Emma Jay BDS FRACDS(SND) Clinic co-ordinator, Clinical Lecturer, Dept. Special Care & Oral Medicine, Westmead Centre for Oral Health.
Emma has been passionate about dentistry for people with special needs and who are medically compromised for the past 10 years, first at the Sydney Dental Hospital, now at Westmead Centre for Oral Health where she is clinic co-ordinator of Special Care Dentistry, a NSW referral centre. She is one of the Australian representatives on the International Association of Disability and Oral Health. She gained her fellowship in the Special Stream of Special Needs Dentistry through the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons in 2005. She is a registered specialist in Special Needs Dentistry with the competent authorities in South Australia.
Emma co-ordinates the largest restorative general anaesthetic waiting list for adults with special needs in NSW-liasing with anaesthetists and other medical specialists. She is privileged to be part of the only Oral Motor Function Therapy (saliva control and feeding issues for children) and Rett syndrome multi-disciplinary management teams in NSW. Emma also works in the senior’s clinic at Westmead Centre for Oral Health, including people with dementia and Parkinson’s disease.
Emma is the principle author of a prospective study using pre-set criteria, currently being reviewed for publication, which investigated the effect of experience in treatment planning for 150 special needs patients having a general anaesthetic or intravenous sedation. She won best clinical research paper (for a person under 36) about a pilot study on treatment planning for people with special needs, at the 2002 International Association of Disability and Oral Health biennial congress. Her interest in video media as an art form has inspired some of the educational documentaries produced by the unit. Emma has a Graduate Certificate in Film and Video from UTS (2006).