Editor awarded NVQ

BDJ editor Mike Grace has been awarded a Level 5 NVQ in operational management. Level 5 is the equivalent of a postgraduate degree.

Mike is pictured above receiving the award from BDA president Bill Allen (left). Ewa Bardell, Head of Training Services at City of Westminster College and Programme Director for the Institute of Management Assessment Centre, is in the background.

A reason to smile at Smilecare

Robert Harding and Hatim Kapadia, co-founders of Smilecare, and their team have recently been awarded Investor in People status by Sussex Enterprise at the Smilecare Dental Centre in Crawley. Smilecare is the first practice in Mid-Sussex to have received the recognition.

Above: Robert Harding (second from right) and Hatim Kapadia (front right) and the staff of Smilecare receive their award from Chris Eubank (centre).

Smilecare has become the 30th dental practice that UMD Professional Ltd has helped to achieve Investor in People recognition this year.

Antibiotic resistance study funded

Dr A. J. Smith and Dr K. Roy from the Infection Research Group, Glasgow Dental Hospital and School have been awarded a grant from the Scottish Office to co-ordinate a national multicentre surveillance study for antibiotic resistance in organisms isolated from dento-alveolar infections.

The new surveillance system will per- mit a more rational choice of empirical treatment and allow for the early detection of new resistance mechanisms.

President installed at SAAD

Dr Christopher Holden (above, left) has been installed as President of SAAD, The Society for the Advancement of Anaesthesia in Dentistry, by retiring President Dr David Phillips (right). The presentation took place at the SAAD annual conference at the Royal Society of Medicine.

Dr Christopher Holden (above, left) has been installed as President of SAAD, The Society for the Advancement of Anaesthesia in Dentistry, by retiring President Dr David Phillips (right).

Dr Holden said in his presidential address that to truly and permanently reduce the demand for GA, conscious sedation skills must become more widely available in the primary care setting.

Peak practice

Ewen (bottom, right), who is currently on secondment to the Royal Brunei Armed Forces, was part of a five man team competing in the event. He is pictured (clockwise from left) with colleagues P. Reynolds, C. Baylis and N. Atkinson.

Major Ewen McColl (Royal Army Dental Corps) recently completed the gruelling Mount Kinabalu Climbathon which is described as the 'Toughest Mountain Race in the World'.

The annual event is held in Borneo and covers a distance of 21 kilometres, ascending to a height of 13,420 feet at the summit of Mount Kinabalu, which is South East Asia's highest peak.