Svetlana Tikhonova

Title: 
Assistant Professor
Svetlana Tikhonova
Contact Information
Email address: 
svetlana.tikhonova [at] mcgill.ca
Biography: 

Svetlana graduated from the Belarusian State Medical University as a dentist in 1998 and completed a three-year clinical residency training in Operative Dentistry (1998-2001) and Masters’ degree in Dental Sciences (2001-2003) at the same university. She earned a Doctorate degree in Dental Sciences at McGill University, Faculty of Dentistry (2008-2013). Her doctoral dissertation was titled “A comparison of dentists’ treatment choices when dental caries lesions are diagnosed with two visual-tactile systems, the Nyvad and ICDAS”. She completed post-doctoral training at the Université de Montréal (2013-2016) in the field of Oral Health Research. Working currently as a Faculty Lecturer at McGill University, Svetlana is responsible for the Evidence-Based Dentistry three-year undergraduate curriculum ensuring that the dental students graduate with a foundation in the basic principles of research, as well as evidence-based practice. She is also providing Cariology lectures and hands-on laboratories for undergraduate dental students and working on implementation of non-operative caries management approach in dental education. Her recent initiative focused on reaching a consensus on Core Cariology Curriculum in Canadian dental schools and publishing a formal consensus document. Svetlana’s current research interests are related to the implementation of evidence-based caries management approach in dental education; Early Childhood Caries control.

Degree(s): 

D.D.S., M.Sc., Ph.D.

Areas of expertise: 
  • Evidence-Based dentistry education
  • Cariology education
  • Visual-tactile caries diagnosis
  • Caries lesions progression
  • Caries management
Courses: 

Graduate Student Supervision

The research topics: Cariology education: integration of contemporary caries management approach in dental education and clinical practice; Early Childhood Caries control

Office: 
2001 McGill College, suite 515
Research areas: 
Population Oral Health
Selected publications: 

1. Abdalla H, Allison PJ, Madathil SA, Veronneau JE, Pustavoitava N, Tikhonova S. Caries lesions progression in adults: a prospective 2-year cohort study. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol. 2024;00;1-9.

2. Han D, Gupta A, Adeniyi A, De Souza G, Tam LE, Tikhonova S, Santos J, Jessani A. Methods used for caries detection and diagnosis in Ontario dental practices: a cross-sectional survey. BMC Oral Health. 2024;24(1):1160.

3. Pillai S, Rohani K, Macdonald ME, Al-Hamed FS, Tikhonova S. Integration of an evidence-based caries management approach in dental education: the perspectives of dental instructors. J Dent Educ. 2023;1-13.

2. Nguyen AX, Xiang L, Chhibber R, Blanchard H, Tikhonova S, Zafran H, Miller CA, Bergevin Y. Student-led interprofessional global health course: learning impacts during a global crisis. BMC Med Educ. 2023;23(1):166.

3.   Fathi H, Gamondele N, Nardin Farag NT, Miller CA, Tikhonova S, Bergevin Y, DeSantis C, Lencucha R. What can an Interprofessional Global Health Course with a Focus on Decolonization Bring to Students? A Qualitative Study. McGill J Global Health. 2023;5:33.

4.   Tikhonova S, Jessani A, Girard F, Macdonald ME, De Souza G, Tam L, Eggert FM, Nguyen‐Ngoc C, Morin N, Aggarwal N, Schroth RJ. The Canadian Core Cariology Curriculum: Outcomes of a national symposium. J Dent Educ. 2020;1–9.

6.   Tikhonova S, Girard F, Fontana M. Cariology education in Canadian dental schools: where are we? Where do we need to go? J Dent Educ. 2018;82(1):39-46.

7.   Tikhonova S, Booij L, D’Souza V, Crosara KT, Siqueira WL, Emami E. Investigating the association between stress, saliva and dental caries: a scoping review. BMC Oral Health. 2018;18(1):41.

9.   Emami E, Booij L, Tikhonova S, Ismaylova E. Modelling the Interaction of Multidimensional Risk Factors in Caries Disparity. Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, 2015, ISBN 978-2-98150320-6.

10. Tikhonova SM, Feine JS, Pustavoitava NN, Allison PJ. Reproducibility and diagnostic outcomes of two visual-tactile criteria used by dentists to assess caries lesion activity: a cross-over study. Caries Res. 2013;48(2):126-36.

Key words: Dental caries; visual-tactile caries diagnosis; Cariology education; evidence-based caries management

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