Carrigan Parish, PhD, DDS

  • Assistant Professor of Sociomedical Sciences at CUMC
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Overview

Dr. Carrigan Parish earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, summa cum laude, in Integrative Biology from University of California, Berkeley in 2005 and as a Phi Beta Kappa initiate. She graduated from Harvard School of Dental Medicine in 2009 with her DMD degree, and then completed an additional year of residency training in special needs dentistry at Tufts University School of Dental School, with an emphasis on treatment of developmentally disabled, medically compromised, and emergency patients in both the clinical and hospital settings. Dr. Parish also earned her PhD in Epidemiology in 2018 at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

Dr. Parish is a special needs dentist specializing in access to oral health care for medically compromised and underserved individuals, including those who are HIV-positive. She also has a strong research interest in prescription drug abuse in the dental setting, and is currently working on a NIDA-funded study assessing dentists' stigma towards patients who use drugs. She has also published in American Journal of Public Health, JAIDS, Special Care Dentistry (for which she serves as a reviewer), and Preventing Chronic Disease. Many of these manuscripts report on the findings from her study team's nationally representative survey of U.S. dentists regarding their practices of, attitudes towards, and willingness to conduct chair-side medical screenings in the dental setting, a topic which she continues to pursue. Her first-author publication in the leading substance use disorders journal, Addiction, about dentists' willingness to screen their patients for substance misuse and dentists' acceptance of substance misuse screening as part of their professional role was cited in the first ever Surgeon General's Report on the opioid epidemic in 2016, Facing Addiction in America. 

Through her involvement with the Women's Interagency HIV Study, a cohort study that has been following HIV-positive and high risk HIV-negative women for decades, her dissertation focused on assessing oral health related quality of life and dental care utilization among HIV-positive and HIV-negative women and examine how these factors are related to perceived dental treatment needs, socioeconomic factors, risk behaviors, and medical care utilization in a cohort of HIV-positive women over time.

Academic Appointments

  • Assistant Professor of Sociomedical Sciences at CUMC

Credentials & Experience

Education & Training

  • BA, 2005 University of California at Berkeley
  • 2009 Harvard School of Dental Medicine
  • 2010 Tufts University School of Dental Medicine GPR
  • PhD, 2018 University of Miami Miller School of Medicine

Research

Selected Publications

Parish C, Feaster D, Pereyra M, et al. Women’s HIV disclosure to the dentist: Does frequent contact matter? J Public Health Dent 2021; 81(1): 65-76. doi: 10.1111/jphd.12403.

Parish C, Feaster D, Pereyra M, et al. Oral health-related quality of life and unmet dental needs among women living with HIV. J Am Dent Assoc 2020; 151(7): 527-535. doi: 10.1016/j.adaj.2020.04.013.

Parish C, Feaster D, Pereyra M, et al. Dental Insurance, Dental Care Utilization and Perceived Unmet Dental needs in Women Living with HIV: Results from the Women’s Interagency HIV Study. J Pub Health Dent 2019; 79(4): 343-351. doi: 10.1111/jphd.12336.

Parish, C.L., Pereyra, M., Abel, S.N., Siegel, K., Pollack, H.A., Metsch, L.R. Intimate Partner Violence Screening in the Dental Setting: Results of a Nationally Representative Survey. J Amer Dent Assoc 2018; 149(2): 112 - 121.

Parish, C, Santella, A. A Qualitative Study of Rapid HIV Testing and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Competency in the Oral Health Setting: Practices and Attitudes of New York State Dental Directors. Oral Health Prev Dent 2018; 16: 333-338.

Parish, C.L., Siegel, K., Liguori, T., Abel, S.N., Pollack, H.A., Pereyra, M.R., Metsch, L.R. HIV Testing in the Dental Setting: Perspectives and Practices of Experienced Dentists. AIDS Care 2017; 30(3): 347-352.

Parish CL, Pereyra M, Pollack HA, Cardenas G, Castellon P, Abel SN, Singer R, Metsch LR. Screening for drug misuse in the dental care setting: findings from a nationally representative survey of dentists. Addiction 2015; 110(9): 1516-23.

Parish CL, Siegel K, Pereyra M, Liguori T, Metsch L. Barriers and Facilitators to Dental Care among HIV-Infected Adults. Spec Care Dent 2015; 35(6): 294-302.

Parish CL, Singer R, Abel SN, Metsch LR. Addressing the oral healthcare needs of special needs children: pediatric nurses' self-perceived effectiveness. Spec Care Dentist 2014; 34(2): 88-95.

Santella AJ, Parish C, Feaster DJ, et al. Dental Care Utilization of Hospitalized Persons Living with HIV and Substance Use. J Community Health 2021; 46(3):557-564. doi: 10.1007/s10900-020-00876-y.