Patricia Thomson and Matthew Collins have been elected as Vice Presidents of the College for 2023-24.
Matthew Collins FCGDent is a general dental practitioner in Batley with a particular clinical interest in dental rehabilitations for patients with worn and missing teeth. He graduated from Leeds University in 1998 and has undertaken extensive postgraduate training in composite techniques, aesthetic dentistry and dental implantology, holding both a Master’s degree in Clinical Dentistry from the University of London and the Diploma in Implant Dentistry of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He joined the former Faculty of General Dental Practice UK (FGDP) in 2001, achieved Fellowship in 2010, and was later a Facilitator for the Faculty’s Preparing for Fellowship programme and a member of the Faculty Academy. He was elected to the FGDP Board as a National Representative in 2020, transferred to the College Council in 2021, and is a member of the College’s Membership Admissions Panel and Regional Funding Panel. He is also Chair of Calderdale and Kirklees Local Dental Committee and a member of the Association of Dental Implantology.
Patricia Thomson FCGDent was re-elected after serving as Vice President of the College in 2022-23. A general dental practitioner with an interest in orthodontics, she was Principal of a mixed NHS-and-private practice for over thirty years and is now a part-time associate dentist. She graduated from Glasgow Dental School in 1983, and is now also a part time Clinical Teaching Fellow there, teaching undergraduates in the restorative department. She was awarded an MSc in Primary Dental Care with distinction from the University of Glasgow in 2013, the Diploma of Membership of the Joint Dental Faculties of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (MJDF) in 2014, and the Diploma of Membership of the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow (MFDS) in 2015. Heavily involved in the highly active West of Scotland division of the FGDP for many years, she has tutored colleagues for entry exams for the Royal Colleges and presented teaching sessions on orthodontics to vocational trainees, and in 2021 she led the establishment of CGDent Scotland. Elected in 2016 to represent the West and North of Scotland on the national FGDP Board, she was re-elected in 2019, transferred to the College Council in 2021 and chairs the College’s Regional Funding Panel. She is also a Fellow of the International College of Dentists and a Past President of the West of Scotland branch of the British Dental Association.
The College’s two Vice Presidents are elected annually by, and from within, the College Council, and support the President of the College in the delivery of the Council’s strategy and policy.
