CGDent recorded webinar, Monday 20 September 2021
Dr Jalpesh Patel considers the potential complications involved in delivering non-surgical facial aesthetic treatments, how the risks of some of these complications can be mitigated, and how complications can be best managed where they arise.
Continue reading “Non-Surgical Facial Aesthetics: Complications”
Recorded webinar. Monday 6 September 2021.
Dental healthcare professionals who have been redeployed during the pandemic discuss their experiences in this webinar hosted by the College and ProDental CPD. Reviewing real life stories, the panel talk about what it was like, who did what and what was learnt? They also consider whether the experience has helped others realise that dental professionals ARE healthcare professionals.
This event is part of the ‘PDJ Live’ webinar series that explores topics covered in the Primary Dental Journal, the College’s highly-regarded, quarterly journal for the entire general dental team.
Aims:
To consider the various redeployment options that were undertaken by dental professionals during COVID-19.
Objectives:
Chair:
Wendy Thompson
Speakers:
The recording of this webinar is available here.
CGDent members and ProDental subscribers have free access to the recording and can claim CPD for free. A £20 fee applies for non-members/non-subscribers.
This webinar is part of the new partnership between the College of General Dentistry (CGDent) and ProDental CPD. To receive information on upcoming events, sign up to the CGDent newsletter.
Membership of the College of General Dentistry is open to all registered dental professionals. Find out more here. Membership for dentists is available from £94, and for other registered dental professionals from £33. The full list of CGDent membership rates is at https://cgdent.uk/membership-fees/.
President Emeritus, Professor Nairn Wilson FCGDent, welcomes members to the College of General Dentistry and reflects on the impact of the new College for the general dental profession.
Congratulations on your membership of the College. Please use your new postnominals -FCGDent for Fellows, AssocFCGDent for Associate Fellows and MCGDent for members, to help raise awareness of the College. Also, please encourage the members of your dental team, together with your friends, acquaintances and colleagues in dentistry to follow your good example and join the College. The more members, the sooner the College is going to be able to make application for a Royal Charter, establish faculties and schools and much more besides.
If only dentistry had had its own independent Royal College in years gone by, the standing and status of the profession, the importance of oral health to general health and wellbeing and the impact of dentistry, both NHS and private in healthcare provision would be in a much better place. The College, which is going from strength to strength, intends, amongst many other things, to address these issues and while it is at it, work on transforming public attitude to oral health and the value of lifelong, longitudinal dental care. I see the introduction of the College being akin to a tethered boxer suddenly having full use of both hands. The activation of the College changes the odds which, despite the commendable, ongoing work of the professional associations, have plagued dentistry for longer than anyone cares to remember.
When the College is firmly established as a Royal College of high national and international standing, oral healthcare professionals will look back and wonder how dentistry managed prior to 2021 – no unified voice for the whole profession, a mishmash of career arrangements, exclusion from critical, high level considerations of healthcare, and, most importantly dentistry being undervalued and poorly understood. Our successors, in looking back, will recognise and thank all those who got behind the formation of the College, specifically those listed in the College’s Roll of Honour. As a pioneer in the membership of the College, you too could be included in the Roll, if you are not already listed – a once in a lifetime opportunity to be immortalised in the early history of the College. All you have to do is contact me ([email protected]) and I will be delighted to guide you through the process.
In encouraging you to help fuel the College fire, and get behind our elected President, Abhi Pal, and the recently constituted College Council, the only way forward must be seen to be ‘up’. The College needs more than being timely, unique and forward thinking; it needs its members to be committed to its purpose and vision. Knowing many of the founding members of the College, hopefully including yourself, the College can be confident in going forward. No problem however difficult, no barrier however high, no disagreement however polarised should stop the College realising its transformational potential.
The future of the College and, in turn, dentistry, which I believe to be full of exciting opportunity, is in your hands, as members of the College. Get engaged, help recruit more members and together change things for the better – your College, your future, your call!
The Faculty of General Dental Practice UK (FGDP UK) has today completed its separation from the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS England) to join the new College of General Dentistry, realising the ultimate ambition of its founding members to establish an independent college for general dental practice.
At the start of its 25th anniversary year in 2017, the Faculty announced that it would begin preparing for independence. Today’s separation sees FGDP UK’s charitable functions transferred to the College of General Dentistry (CGDent) which was formally launched earlier this month (1July 2021).
RCS England has long supported dental surgeons, and is proud of its role in providing an academic home for general dental professionals for over 40 years. The Faculty of Dental Surgery (FDS), which remains at RCS England, first held an examination for general dental practitioners, the Membership in General Dental Surgery, in 1979.
Since its establishment in 1992, FGDP UK’s mission has been to positively influence oral health through the education of the general dental professions and the provision of evidence-based guidance. The CGDent will now assume these responsibilities, and is grateful to RCS England for its role in establishing the FGDP, and for enabling it to grow and thrive in preparation for its eventual independence.
