Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine

Embedding Oral Health into Health Psychology: Improving General Health and Well-being

Oral health is integral to general health and well-being, yet oral diseases remain highly prevalent worldwide, are patterned by substantial social and economic inequalities, and interact with other health conditions (e.g., heart failure). Prevention and management of oral diseases depend not only on effective clinical interventions, but also on behavior, beliefs, emotions, social context, access to care, and interactions between patients and oral health professionals. Health psychology and behavioral medicine thus have considerable potential to contribute to oral health research, education, and clinical practice. At the same time, oral health provides a rich context in which to develop and test psychological theory, encompassing preventive and self management behaviors, symptom appraisal, pain and anxiety, treatment decisions and adherence, and health communication.

Despite this potential, research at the interface of health psychology and oral health remains fragmented across conditions, disciplines, and countries. Behavioral and psychological evidence is inconsistently translated into dental care. This Article Collection will bring together contemporary research applying health psychology and behavioral science to oral health and dentistry. It aims to create a focal point for this work, increase its visibility, strengthen international and interdisciplinary connections, and stimulate new collaborations. In doing so, the Collection will demonstrate how psychologically informed research can improve prevention, treatment, patient experience, and equity, while also highlighting the opportunities oral health provides to develop, test, and refine health psychology theory. It will strengthen the visibility of oral health within health psychology and of health psychology within oral health research and practice.

This Article Collection is open to all of the journal’s article formats to suit diverse research methodologies, from qualitative, participatory, and cross-sectional designs to randomized controlled trials and systematic evidence syntheses. In line with the journal’s emphasis on "the study, teaching, or application of behavioral, psychological, social, and biological aspects of health and illness," included articles will be grounded in health psychology and behavioral science theories/models or approaches applied to oral health aspects of the journal’s topics of interest. Articles may focus, for example, on patients’ understanding or experiences of oral health conditions, intervention development, treatment experiences or adherence, and education of oral and dental health practitioners.

Please contact Dr. MK Huffman at mary.huffman@taylorandfrancis.com with any queries about discount codes regarding this Article Collection.

Please be sure to select the appropriate Article Collection from the drop-down menu in the submission system.

Dr. Marie K. Murphy is a behavioral scientist with a background in health psychology and is passionate about reducing health inequalities in oral health and cancer outcomes. Her research focuses on evaluating support interventions for toothbrushing in early childhood within Childsmile—the national child oral health improvement program for Scotland. Her research projects involve healthcare providers, families from socioeconomically deprived backgrounds, and families of children with intellectual disabilities and/or autism. Dr. Murphy has also worked on a variety of Scottish and UK-wide projects to understand barriers to cancer screening participation and to support underprivileged groups (e.g., residents in socioeconomically deprived areas, people from ethnic minority backgrounds, or those with learning disabilities) with preventing and finding cancer early. Her expertise is in mixed-method and participatory research as well as public and patient involvement and engagement in research.

Dr. Rachael Pattinson is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology as Applied to Oral Health with a background in health psychology at Cardiff University School of Dentistry. Her research applies health psychology to improve patient care, with particular interests in illness beliefs, shared decision-making, behavior change, and patient reported outcome measurement. Her work spans the development and evaluation of psychologically informed measures and decision support approaches, evidence synthesis and mixed-methods research in oral health. She works collaboratively with patients, dental professionals, researchers, and other stakeholders to translate psychological science into oral research, education, and practice.

Dr. Anne Marie Plass is appointed professor of Person Centered Social and Health Care at Windesheim University of Applied Sciences. Her background is in social and health psychology as well as in medicine. From 2022-2025, she served as director of the School of Oral Health in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Her research focuses on improving social, mental, and physical healthcare using the perspective of (prospective) care consumers as a starting point. She has outstanding expertise in person centered care research, measuring the consumer's perspective and people’s needs, patient-doctor communication, medical decision making, explaining and understanding behavior, bridging the gap between society, new technologies, and theory. She has extensive expertise in research methodology and measurement-instrument development.

Dr. Murphy, Dr. Pattinson, and Dr. Plass declare no conflicts of interest regarding this work.