CDA Essentials 2017 • Volume 4 • Issue 2

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25 Issue 2 | 2017 |
Issues and People
Tell us a little about your background.
I graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1996 and immediately started working in
community dental clinics in Winnipeg. I later completed a Master’s Degree in community health
sciences with a focus on early childhood caries (ECC), and a PhD also in community health
sciences, looking at the relationship between vitamin D levels during pregnancy and ECC
prevalence in children. I am currently an associate professor in the Colleges of Dentistry and
Medicine at the University of Manitoba.
You recently received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research
(CIHR). What projects will you be working on?
I’m fortunate to have received a CIHR Embedded Clinician Researcher Salary Award for the next
4 years. One of our projects relates to the Manitoba Dental Association (MDA) Free First Visit (FFV)
program (p. 29). We want to work with the MDA and other stakeholders to make headways in
rural and remote regions. The uptake in the city of Winnipeg and larger urban centres is great, but
we’re aware of the challenges in rural and First Nations communities. By looking at the rates of
dental surgery, we hope to identify some hotspots and, in collaboration with the MDA and local
dentists, work on enhancing the program. The other project we proposed focuses on the timely
delivery of dental surgery under anesthesia. We hope that through good networking we can
learn about, and adopt, measures to streamline the process.
Who do you collaborate with?
I collaborate a lot with my pediatric colleagues (pediatricians, pediatric endocrinologists,
pediatric dentists, etc.) here in Winnipeg on nutrition studies. On other studies, I work closely
with the MDA, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, and Manitoba Health. When it comes to
community partners, the First Nation Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba is one of our allies.
And I’m happy to report that we’ll soon be working for the first time with the Manitoba Metis
Federation on an ECC prevention project.
I’m part of a team that is evaluating the Children’s Oral Health Initiative
(COHI), which was launched by Health Canada to address the oral
health disparities between First Nations and Inuit communities and that
of the general population. Our team includes collaborators from my
university and key researchers like Dr. Alyssa Hayes from the University of
Saskatchewan and Dr. Mary McNally from Dalhousie University.
Dr. Robert Schroth dedicates his career to reducing oral health inequalities and improving
children’s oral health. His main focuses are lifting barriers to access to care, advocating on
behalf of the most vulnerable groups, and shaping future generations of clinicians to ensure
their practice is guided by a sense of social responsibility and compassion.
CDA Conversations:
DR. ROBERT SCHROTH
Robert Schroth
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