Glossop dentists reach the roof of Africa

Brian Durgan and Tim Ashworth of Durgan & Ashworth Dental Care in Glossop reached the summit of Kilimanjaro in June. At 5895 metres Kilimanjaro is the highest free-standing mountain in the world.

Oral cancer screening to be evaluated

The UK Oral Cancer Screening Evaluation Unit has received an award of £70,000 from the NHS Health Technology Assessment programme to investigate the cost effectiveness of screening for oral cancer in a primary care setting.

The unit, which is based at the Eastman Dental Institute, UCL, collaborates with a network of general dental practitioners in the South East of England and with experts from the Centre for Health Economics, University of York and in Public Health Medicine, University of Hull.

British shine at IADR

British researchers were well represented at the recent International Association for Dental Research (IADR) conference in Chiba, Japan, taking out awards in several categories at the opening ceremony. Prize winners were as follows:

The International Conference Hall was the setting of the IADR conference in Chiba, Japan.

Professor Michael Dixon, Professor of Dental Genetics and Research Dean at the University of Manchester was awarded the 2001 Craniofacial Biology Award. Dr Dixon has successfully identified the position of several genes involved in craniofacial disorders.

Dr Jonathan C. Knowles, Head of Department of Biomaterials and senior lecturer at the Eastman Dental Institute, received the 2001 Young Investigator award. His research focused on the development of new materials for tissue engineering and antimicrobial drug delivery.

Professor Aubrey Sheiham, Chair of Dental Public Health, University College London, was awarded the Behavioural Sciences and Health Services Research Award. He has spent more than three decades researching epidemiology, the soci-dento sciences and oral health services.

Dr Sharan Sidhu from the University of Newcastle received the IADR Toshio Nakao Fellowship, allowing her to spend up to six months at a research facility outside her institution and/or Britain. Dr Sidhu intends to work with David Pashley at the Medical College of Georgia.

Angela Pack, who is British but resident in New Zealand for the past 29 years, was awarded the Alan Docking IADR Science Award at the conference. She was also recently made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.

A performer at the opening ceremony.

GDC election results announced

Eighteen candidates have been elected to serve as members of the General Dental Council and six dental auxiliaries to serve on the GDC's Dental Auxiliaries Committee. The candidates will serve as members of the Council from 1 October 2001.

Fifty-one candidates in total stood for election for the constituencies of England, Northern Ireland and Wales. Fourteen candidates were elected by dentists in England, one candidate was elected in Wales and one candidate in Northern Ireland. In Scotland there were two candidates for two places, so a ballot was unnecessary. Eleven candidates stood for election to the Dental Auxiliaries Committee.

The newly elected members of the Council are:

England: Mr Paul Andrew Cook FDSRCPS, Mr Rajkuman Raja Rayan OBE FFGDP, Mr Josef Lionel Rich OBE, Mr John Norman Chope MFGDP, Mr Leslie Brian Lux LDSRCS, Professor Crispian Michael Anthony Scully CBE PhD, Mrs Meredyth Cheryl Bell MBE, Mr Amolak Singh MFGDP, Mr Douglas Charles McDonald Pike BDS, Mr David Andrew Keetley DGDP, Mr John David Barnard CBE, Mr James Gerard Lafferty BDS, Mr Kersasp Burjorji Fanibunda MDS, Ms Alison Ruth Lockyer BDS.

Wales: Mr Trevor Thomas Griffiths DGDP (UK)

Northern Ireland: Mr Richard Graham DGDP

Scotland: Mr Hew Byrne Mathewson FDSRCS, Mr Jason Andrew Leitch FDSRCS

The newly elected members of the Dental Auxiliaries Committee are: Mrs Rosemarie Khan OBE Ms Sheila Yvonne Phillips Miss Mabel Slater Miss Julia Brewi Mrs Susan Lloyd CEB Mrs Susan Skinner EDH.

Charity gives hope to children in Ukraine

Earlier this year dentist Sue Dalton and colleague Barbara Baker visited the former Soviet Union to bring dental health education and care to the needy children of the Ukraine.

The pair heard of the need through the charity Hope Now, which helps the people of the Ukraine in the medical, humanitarian and religious aspects of their lives.

Says Sue, "We set off armed with 50 sets of dental mirrors and probes, a headlamp, sterilising solution, 200 toothbrushes and tubes of toothpaste, 2000 paracetemol tablets and the laptop computer!"

Sue and Barbara visited the Smila 2 internat, home to about 175 children, between the ages of seven and 16 and the Stomatological Polyclinic. Here, staff were having difficulty with the four dental units installed by a team from the UK a few years earlier, so Sue and others outlined measures to see how these could be put right.

The pair also visited the children's surgical department in the regional hospital. Hope Now has committed to supplying the department with new mattresses and bed linen in the immediate future, planning to contact another charity whose priority is to supply specialist surgical needs.

The charity hopes more dentists will take up the challenge and travel to the Ukraine for short trips, perhaps one or two weeks. For more information about Hope Now or how you can help the children of Ukraine, telephone 02380 766845.