Patron's prize

The Special Smiles Dental Project, a collaboration between NHS Lanarkshire and Action for Sick Children Scotland (ASCS), won the National Oral Health Promotion Group (NOHPG) Patron's Prize at the NOHPG conference in Manchester and was one of four finalists at the Bright Smiles-Bright Futures Award, at the International Association of Paediatric Dentistry's 25th Congress in Glasgow.

The project's specially developed resource dental playbox is used in schools which teach children with additional and complex support needs. NHS Lanarkshire consultant in dental public health, Dr Albert Yeung, has promoted the work and is a member of the Special Smiles Project Advisory Group. He collected the national award on behalf of NHS Lanarkshire and ASCS.

The first UK Ambassador

Dr Peter Sanders has been named the first UK Ambassador of the Intraoral Welding concept, a ground breaking new method of implant placement based on a resistance spot welding principle.

Dr Sanders was awarded the title of 'UK Ambassador' following intense scrutiny from Dr Marco Degidi, who has researched and developed the intraoral welding method over the last 15-20 years.

Dr Degidi (of Bologna, Italy) reviewed several of Dr Sanders' cases before approving and commending his use of the advanced technique. Following his approval, Dr Degidi declared Dr Sanders the first UK Ambassador of intraoral welding. This title follows Dr Sanders' achievement of being the first dentist in the UK to practice the technique in 2013.