A student from the University of Central Lancashire has won three prestigious dental awards.
Laura Irving, a final-year dental surgery student living in Preston, won the awards for writing three extracurricular research papers.
She received the Undergraduate Research Prize from the British Endodontic Society (BES), the British Society of Periodontology’s (BSP) Frank Ashley Undergraduate Prize and the Society for the Advancement of Anaesthesia in Dentistry (SAAD) Dental Student Essay Prize.
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Laura said: “I feel really proud to have won these awards and it’s given me a big confidence boost.
“To win three national awards is a big achievement, especially given the undoubted talents of the students from the 15 other dental schools in the UK, who were my competition”.
Her SAAD research asked ‘Do children from more deprived backgrounds have a higher chance of becoming dentally anxious?’ while her BES paper highlighted the importance of antibiotic resistance and its potential impacts on delivering treatment to patients in the future.
Her guide to understanding the roles and responsibilities of the general dentist dealing with diseases relating to dental implants won her the BSP award.
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Alongside her studies, Laura undertakes her clinical training at the University’s Dental Education Centre in Morecambe.
Shalini Kanagasingam, MSc Endodontology Course Lead and the University’s BES Council Member said: “The BES aims to promote and advance endodontology to ensure that the dental and general health of the nation is both maintained and improved and that lifelong education of the practitioner is encouraged and facilitated.
“The BES Undergraduate Research Prize encourages our new generation of dentists to get involved in research early on in their careers. The judges were very impressed with Laura’s winning work and said it was thought-provoking.”
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