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Stacianne Tennant
Lecturer in Dental Hygiene and Therapy
- Phone
- +44 (0)1473 338958
- s.tennant@uos.ac.uk
- School/Directorate
- School of Allied Health Sciences
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Stacianne Tennant, a Registered Dental Hygienist, received her BSc in Dental Hygiene (2013) and MSc in Public Health with a specialisation in Environmental Health (2018) from the University of Technology in Jamaica. She has been practising clinically for 9 years, providing outstanding and exemplary oral health care services within her home country before moving to the UK. During her training years, Stacianne was heavily involved in outreach and fundraising efforts through her roles as President of the Dental Hygienist Association of Jamaica. Stacianne's long-term goal is to change and shape the public health sector views on oral health care globally, especially within the antenatal patients.
Stacianne started teaching when she was employed at the University of Technology Jamaica in 2015 as a clinical educator in the BSc Dental Hygiene programme. She is very passionate about dental hygiene practice and theory. She believes that dental hygienist and therapists are the main preventative specialists in the any oral health care team and once her students can grasp this concept in their training, they are on the path to becoming the best clinicians.
Stacianne’s main interest is in oral health care knowledge and practices, particularly dental care during pregnancy. In her thesis “Oral Health Literacy and Practices Among Antenatal Patients Attending Public Health Facilities in the South East Regional Health Authority of Jamaica” she notes that the importance of having a high level knowledge in the fundamental aspect of oral health care practices is one thing, but the relationship between knowledge in maintaining good oral health based on practices is lacking.
During her time in the UK practising in the NHS dental services she found that, despite the awareness and positive practice towards dental service use of pregnant women, oral health education/information is relatively low. She believes appropriate oral health promotion strategies to enhance the utilisation of preventive dental services are vital.
Stacianne is excited to continue her research while at the University of Suffolk and aims to make significant scholarly contributions to the field of Dental Public Health.
Stacianne’s passion for providing oral health care drove her to be a founding member and the first president of the Dental Hygienist Association of Jamaica. Through this association she has managed to provide oral health care to communities and vulnerable people with limited access to oral health care across Jamaica. Now practising in the UK, her goal is to continue developing programmes that will increase oral healthcare accessibility in regions throughout the UK and internationally.
Stacianne is a member of the General Dental Council.