Soar above the rest

Soar Valley Dental Practice in Barrow upon Soar has recently achieved the 'Investors in People' award. Sanita Jassal (second from left), the practice proprietor said 'Everyone at the practice is very excited and proud to receive this award which recognizes our commitment to training our staff to deliver the best possible service to our patients'. Also present at the presentation lunch at Leicester City Football Club were Duncan Morris, of B&D Morris Engineering (left), Jan Schroeder, Practice Manager (second from right) and Caroline Hamilton (right), leader of the first-ever all female expeditions to the North and South Poles.

Council provides guidance for CPD providers

The General Dental Council has recently issued some guidance for educational providers who are intending to provide courses for the Council's new Recertification Scheme which is due to start later this year. The Continuing Professional Development (CPD) that dentists will have to complete for Recertification will consist of 250 hours over five years, with at least 75 of those hours being verifiable. The notes detail the educational criteria which courses will have to fulfill in order to be classed as verifiable, provides information on how courses should be identified as verifiable to dentists, what information should be included on certificates and the types of activity that may qualify as verifiable CPD.

The Council does not intend to accredit existing or future courses as they feel this would limit the choices and stifle innovation. With this in mind the notes also stress that providers should not limit themselves to courses but encourages poviders to exploit the widest range of delivery methods possible.

Royal Air Force reunion

On Saturday 1st July 2000, the Royal Air Force Dental Branch will celebrate its seventieth anniversary at Royal Air Force Halton near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. To commemorate the Anniversary a stained glass window has been commissioned for St George's Church at RAF Halton. The window is to be dedicated to all members of the Dental Branch, past and present, at a service on the day of the anniversary celebration. Prior to the service the former Institute of of Dental Health and Training building will be open for past branch members to take a stroll down memory lane. Any retired Dental Officer wishing to attend should contact Wing Commander M T Mayhew at HQDDA, RAF Halton, Aylesbury Bucks.

Smiles round the world

Two pilots from the UK are currently risking life and limb in aid of the dental charity 'Operation Smile'. Colin Bodil, a flying instructor from Nottingham is attempting to become the first person to fly round the world in a microlight. His colleague, Jennifer Murray (inset) is attempting to become the first woman to circumnavigate the world. Since it was founded over 18 years ago, Operation Smile have provided free, reconstructive facial surgery for tens of thousands of children in 22 developing countries and across the United States. At time of writing the expeditions had just survived monsoons which hit them after they left Calcutta. The expeditions progress can be followed on at http://challenge.now.com.

Tony Blair opens clinic

Tony Blair has opened the first nurse-led, walk-in clinic in the UK. The Department of Health funded centre is run by North Peterborough Primary Care Trust.

Mineralised prize

At the British Society for Dental Research meeting in Lancaster, the Mineralised Tissue Research Prize of the society was awarded to Ms Rachel Sugars from the Cardiff Dental School for her paper 'Evidence for interaction s of mineralized tissue proteins with alpha2-Hsglycoproteins during their purification'.

Caption: back (left to right) Professor M Edgar, S Challacombe, Professor Tony Smith, Professor B Embery. Front Ms R Sugars, Dr M Courtney.

Poetry for teeth

All smiles: Graham Barnby (back left), Trustee of the BDHF; Zena Carrick (back right), of Barnet Healthcare Trust; Ms Rowswell, headteacher of Holly Park Junior School accompanied by Amber, Hannah, Dominique, Gemma, Sabina and (hiding) James' best friend.

Barnet Healthcare NHS Trust, in conjunction with the British Dental Health Foundation, has announced the presentation of a trophy shield, donated by the foundation, to Holly Park Junior School in Friern Barnet as winners of the National Smile Week competition. Since 1981 Barnet Community Dental Service have supported the British Dental Health Foundation's National Smile Week which promotes oral health in schools by inviting the 70 junior schools in the borough to enter a competition. Holly Park School wrote a series of poems about oral health that will be collected into a book and distributed to local schools.

The Queen honours four from the profession

The Birthday honours list was announced last month, and dentists were well represented with the following receiving recognition for their services to dentistry

John Hunt

John Hunt, Chief Executive of the BDA, has been awarded OBE for his services to the dental profession. John's career began at Guy's Hospital then working at the Eastman Dental Center in the USA and at the London Hospital as a registrar. After twelve years running a busy practice he and his family moved to Hong Kong to work at the new Prince Philip Dental School. Returning to the UK he worked for the Department of Health before being appointed Chief Executive and Secretary of the BDA in 1993. John is due to retire at the end of this year

David Barnard

David Barnard, Dean of the Faculty of Dental Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCSE), has been awarded CBE.

David qualified at Guy's and went on to work at the Royal Naval Dental Service. He was awarded the Huntarian Professorship at the RCSE in 1978 and worked as Consultant to the Portsmouth Hospitals. He was President of the BDA Hospitals Group and then Chairman of the Hospital Group Committee. He was also a member, and Chairman from 1995–1998, of the Central Committee for Hopital Dental Services of the BDA. A member of the Board of Faculty of Dental Surgery of the RCSE since 1995, David is also a member of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, the General Dental Council and the Standing Dental Advisory Committee. He was elected a Fellow of the RCSE earlier this year.

Stephen Rear

Stephen Read has been awarded MBE. He was the first Dean of the Faculty of General Dental Practitioners of the RCSE having served on the Board for ten years. He lead the negotiations which resulted in the formation and launch of the Faculty of General Dental Practitioners at the Royal College of the Surgeons of England. In 1997 he was one of the first to be elected to the BDA Role of Distinction and became a Fellow of the International College of Dentistry in 1999.

Maureen Pinnell

Maureen Pinnell has been awarded MBE. She has worked as the Administrator in the Dental Postgraduate Department, UWCM, Cardiff for almost 24 years, prior to her recent retirement. She worked with three Postgraduate Dental Deans during this period, John Wolfle, Richard Green and Eric Nash. Maureen has made a significant contribution to dental postgraduate education in Wales