Yvonne Buunk-Werkhoven, PhD (1967) is social psychologist and oral hygienist.

Since 2011, she has been actively involved (inter)nationally as an independent behavioral scientist, consultant and researcher in promotion, prevention, education and behavior change at the interface of health psychology, public health and oral health.

As a supervisor/mentor/teacher, she supervises (coaches) professionals and students; she also provides guest lectures, training and webinars. Furthermore, she writes as (co)-author and has published many peer-reviewed scientific and popular science articles, most of which can be downloaded from this website. Google Scholar citation profile

On April 1, 2010 she obtained her PhD as psychologist and oral hygienist in Behavioral and Social Sciences at the RUG on the thesis World White Teeth: Determinants and promotion of oral hygiene behavior in diverse contexts. For the application of the theory of planned behavior and the behavioral change phase model, she has developed an index with which oral hygiene behavior (OHB) can be determined and evaluated. Together with Prof. dr. Arie Dijkstra (University of Groningen) she has written a book chapter in: “Planned Behavior: Theory, Applications and Perspectives.” She is doing research in the field of preventive oral health care, the importance of oral health behavior as part of general health, attractiveness, lifestyle and its social context.

In December 2020 she was appointed to the Editorial Board of the Korean Journal of Dental Hygiene Science, and since October 2019 she is a Visiting Professor in a 3 in One Programme at the Faculty of Dentistry (Facultas Kedoktoran Gigi) at Brawijaya University in Malang, Indonesia . From April 2019 she is a board member, 2nd secretary of the Dutch dental scientific society: Nederlandsch Tandheelkundig Genootschap, of which she has been an invited member since 2011. In April 2020 she joined the Bocas Sanas Holanda-Maimón Foundation as a board member.

From 2019, she works as a complaints officer within the Association of Dutch Dentists (ANT; that from 1 January 2021 has merged into one organization KNMT. In September 2010 to 2019 she was elected as Executive Member of the Chief Dental Officer/Public Health Section (PHS) of the FDI World Dental Federation. Till June 2016, she was Chair of the Professional and Public Relations Committee HoD-IFDH, within the House of Delegates of the International Federational of Dental Hygienists. From April 2010 to November 2016 she was a member of the board of the Dutch Dental Hygienists Association with a special focus on Education & Science. During the 2nd period in the board (2012-2014) also with focus on Quality.

Yvonne started her career as a dental assistant in Haren (Groningen). In 1989 she obtained her degree as an oral hygienist in Utrecht. After several years of employment in a general dental practice and in a periodontology practice, in 1995 she accepted a position as lecturer at the School of Dentistry & Oral Hygiene in Groningen. She also worked as an oral hygienist and researcher in a Dutch forensic psychiatric centre, and studied psychology part time at the University of Groningen (RUG). During her studies she was involved as trainer in the ‘student court’, an educational activity within the law faculty. In 2005 she graduated in social psychology (minor clinical psychology and free study-components jurisprudence). Then, with support by a grant from ‘Stichting Mobiliteitsfonds hbo’ (now ‘Zestor’), she started a part-time PhD research project on the determinants and promotion of oral hygiene behavior in Nepal, Uruguay, Spain and the Antilles. Furthermore, her dissertation research included studies in the Netherlands, for example in Dutch forensic psychiatric patients and among the recruits in the Dutch Army ground forces. In 2006 she received the scientific award of the ‘Vereniging Medisch Tandheelkundige Interactie’ (VMTI). After her PhD graduation she worked as a psychologist-lecturer in the school for applied psychology.

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