Abbas Jessani, DDS, MSc, PhD

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(He, his, him)
Assistant Professor, Dental Public Health
Assistant Professor, Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Assistant Professor, Restorative Dentistry
Academic Lead, Community Service Learning 
Office: DSB 0152 | Phone: 519.661.2111 x 80535 | Email: ajessani@uwo.ca
   

Appointments

Research Cluster 

Research Interests 

  • Local and global oral health outreach with a focus on equity seeking population
  • Public health, epidemiology, and social determinants of health
  • HIV, stigma, mental health, and minority genders
  • Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research
  • Education research

Biography

Dr. Abbas Jessani is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Divisions of Dental Public Health and Restorative Dentistry and in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, with interdisciplinary expertise in access to dental care and public health. He is also an Academic Lead for the Community Service-Learning program at Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University.

Dr. Jessani’s academic journey began with an undergraduate dental degree from the University of Karachi, followed by graduate training programs at the Faculty of Dentistry, University of British Columbia (UBC), where he earned both his MSc and PhD with a focus on Public Health Dentistry. His research and advocacy work in British Columbia (BC) have addressed critical gaps in oral healthcare access among vulnerable and marginalized populations, including individuals living with HIV and at-risk pregnant women. Dr. Jessani’s expertise involves investigating the pervasive stigma and discrimination that minorities, such as people living with HIV, face when accessing healthcare services in Canada and globally.

Towards the completion of his PhD, Dr. Jessani served as the Head of the Department of Operative Dentistry at the College of Dentistry, University of Saskatchewan, where his teaching philosophy emphasized risk-based, person-centred care and minimally invasive dentistry, while his research focused on investigating the barriers to oral health among equity-seeking communities in Saskatchewan. At Western University, he leads local and global community service-learning programs while playing active roles in the Divisions of Dental Public Health and Restorative Dentistry as well as supervisory roles in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.

He has received numerous awards for excellence in teaching and research. He is a Fellow of the American College of Dentists, the International College of Dentists, and the Pierre Fauchard Academy. He holds leadership positions in several local, regional, and international organizations, including the Canadian Association of Public Health Dentistry, the Behavioral, Epidemiologic, and Behavior Epidemiology Health Services Research (BESHR) Group of the International Association for Dental Research (IADR), and the Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC) in Uganda.

His current research focuses on the barriers to accessing healthcare services and patterns of healthcare utilization among equity-seeking populations, including people with low socioeconomic status, people living with HIV, 2SLGBTQ+ community members, and Indigenous peoples. Dr. Jessani is a strong advocate for minority health, including gender-diverse communities. In the area of global health, his work addresses the prevalence of oral diseases in key populations, including men who have sex with men, transgender and gender diverse people, fisherfolks, commercial sex workers, and other vulnerable groups in East Africa.

Opportunities for Graduate/Undergraduate Student

  • Interested candidates should send an inquiry e-mail along with their CV to: ajessani@uwo.ca  

Select Publications

  • Jessani, A., Athanasakos, A., & Kachwinya, S. (2024). “A life-changing experience and the beginning of a lifelong commitment”: experiences and impact of Global Health Community Service-Learning in undergraduate dental curriculum in Canada. BMC Oral Health, 24(1), 799. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12903-024-04539-5

  • Kamalabadi, Y. M., Campbell, M. K., Gratton, R., & Jessani, A. (2024). Oral health status and dental services utilisation among a vulnerable sample of pregnant women. International Dental Journal. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.identj.2024.07.009

  • Jessani, A., Berry-Moreau, T., Parmar, R., Athanasakos, A., Prodger, J. L., & Mujugira, A. (2024). Healthcare access and barriers to utilization among transgender and gender diverse people in Africa: a systematic review. BMC Global and Public Health, 2(1), 44. https://doi.org/10.1186/s44263-024-00073-2

  • Jessani, A., Peter, N., & Hernandez‐Viovy, N. (2024). The two‐spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexual and gender identity curriculum in Canadian dental schools: What are the gaps and proposed next steps? Journal of Dental Education.

  • Fakhrjahani, I., Tiwari, T., & Jessani, A. (2023). A scoping review of oral health outcomes and oral health service utilization of 2SLGBTQ+ people. JDR Clinical and Translational Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/23800844231206359

  • Kamalabadi, Y. M., Campbell, M. K., Zitoun, N. M., & Jessani, A. (2023). Unfavourable beliefs about oral health and safety of dental care during pregnancy: a systematic review. BMC Oral Health, 23(1), 762. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12903-023-03439-4

  • Cheuk, R., Adeniyi, A., Farmer, J., Singhal, S., & Jessani, A. (2023). Teledentistry use during the COVID-19 pandemic: perceptions and practices of Ontario dentists. BMC Oral Health, 23(1), 72. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12903-023-02772-y

  • Gupta, A., Salway, T., & Jessani, A. (2023). Cost-related avoidance of oral health service utilization among lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals in Canada. Journal of Public Health Dentistry. https://doi.org/10.1111/jphd.12574

  • Jessani, A., Hsin-Fang, Phillips, G., Levac, C., Choi, J., & Bednarsh, H. (2021). Correlation of HIV-infection and HIV/HCV co-infection with oral health status of inner-city sub-population in Saskatchewan, Canada. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 32(4), 1889–1906. https://doi.org/10.1353/hpu.2021.0172

  • Jessani, A., Quadri, M. F. A., Lefoka, P., El-Rabbany, A., Hooper, K., Lim, H. J., Ndobe, E., Brondani, M., & Laronde, D. M. (2021). Oral health status and patterns of dental service utilization of adolescents in Lesotho, Southern Africa. Children (Basel, Switzerland), 8(2), 120. https://doi.org/10.3390/children8020120

  • Jessani, A., Aleksejuniene, J., Donnelly, L., Craig Phillips, J., Nicolau, B., & Brondani, M. (2019). Dental care utilization: patterns and predictors in persons living with HIV in British Columbia, Canada. Journal of Public Health Dentistry, 79(2), 124–136. https://doi.org/10.1111/jphd.12304

  • Donnelly, L. R., Bailey, L., Jessani, A., Postnikoff, J., Kerston, P., & Brondani, M. (2016). Stigma experiences in marginalized people living with HIV seeking health services and resources in Canada. The Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care: JANAC, 27(6), 768–783. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jana.2016.07.003

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