Abdul Adatia, an Ismaili Muslim, was born on 30 May 1928 at Mbale, Uganda, the first of ten siblings. His father, Kassam, whose philosophical views he often quoted, had a profound influence on him. He was educated at the Aga Khan Schools in Kampala, obtaining a Cambridge School Certificate with credits in 1944.

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Abdul was deeply moved by the pain and suffering caused by dental disease in Uganda, where the only treatment was provided by a travelling government dentist. In 1946, he was awarded an Aga Khan scholarship and entered University College Hospital Medical School in London. He graduated with a degree in dental surgery and was appointed House Surgeon and later Resident Dental Officer at UCH in Gower Street.

In 1953, he returned to Uganda to relieve the extreme shortage of dental services there and was appointed Honorary Consultant Oral Surgeon and Honorary Lecturer in Dental Surgery at Makerere University Medical School. One of Abdul's main focuses was his research into Burkitt's lymphoma, which he began with the Medical Research Council at Makerere University and later continued at the University of Bristol. His other main interest was teaching.

In 1968, Abdul was appointed Consultant Senior Lecturer and later Dental Clinical Dean at the University of Bristol. Between 1968 and 1978, he studied the innervation of the maxillary first molar and methods for its anaesthesia. Abdul was also an advocate for the use of Kalzinol for root fillings.

In 1983, Abdul was invited to help create a new dental school in the University of the West Indies, as Dean of the School of Dentistry and Professor of Dental Science and Clinical Practice, in St Augustine, Trinidad. On his retirement, he returned to Bristol. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and the British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, and an Honorary member of the dental associations of Hungary and Uganda. He was president of the British Society of Dental and Maxillofacial Radiology from 1983 until 1985.

Abdul's last years were troubled by dementia, a diagnosis that he refused ever really to accept. He died peacefully, on 16 May 2019, and is survived by his wife, Sheila; a son Ian, who was Professor of Paediatric Cardiology at the University of Alberta; and a daughter, Rachel, who gained a zoology degree at Oxford, before becoming involved in publishing in South Africa.