Prof. Tim Newton
Tim Newton splits his time between three broad areas: Academic research and teaching; Clinical care; and University administration. As an academic Tim holds the position of Professor of Psychology as Applied to Dentistry at King’s College London Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences, as well as honorary Professorial positions with University College London and University College Cork. In 2016 Tim was awarded the Behavioural, Epidemiological and Health Services Research Distinguished Scientist Award by the International Association of Dental Research. He is an honorary member of the British Orthodontic Society and was the Webb Johnson Lecturer, Royal College of Surgeons of England, as well as the Otago Community Trust visiting professor of dentistry, University of Otago.
Tim’s research interests lie particularly in theory based interventions to change behaviour in relation to oral health and the management of dental anxiety and phobia. His research in the area of behaviour change focusses largely on the design, implementation and testing of brief interventions to enhance the oral health behaviour of patients attending primary dental care settings. Dental Phobia is common in adult and child populations – with approximately 10% of all people affected by dental phobia worldwide, and a further 30% displaying moderate anxiety when attending the dentist. Tim has designed and championed a proportionate intervention model for dental anxiety and phobia.
Tim is Honorary Consultant Psychologist at Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, providing Cognitive Behaviour Therapy to support individuals with dental phobia to overcome their fear, and support for individual’s facing challenging dental procedures. He is also a Consultant Advisor to The Office of the Chief Dental Officer.
He is committed to ensuring that research is of the highest scientific and ethical standards in protection of the rights of research participants and the wider public served by the research community. In pursuance of this he is Dean of Research Culture for King’s College London.
Tim is proud to be Trustee of three charities related to oral and dental health: the Alliance for a Cavity Free Future; the Oral Health Foundation; and the Borrow Foundation.
:sharpen(level=0):output(format=jpeg)/up/3/default/2025-07/5229XColgateXLMSXWebinarXTimXNewtonXThumbnail-scaled.jpg "The Road to Effective Behaviour Change")