Witton R (2017)

·    £89,000 (external). Wrigley Global Oral Health Fund. To deliver and improve the “open wide and step inside” oral health education intervention in Plymouth primary schools. Witton R (2017)

·    £5,000 (internal). Plymouth University Medical Education Award ‘Exploring transformative and troublesome moments for medical and dental students during social engagement pathways’. Neve H, Witton R, Smith W, Henn K (2016)

·    £60,000 (internal). Plymouth University. Preliminary investigation of the effectiveness of an intervention to prevent oral disease in a highly vulnerable child population. Kay EJ, Quinn C, Witton R (2016)

·    £78,000 (external). Wrigley Global Oral Health Fund. To deliver the “open wide and step inside” oral health education intervention using Immersive Vision Technology in Plymouth primary schools. Witton R, Tredwin C, Smith W (2015)

·    £60,000 (internal). Plymouth University. Investigation into the relationship between dental caries and obesity in young children. Kay EJ, Witton R, Lapthorne D (2014)

·    £109,000 (external). Wrigley Global Oral Health Fund. To develop an innovative pilot oral health education intervention for children aged 4-5 years using Immersive Vision Technology. Witton R (2013)

·    £5,000 (external). NHS North Devon. To investigate referrals from primary care to specialist services for routine exodontia. Moles D, Mills, I, Nasser M, Witton R (2012)

Other grants and contracts 

·    £470,254 (external). NHS England. Devon supervised tooth brushing scheme and evaluation. PDSE and Well Connected (2019)

·    £3,500 (external). North Yard Community Trust. “Creating Smiles” oral health resources box for distribution and training. Smith W, Witton R (2017)

·    £100,000 (external). Plymouth City Council. To deliver the oral health component of the Child Poverty Action Plan (2017)

·    £10,000 (external). Public Health England. To develop marketing campaign for children’s oral health in Plymouth. Witton R, Nelder R (2017)

·    £9,200 (external). Active Plus. To co-deliver with ActivePlus “Talking Teeth” an oral health support network for veterans and isolated rural elderly in Cornwall. Smith W, Witton R (2017)

·    £3,000 (external). Drake Impact Fund. To train child care workers to become ‘dental buddies’ and to support delivery of supervised tooth brushing clubs. Application led by Millfields Trust with Smith W, Witton R (2016)

·    £10,000 (external). British Dental Health Foundation. To pilot supervised tooth brushing programmes in Surestart centres in deprived areas of Plymouth. Witton R, Smith W, Jones G (2011)