About Steve

Emeritus Clinical Professor

Steve was appointed the inaugural Director of Undergraduate Dental Studies and Professor of Oral Sciences at Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry in November 2006. He was born in a small mining village just outside Edinburgh and graduated in dentistry from the University of Glasgow in 1980, thereafter taking up house officer, resident senior house officer and registrar jobs in oral and maxillofacial surgery. He was awarded a scholarship with Unilever where he went on to gain a PhD in Oral Medicine and Pathology in 1987. 

As part of his research project, he was one of two principal examiners involved in what was at that time the largest dental epidemiological survey of its kind, and involved the clinical and radiographic examination of over 3,000 school children in and around Glasgow. Throughout that 3-year period, Steve opted also to spend 2 sessions per week in general dental practice. He was appointed to a Clinical Lectureship in Oral Sciences in Glasgow in 1987 and was promoted to Clinical Senior Lecturer in 1990, where he remained before being appointed to Peninsula College of Medicine & Dentistry in 2006.

Steve’s main teaching interests were in clinical oral biology, where he was involved in the teaching of the human dental tissues, both hard and soft, as well as saliva, salivary glands, caries and dental erosion. Steve is the editor of a new dentistry textbook, which was published in April 2016, for undergraduate and postgraduate students in dentistry, within the Wiley-Blackwell Essentials Series – the first undergraduate textbook of its type within undergraduate dentistry or medicine – entitled Essential Clinical Oral Biology.

Steve still referees for a number of high profile dental journals, as well as for the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust and the National Institute for Health Services Research.  

He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK), a Member of the Faculty of General Dental Practice at the Royal College of Surgeons (Eng) and has a regular invited entry in Who’s Who in the World 2011. Steve has supervised 6 PhD’s and 14 MSc’s Higher Degree Research Projects and has over 150 publications – ranging from refereed scientific papers, books, book chapters, reviews and refereed published abstracts of national and international research meetings. Steve’s research interests were in dental erosion and dental caries and he continues to have an interest in fluoride’s influence on caries dynamics.

Outside academia, Steve is an accomplished musician, majoring in piano and guitar and as a student competed nationally and internationally at 100 and 200 metres. He also trained with the national table tennis team and, following an opportunity to play junior football which he turned down, he is a fully qualified Scottish Football Association referee. A self-confessed petrol-head, Steve enjoys cars and driving and is a member of the Institute of Advanced Motoring.

Supervised Research Degrees

PhD projects supervised:

In vitro studies of the role of sebaceous glands in salivary gland disease
Jonathan Davies; current postgraduate student

Teaching

I was involved in the following subject areas:

• the tissues of the human dentition
• the tissues of the healthy periodontium
• the scientific basis of dental caries
• the scientific basis of dental erosion
• the biochemistry of fluoride and its role in oral disease prevention
• the microbiology of the oral environment

Contact Steve

steve.creanor@plymouth.ac.uk