FGDP UK and FDS have frequently collaborated, perhaps most notably in the delivery of the MJDF (Membership of the Joint Dental Faculties) examination, and the RCS England and CGDent are committed to continuing to work together going forward in the interests of the dental professions and the patients they serve.
Commenting on the separation, Professor Neil Mortensen, President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said:
“We wish our colleagues from FGDP very well as they embark on the exciting task of establishing the College of General Dentistry. Together, over the last 29 years, we have provided a professional home for general dental practitioners, and the FGDP been a positive force for improving the care provided to patients. I am left in no doubt that we will continue to work together in the future to build on this very important work.”
Abhi Pal FCGDent, Dean of the Faculty of General Dental Practice UK, said:
“Today sees the realisation of the vision of our founders to develop the FGDP towards the ultimate goal of independence, and I thank the Royal College of Surgeons of England for supporting our profession by hosting us for the last 30 years. I would also like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the thousands of colleagues without whose participation none of the Faculty’s achievements would have been possible. We are extremely grateful for the hundreds of thousands of hours given by so many over the years to running our regional divisions, supporting study groups, marking examinations, organising CPD days, drafting standards, developing curricula, serving on our boards and committees, peer reviewing papers and all our many other activities which ultimately benefit the general dental professions and our patients. I would also like to thank all our members for their support, and I look forward to continuing to serve you as President of CGDent.”
Janet Clarke MBE FCGDent, Chair of the College of General Dentistry, said:
“The transfer of the Faculty of General Dental Practice into the College of General Dentistry is a hugely significant moment, and I would like to welcome all transferring FGDP members to the UK’s first and long-awaited independent college for dentistry. We have already launched an enhanced set of membership benefits in preparation for your arrival, and look forward to engaging you as we seek to build on the work of the FGDP to develop guidance and career pathways for the whole dental team.”
Phil Dawson, general dental practitioner with a special interest in restorative dentistry, explains how the College’s Career Pathway for dentists is being developed to provide a clearly defined structure whilst offering the flexibility needed by the contemporary practitioner.
I graduated from the University of Liverpool in December 1991 before commencing my first role as an associate dentist in sunny Wigan the following month. If someone had asked me back then what my career goals were, I think I probably would have answered “to be a dentist”! Now the best part of 30 years later, I sit writing this blog having achieved, I feel, this mighty goal!
During this time, I am or have variously been:
Despite the above list, if asked by anyone I still describe my job as a “dentist”!
The various stages in my career have developed not as part of some grand master plan, but rather by independent, often disjointed steps. I suspect I will not be alone in this mode of career progression. My career history goes to prove that dental careers often ‘happen’ and develop over the course of our practising lifetime, possibly in unplanned ways and taking directions which initially seem quite unlikely.
My association with FGDP and CGDent began when I completed the second cohort of the Restorative Diploma in 2008. This was to turn out to be a pivotal moment in my career development as most of the roles in the list above were as a direct consequence of this qualification, including becoming Course Lead/Director for the Diploma in a classic poacher turned gamekeeper move! My eternal gratitude goes to Professor Paul Brunton and Mr Ian Wood for such inspiration.
This close association culminated in being asked by CGDent to be Chair of the Working Group for Career Pathways for Dentists. I was tasked with recruiting a group of individuals that was representative of dentists today – no easy task I admit, but I have been blessed with meeting some highly motivated and intelligent fellow dentists throughout my career so far.
The idea was to develop a pathway that identified the different stages of career progression, the key features of these different stages and how these stages might be evidenced. Right from the outset it was emphasised that the old-fashioned notion of ‘tick-box’ career progression was NOT what we were after! Yes, we wanted a framework for career progression, but it was imperative that this framework contained a great degree of flexibility so as to allow the modern 21st century dentist to adequately showcase their career development whilst also allowing the profession and the public to be confident that such a framework represented a safe and coherent structure to career progression.
Another exciting feature was that this process was to be introduced throughout the WHOLE of the dental team – different working groups were to be similarly set up looking at career progression for hygienist/therapists; dental nurses and orthodontic therapists; clinical dental technicians and dental technicians. I felt this was such an important feature of the process – aligning the career pathways of the WHOLE of the dental team as befits the College of General Dentistry.
My aim was to recruit a team of individuals who, using their own experiences and visions, would be able to develop ideas of career progression along the lines set out above. It was humbling that everyone I approached did agree to join the Working Group – and so it is made up of quite an eclectic group of individuals.
The College’s aim in developing these Career Pathways, is to provide some structure to aid our career progression without this being too prescriptive. As you will appreciate from reading this blog, my own career has followed quite a unique pathway, and the Working Group has been keen to allow for this variability in career development.
As I write this, the final version is still in development but the end-product is looking very exciting. I wish such a structure had been in place all those years ago on that first journey from Liverpool to Wigan….!!
You may also be interested in reading blogs from other practitioners involved in developing the Career Pathways programme.
The Council of the College of General Dentistry convened for the first time on Friday, 23 July 2021, welcoming new members to expand representation across the dental team.
