Oral health

The Oral Health Working Group was established in September 2025 and comprises both clinicians and non-clinicians with expertise in statistics. 

Concerns around the misuse and misinterpretation of statistical methods in dental research have been well documented, for example Pandis et al. Journal of Dental Research 2021. In response, six leading dental research journals collaboratively introduced the OHStat guidelines in early 2025 to improve statistical transparency and rigour. The objective of one of the workstreams of the NIHR Incubator for Oral Health Research is to upskill researchers to enable high-quality, policy-relevant applied oral health research to be conducted.

While these initiatives represent important progress, there remains a need for accessible resources, motivated by clinical examples, which are more easily digestible by oral health researchers. These would be similar to the Ophthalmology Working Group’s series of statistical notes published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.

We ran a breakout session at the June 2025 NIHR Statistics Group Annual Conference entitled “Statistical Challenges in Disease-Specific Areas”.  Catey Bunce outlined the model used in the Ophthalmology Working Group, and Jing Kang presented the findings from her dental postgraduate focus groups identifying statistical challenges.  The session demonstrated interest in establishing an Oral Health Working Group, which will be mentored by members of the Ophthalmology Working Group, and work with the Improving Statistical Literacy Working Group when appropriate.

Our planned activities include:

• Undertaking a review of the misuse of statistics in oral health research (Led by Amin Vahdati)
• Producing a series of statistics notes for a dental journal (Led by Jing Kang and Sam Leary)
• Running conference breakout sessions/workshops/symposiums on specific statistical issues in oral health research, nationally and internationally.

If you would like to join a working group committee or wish to find out more, please email the NIHR Statistics Group.