Dr. Maryam Sharifzadeh-amin

Biography

Maryam received her dentistry degree (D.M.D.) from Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in Iran and her M.Sc. in Dental Sciences and Ph.D. in Oral Health Sciences from the University of British Columbia in Canada. She also completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Health Education and received a certificate in "Teaching in Higher Education" from the Teaching and Academic Growth (TAG) at the University of British Columbia in Canada. Maryam has been involved for most of her academic career with the oral health needs of young children - as an educator, a researcher, and a practitioner. After completion of her postgraduate training in UBC, she joined the University of Alberta as an Assistant Professor. As a result of her postgraduate training, she became well-versed in both quantitative and qualitative research methods. She established a research program in collaboration with different stakeholders including researchers from other disciplines, community organizations working with marginalized populations, and government. The mission of her program is to improve the oral health of children through collaborations directed at prevention, education, and advocacy. The vision is that through collaborations and partnerships, all high-risk children of marginalized communities will receive similar oral health care as the general population. Her research team including graduate and undergraduate students, research assistants, and clinical faculty colleagues explores psycho-social determinants of oral health, barriers to access to dental care, and feasibility of implementing community-based oral health promotion programs responsive to unique needs of different societal subgroups. She has been engaged in over 25 funded research projects, which resulted in more than 50 peer-reviewed published original research papers mainly in the field of children’s oral health.

Research Interest

Psychosocial determinants of children’s oral health Marginalized populations Dental education Psychosocial determinants of oral health of children from marginalized populations Factors affecting utilization of dental services and patient’s adherence to preventive measures Relapse after a comprehensive oral rehabilitation under general anesthesia for early childhood caries Dental students' views on problem-based learning in an integrated curriculum