Category: News

The College of General Dentistry is seeking two Trustees – one dental and one independent – to help us in our historic mission to build a future Royal College for dentistry.

Our dental Trustees are registered dental professionals, and our independent Trustees come from outside of dentistry. Both are central to the effective delivery of our mission, contributing to custodianship of the organisation, and require a thorough appreciation of the role of a Trustee in a modern charity and professional membership body.

The Trustee Board, chaired by Dr Mick Horton FCGDent, works alongside the elected Council of the College, which oversees the professional affairs of the organisation and is chaired by the President of the College, Dr Abhi Pal FCGDent. Trustees must demonstrate high standards of behaviour and attitude, reflecting the inclusive professionalism that we seek to embody and contributing to the development of the organisation’s values. They will appreciate the business imperatives underpinning a growing organisation, reconciling financial viability with delivery of our overall mission in the patient and public interest. Trustees are appointed for a term of three years.

The role profile for both Trustee positions is available below:

Profile for the role of Trustee

Dental Trustee

For the position of Dental Trustee, you must be a registered dental professional. We are particularly interested in attracting people who can help us to engage widely across the dental team, as we seek to reflect their wide range of backgrounds and aspirations. The proportion of women and dental professionals from different backgrounds on the Register is growing, and we want our Trustee Board to be truly inclusive and reflective of our community.

Independent Trustee

Our independent Trustees, who come from outside dentistry, play a central role in the effective delivery of our mission.

The Board of Trustees has identified a need to supplement their skills in a key area and would be particularly keen for applications from those with experience of entrepreneurial development in a not-for-profit context and / or those with membership and professional body development.

For both positions, applicants should email their CV and a covering letter, citing two referees, to [email protected]

Deadline for applications:

Independent Trustee – Tuesday 5th September 2023. Dental Trustee – Sunday 16 July 2023.

It is intended that appointees will be in place by October 2023.

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Andrew Hadden has been awarded the prestigious College Medal, the highest honour bestowed by the College. 

Reserved for no more than one recipient per year, the College Medal is awarded for exceptional service of the dental profession and its patients in a manner aligned with the values and mission of the College. Dr Hadden has received the award in recognition of his considerable contributions over many years, including through the College and the former Faculty of General Dental Practice UK (FGDP). Previous winners (including of the preceding Faculty Medal) were Shelagh Farrell, Mike Mulcahy, Nikolaus Palmer, Professor Ken Eaton and Ian Mills.

After graduating BDS from Glasgow University in 1974, Andrew worked full-time in the dental hospital service for several years before entering general practice. In 1984 he become a partner in the practice, and also continued part-time as a hospital practitioner in oral surgery for over twenty years. He remained a partner until 2007 and continued with part-time associate work until 2010.

In 1993 he became a part-time dental advisor with the Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland (MDDUS), becoming a full-time adviser in 2007, while retaining some sessional work in general practice. He holds an MPhil in Medical Law & Ethics, and on leaving the MDDUS in 2013 continued to be involved in the dento-legal field on a freelance basis, and to deliver undergraduate and postgraduate education in dental law and ethics.

Involved with the FGDP from its inception in 1992, he was one of the early holders of the coveted Membership in General Dental Surgery (MGDS) qualification, and subsequently the Fellowship (FFGDP(UK)). An active member in the Faculty’s West of Scotland Division, he was Secretary for eleven years and is currently assisting in the compilation of its history.

He was an examiner for the Faculty’s membership examination (MFGDP) from 1995 to 2004, and an Assessor for its Career Pathway route to Fellowship, becoming Chair of the Fellowship Assessment Board in 2009. He then served as a member of the Fellowship Development Group which rationalised the five different routes previously available, and in 2013 was appointed Chief Assessor for the newly unified route.

In 2003 he was elected to the National FGDP Board, and over the next eleven years, was a Member and/or Chair of its Education, Examinations, External Affairs, Revalidation, Finance and Credit Transfer Committees, served twice as Vice Dean and was closely involved in its Dental Care Professional Development Group. In 2020, he was appointed to the Faculty Academy as a Senior Member, and he is now a Fellow of CGDent.

He is well known as Editor of the second and third editions of Clinical Examination & Record Keeping: Good Practice Guidelines, which have received over a million page views online, and of which 10,000 print copies have been sold. Originally developed under the auspices of the FGDP, and now published by the College, it has been praised for its relevance, clarity and structure, and has for many years been the primary reference on its subject for practitioners and regulators alike, both in the UK and elsewhere. Notably, in the current third edition Dr Hadden introduced terminology to differentiate between ‘Aspirational’ and ‘Basic’ standards of practice. This change succeeded in reducing misinterpretation of aspirational guidance as essential requirements, and has since been adopted for other FGDP/CGDent guidance and standards publications.

