Carolina Angelica Machuca Vargas Portrait

Dr Carolina Machuca Vargas

Associate Head (Research and Innovation)

Carolina.Machuca-Vargas@port.ac.uk

PhD Supervisor

View my research outputs
Faculty of Science and Health School of Dental, Health and Care Professions Dental and oral health Advancing Health and Wellbeing: Innovations, Equity and Care Delivery Institute of Life Sciences and Healthcare Centre for Integrated Health and Wellbeing Healthcare and social care

Biography

I am an Associate Professor in Dental Public Health at the 兔子先生, and the NIHR RDN South Central Specialty Lead for Oral and Dental Health, providing strategic leadership across academic, NHS, and local authority partnerships.

I qualified as a Dentist at the Universidad de Chile and completed an MSc in Dental Public Health and a PhD in Dentistry at the University of Sheffield.

My research addresses oral health inequalities through the design, delivery, and evaluation of applied public health interventions across the life course. I have particular expertise in school-based supervised toothbrushing programmes, care home oral health, teledentistry and digital screening approaches, and mixed-methods and implementation research. I provide strategic leadership for the development, delivery, and growth of dental public health research. This includes supporting NIHR portfolio studies, building research capacity within primary and community dental care, and strengthening partnerships across academic and service settings. I have led and contributed to regional and national research programmes with a strong focus on feasibility, acceptability, and scalability, supporting the translation of research findings into sustainable improvements in community oral health policy and practice.

Research outputs

2025

Turkistani, S., Radford, D. R., Vargas, C. M., Wallis, T., Louca, C.

21 Nov 2025, In: British Dental Journal

Research output: Article

Gowers, P. A., Radford, D. R., Machuca-Vargas, C., Louca, C.

9 May 2025, In: British Dental Journal. 238, 9, p. 720-725

Research output: Article

2024

Turkistani, S., Louca, C., Machuca Vargas, C., Ann Wallis, T., R. Radford, D.

20 Sep 2024, In: BDJ Team. 11, 8, p. 354-358, 5p.

Research output: Article

King, L. E. G. C., Radford, D. R., Machuca-Vargas, C., Louca, C.

5 Aug 2024, In: British Dental Journal, 10p., 176

Research output: Article

Patel, D., Louca, C., Machuca vargas, C.

26 Jan 2024, In: British Dental Journal. 236, 2, p. 111-116, 6p.

Research output: Article

Emanuel, R., Quach, J., Patel, P., Witton, R., Machuca-Vargas, C., Taylor, E.

25 Jan 2024, In: British Dental Journal

Research output: Article

2023

Machuca Vargas, C. A.

16 Sep 2023,

Research output: Abstract

Machuca Vargas, C. A.

16 Sep 2023,

Research output: Abstract

2022

Almoddahi, D., Machuca Vargas, C., Sabbah, W.

1 Mar 2022, In: Acta Odontologica Scandinavica. 80, 2, p. 125-130, 6p.

Research output: Article

2021

Venturelli, R., Blokland, A., de Oliveira, C., Machuca, C., Watt, R. G.

11 Feb 2021, In: British Dental Journal, 5p.

Research output: Article