It has been a busy year with reunion tours and it has been great to meet so many of you in person. The refurbishment of the Dental School has attracted a lot of attention and none more so than from previous graduates who wanted to take a trip down memory lane and see the changes at first hand. Many found the changes so dramatic that they could not identify exactly where in the building they were or what had occupied the site previously. During the Christmas student vacation, the refurbishment of the Restorative Clinic was completed with the replacement of the remaining older chairs to provide us with 61 new dental units in total for this clinic.

 

The refurbishment now provides the entire clinical establishment with new dental equipment that makes us the envy of all other dental schools. It only remains now for some decorating to complete the package. After the stairs in  the University extension are painted, we (the BDAA) intend to group together graduation pictures with those of the same years taken at reunions. These will adorn the walls for all to see. Last year, I mentioned that the School had appointed its first joint NHS/University Dental Services Manager. Our head of School – Professor Jonathan Sandy – has recently taken on another joint role and will be the Lead Doctor for the Dental Hospital. This 'joined-up' thinking is thought to be good practice so that both stakeholders will be considered at meetings at all levels. We wish him well for this new joint role. Emily Villis has also joined the team as the new Finance Manager. It is hoped that this management team will approach new opportunities eagerly.

 

This year has seen two examples of this joined-up thinking that has benefited both School and Hospital: a new Masters Programme in Implantology has been developed and is being led by Dr Dominic O’Sullivan, and a new training programme for Orthodontic therapists has had its first cohort of students. The latter course is being led by Christian Day who is an NHS Consultant in Orthodontics. Dominic and Christian are both previous graduates from Bristol University. The student expansion programme continues and we now have four years with the increased student numbers. Despite the 46% increase in student numbers, our current academic staffing levels are lower than they were before the expansion. However, we carry on valiantly in the face of adversity. We were disappointed to lose another of our own graduates, Rahat Ali, from his post as Lecturer in Restorative Dentistry. We wish him well in his new appointment as a Specialist Registrar at the Leeds Dental Institute. Last year, I reported that Helen Peterson had been appointed to a new Walport Lecturer post in Oral Medicine. This year I am delighted to inform everyone that our Academic Clinical Fellow has been successful in obtaining a Wellcome Trust Research Training Fellowship and will complete her PhD studies in microbiology under the supervision of Professor Howard Jenkinson.

 

During the past year we have been subjected to a Departmental Review by academics from other dental schools and from other departments within our own university. I am pleased to say that the results of this review were favourable. We were informed of some matters that we should consider for improvement and we have done this by assembling a scanning group from amongst the staff.