He was also a contributor to the Faculty’s Key Skills in Primary Dental Care distance learning modules, and a reviewer for the second edition of Standards in Dentistry and most recently the College’s Mentoring in Implant Dentistry: Good Practice Guidelines publication.

He has served on the National Examining Board for Dental Nurses (1988-1997), as President of the Glasgow Odontological Society (1993-94), Council Member and President (2013-14) of the West of Scotland branch of the British Dental Association, and as a member of the Dental Council and Education Board of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, the General Dental Council’s Technical Advisory Committee on Continuing Assurance and the CPD Expert Advisory Group of the UK Committee of Postgraduate Dental Deans and Directors. And over the past eighteen months, he has represented the College on a group which succeeded in persuading NHS England to reverse a recent change in its Record Keeping Code of Practice which had extended the retention period for dental records from eleven to fifteen years.

A Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, he has also been awarded the Certificate in Mentoring and Certificate in Practice Appraisal of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

The College Medal was formally presented to Dr Hadden at the CGDent Fellows’ Summer Reception, which was held in Cutlers’ Hall, London, on Thursday 15 June 2023.

Abhi Pal, President of the College, said:

“Andrew is an exceptional colleague who has made an extraordinary contribution to the College, former Faculty and the profession at large. His altruistic dedication of innumerable hours, decade on decade, has been of immeasurable benefit to dentistry and dental patients, and is an example to us all. The College Medal is the greatest honour we can give, and it is my immense pleasure and privilege to be able to confer upon Andrew this most deserved recognition of his commitment and achievements.”

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This article has been updated following the presentation of the award on 15 June 2023. The original was published on 17 May 2023 to announce the decision to award it.

Professor Nairn Wilson CBE FCGDent, Honorary Founding President (now President Emeritus) of the College of General Dentistry, has been appointed Knight Bachelor in King Charles III’s first Birthday Honours List.

He is thought to be the first dental professional to be knighted since Sir Nicholas Sturridge KCVO in 2007, and is the first to be made a Knight Bachelor since Sir Ian Gainsford in 1995. His citation reads “Honorary Founding President, College of General Dentistry. For services to dentistry.”

Professor Wilson – now Sir Nairn – is a Founder and Founding Fellow of the College, and its first Chair, serving from 2017-20. He was then appointed Honorary Founding President, and following the full activation of the College with the transfer of the membership of the former Faculty of General Dental Practice in 2021, President Emeritus. He was founding Editor of the Faculty’s (now College’s) Primary Dental Journal from 2012-2017 and was also the College’s first Life Fellow.

A Patron of the Dental Wellness Trust, he is a Past President of the British Dental Association and Emeritus Professor of Dentistry at King’s College London, where he was Professor of Restorative Dentistry, Dean and Head of the College’s Dental Institute, and Deputy Vice Principal for Health. His many other positions have included Dean of Manchester University Dental Hospital and subsequently Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Manchester, Editor of the Journal of Dentistry, Dean of the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, President of the General Dental Council, Chair of the Council of Deans and Heads of Dental Schools (now the Dental Schools Council) and co-chair of the Forum of European Heads and Deans of Dental Schools.

He was made Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2004 for services to dentistry and healthcare regulation, and holds fellowship, in addition to the College of General Dentistry, of the Pierre Fauchard Academy, American College of Dentistry, Academy of Dental Materials, Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, British Society of Restorative Dentistry, College of Dental Surgeons of Hong Kong, King’s College London, Higher Education Academy, Faculty of Dentistry of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Oman Dental College, Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow and International College of Dentists. His awards for research excellence include the Hollenback Memorial Prize, a British Dental Association Tomes Medal and the International Association for Dental Research Ivar Mjor Award for practice-based research.

Sir Nairn will be formally ‘dubbed’ a Knight, and presented with his insignia, by HM The King or a senior member of the Royal Family at a ceremony of investiture at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle or the Palace of Holyroodhouse later this year.

Sir Nairn’s wife, Margaret – who is Honorary Curator of the British Dental Museum, Editor of the Dental Historian (the journal of the Lindsay Society for the History of Dentistry), and a retired Consultant in Restorative Dentistry whose posts included Clinical Director of Manchester Dental Hospital and Director of The National Advice Centre for Postgraduate Dental Education – is now Lady Wilson.

Commenting on his appointment, Sir Nairn said:

“Being knighted is the high point of my fifty years in dentistry. I am hugely honoured but all the more challenged to try to put back into dentistry as much as it has given me. Very special thanks to everyone who has helped and supported me during my career.”

Dr Abhi Pal, current President of the College, said:

“Many congratulations to Sir Nairn on this highly deserved recognition of his many accomplishments, not least of which is his unrivalled contribution to the establishment of the College of General Dentistry. The College is very fortunate indeed to have such a committed servant, and Sir Nairn’s elevation will only reinforce the College’s growing standing and status and that of the profession it serves.”

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