The Council is elected by the membership, and continues its work from the Board of the Faculty of General Dental Practice (UK), which is in the process of transferring to the College. Chaired by the President of the College, Abhi Pal FCGDent, the Council is the senior professional forum of the College and guides College Trustees on its development to serve patients and the dental professions across general dentistry. Dr Pal is supported by the recently-elected Vice Presidents, Roshni Karia MCGDent and Tashfeen Kholasi MCGDent.
CGDent Recorded webinar, Thursday 22 July 2021
Dr Jalpesh Patel uses clinical case studies to demonstrate the importance of the assessment phase, applied facial anatomy, treatment planning and subsequent treatment of multiple regions of the face with cosmetic injectables. It gives learners who have little or no experience in this field an appreciation of the clinical aspects of the patient journey and what can be achieved.
Continue reading “Facial Aesthetics: Clinical Cases and Applied Anatomy”The College of General Dentistry, in partnership with Colgate Palmolive UK,
announces an important programme to build career pathways for all those working in
a professional capacity in primary care and general dentistry, which will be rolled out
in the coming months following the opening of the College to membership on 1 July
2021.
The Career Pathways initiative brings together all roles in the dental team to create life-long career structures: to enhance professional standing, and to engage the confidence of patients in the skills and care they receive.
At a time when there has never been a greater need to retain and nurture a motivated workforce in dentistry, this programme aims to provide purpose and direction for careers across the whole team. It is an initiative developed for the dental professions, by the dental professions, but has attracted much wider attention at a time of special concern about oral healthcare across the UK and access to services.
The College will be structuring its membership to reflect important career stages for each and every member of the dental team. Membership is open to all registered dental professionals, and Faculties of the College will support each team member with their own career development and aspirations.
The Career Pathways programme is led by Janet Clarke MBE FCGDent, Chair of Trustees, and Abhi Pal FCGDent, its new President, together with Roshni Karia MCGDent, Vice President, and Simon Thornton-Wood PhD, Lead Executive for the College.
An authoritative group of dental professionals have been brought together for the programme, in working groups led by Debbie Reed (Dental Nursing and Orthodontic Therapy), Emma Pacey (Dental Hygiene & Dental Therapy), Michael Brindle & Darren Ware (Dental Technology & Clinical Dental Technology), and Philip Dawson (Dental Practitioners).
More details of the programme can be found on the College’s website.
Janet Clarke said:
The College of General Dentistry is now open, welcoming all members of the dental team. Our driving passion is to enhance the careers of dental professionals in the patient interest: there is an acute need for direction and support in primary care and general dentistry careers today. Together with Colgate, we are excited to be bringing forward new and accessible ways to develop skills and enhance the team, over the coming months.
Dr Emanuele Cotroneo, Scientific Affairs Project Manager for Colgate in Northern
Europe, said:
Colgate is most proud of this exclusive partnership with the newly launched College of General Dentistry, which enables the development of the College Career Pathways. This important partnership further supports Colgate’s continuing mission in becoming a valuable partner in dental education and professional development. The Career Pathways will provide a structured guide for dental professionals to pursue their clinical interests as well as enhancing their skills.
Dr Heather Mitchell, Dentist and HEE Clinical Fellow engaged in the programme,
said:
The College’s commitment to prioritise a patient-centred approach to oral health care, as well as provide a much-needed structure for skills and career development, will serve to improve professionalism in dentistry. In turn, this will hopefully strengthen patient trust in their oral healthcare, benefitting the oral health of the nation. From my involvement in the programme, I can really appreciate what a great opportunity this has been to work on such an innovative project so early on in my career, I feel proud of what we have managed to achieve and am looking forward to sharing it more widely.
Andrea Johnson, Dental Technician and a member of the Career Pathways
Programme Reference Group, said:
I am very excited t o work with the College and with like-minded professionals from across dentistry to help define the dental college of the future that we all want and most definitely need. I urge all members of the team in oral healthcare, in the strongest possible way, to join the College and be proud to be part of something amazing.
Today, 1st July, marks a momentous day in the history of dentistry in the UK as the College of General Dentistry officially opened in a ceremony at the Barber Surgeons Hall. Dentistry now has its own, independent College. The new College of General Dentistry embraces the whole dental team, recognising the invaluable contribution made by every member of the dental profession in delivering high quality oral health care for patients and the wider community.
Recorded webinar. Monday 5 July 2021.
The panel discuss the new Mental Health Wellness in Dentistry initiative, and how to act in a timely, appropriate, and safe manner when identifying mental health wellness issues in the dental workplace. The webinar also highlights the findings of a paper on mental health that will be published in an upcoming issue of the College of General Dentistry’s Primary Dental Journal.
This is the first event under the new partnership announced between the College of General Dentistry (CGDent) and ProDental CPD, and is being held in collaboration with the Dental Professional Alliance.
Continue reading “Mental Health Wellness Framework”
