1920–2016

Declan Anderson was a dentist and physiologist. He died at 95 on March 27 2016. He was educated at Christ's Hospital School and Guy's Hospital. After graduating in dentistry in 1942, he went on to obtain a BSc in Physiology and a PhD.

He published widely and his first paper, on the temperature changes in teeth produced by drilling, was on research done as an undergraduate. He was the first person to record masticatory forces in humans during natural chewing. He did this with a miniature transducer that he skilfully engineered and incorporated into a gold inlay in a molar. This was featured in a live broadcast from his laboratory in one of the early programmes in the BBC's Tomorrow's World series. But he is best known for his work on the sensory mechanisms responsible for pain from dentine, a field to which he and his students have contributed extensively.

He also made important contributions to dental education. He believed strongly that staff involved in teaching or research in dental sciences should not be based in isolated departments in dental schools; but in larger departments in medical schools or university science faculties. He found support for this view in the 1960s from Arthur Darling, who was then Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in Bristol. As a result, Bristol created five lectureships for dentists in basic science departments in the medical school, and a chair in oral biology to oversee these posts and integrate science and clinical teaching in the dental school. Declan was appointed to that chair in 1966, and remained in the post until he retired in 1985.

The group that he formed in Bristol was very successful. At the last count, 12 of Declan's PhD students are professors and among these are past or present heads of department and deans, and the editor of an international research journal.

He had a wonderful sense of humour and sharp wit. He was very fond of practical jokes, which he often devised with his friend James Mansie at Guy's.

Declan was an accomplished silversmith. He always used traditional techniques and hand-tools, and was commissioned to make many pieces as gifts or presentations for individuals and organisations; all with his DJA hallmark, of which he was very proud. He wrote two books on silversmithing. Further details of his work as a silversmith can be found online at http://www.bristoldentalalumni.co.uk/.../Mouthpiece-Special-Root-76-Edition.

His wife, Joy, predeceased him, as did two of their seven children.