Meet
the
team
Meet the team
Meet the team
Ceara Cleary, RDH
Ceara is a dental hygienist in the HSE. She has extensive experience in supporting people with disabilities to achieve and maintain oral health. She has been the main hygienist treating people with disabilities in Dublin South West for the last decade. She is trained in health behaviour change models such as motivational interviewing and non-pharmacological behaviour support.
Professor June Nunn PhD
June is a founding member of the Irish Society for Disability and Oral Health. On returning to Ireland in 2001, her vision was to embed an inclusive approach to the oral care of people with disabilities by developing education programmes, establishing secondary and tertiary care clinical services and instigating meaningful research projects and interventions that would make a difference to people’s lives.
Dr Catherine Waldron PhD
Catherine is a researcher with particular interest in special care dentistry. She is a lecturer in dentistry and health promotion, and has extensive clinical experience and an enthusiasm for empowering patients to improve and maintain their oral health. She has completed her PhD in Special Care Dentistry on the topic of oral hygiene interventions for people with disabilities.
Ann-Marie Reid
Ann Marie teaches students in Trinity College Dublin about disability awareness and the value of good communication between dentists and their patients. Ann-Marie has been a co-researcher on projects about improving dental services for people with disabilities and communication. When Ann Marie is not busy being an oral health advocate, she is tutoring LAMH, an Irish sign language, and she has completed a course in DIT on advocacy and leadership.
Anne-Marie Chalkey
Anne-Marie is keen to help people with and without disabilities to improve their oral health. She is enthusiastic about her own oral health and wants to share her interest with you. Anne-Marie works part time in Dunnes Stores in Dublin and is a keen fan of bowling. She is a member of the Dublin City Strikers Bowling Club. She also likes aqua aerobics and likes to spend her time in Arch Club. This is Anne-Marie’s first time acting.
Dr Caoimhin Mac Giolla Phadraig PhD
Caoimhin (known to his friends as Kev) is a lecturer and Assistant Professor in Public Dental Health (Disability Studies) in the School of Dental Science, Trinity College Dublin. Kev is interested in the provision of basic dental care to people with disabilities. Kev leads collaborative research into oral health promotion for adults with intellectual disabilities, and has published widely in this field.
Lorraine Ledger, ADON, St Michael’s House
Lorraine is a registered nurse for people with intellectual disability with over 30 years’ experience. Lorraine presently works as a ADON providing nursing and managerial support for St Michaels House Residential and Respite Services. She recently completed a masters in nursing leadership in the RCSI and a module on health informatics in DCU. She has an interest in health promotion, integrated care and the utilisation of technology to improve health and well-being.
Anne Spencer, CNM1, St Michael’s House
Anne is a registered general nurse with experience in critical care nursing. She has a Master’s degree in eLearning from DCU and is currently working as a CNM1 in St Michael’s House in a project role. Anne has an interest in health promotion and the adoption of new technologies to improve the health and well-being of service users, their carers and families, and other healthcare professionals.
Taylor McKerlie, Student dentist, Dublin Dental University Hospital and Trinity College Dublin
Taylor McKerlie is a student dentist at the Dublin Dental University Hospital and Trinity College Dublin. She makes sure that our website is as accessible as possible. Her clinical work in special care dentistry has sparked particular interest in health promotion tailored to people with disabilities. She wants her patients with disabilities to leave feeling as good as any other patient that walks or rides out her door after high quality dental treatment!
Find out why brushmyteeth.ie was made and who we are
Why was brush my teeth made?
We made brushmyteeth.ie to show you how to keep your mouth healthy. We especially want to help people who find it hard to brush their own teeth. This is because effective tooth brushing is both important AND difficult to do right. So, we made a website where you, or the person who supports you, can watch videos that show you how to brush your teeth, whatever type of brush or support you use. We hope you enjoy it.
We thought about five important things to help make brushmyteeth.ie
Equality – this means treating everyone the same
This website is about helping everyone get the help they need to keep their mouth healthy. Have you noticed that our videos are presented by people with disabilities and dental professionals equally? This gives our videos the power of being disability and dental led. What’s more, now we have people with disabilities teaching everyone! We love that.
Accessibility – this means being able to get the right help when you need it
Why travel to the dentist to find out how to brush your teeth when you can do it from home? Better still, rather than have a professional tell you what to do to stay healthy, why not choose for yourself? After all, you and those who help you will understand your issues better than anyone.
Creativity – this means trying different things and having new ideas
We wanted to be as creative as possible when making these videos. Creativity also means change and trying new things. We want people to make big changes to how they care for each other and their mouths. Be brave – make a change!
Credibility – this means you can trust the information on this website
Before we made these videos, we studied mouth health, and also how to support people with disabilities. This means that you can trust the information on this website. We plan to keep checking this information too, so we can keep making it better. Get in touch if you have any ideas to help us with this.
Inclusivity – this means that people with disabilities are a big part of this project
We made sure to include people with disabilities and those who support them in every part of this project. From the first plan, to scripting, layout, even designing our characters. Test screenings were also held to ensure a clear message. We have tried very hard to make sure that the videos cover issues that are important to people with disabilities. We promise we will continue to work with people with disabilities to improve this site.
