The College has outlined its ambitions and priorities as a professional body and registered charity.
Our mission and vision for dentistry, developed by the College Council, seeks to define the College’s role and characterise its values and ways of working.
It describes the College’s vision for dentistry over the coming decade, and articulates its ambitions in relation to patients and public health, delivery of care and the professional development of the whole dental team.
Informing the College’s perspective and framing the influence it wants to have on the future of oral healthcare, it sets out a foundation for the College to contribute to the development of public policy to address the many challenges facing the sector.
To read Our mission and vision for dentistry, click the button below.
The College has been granted Arms by Letters Patent.
The Grant of Arms by Letters Patent to the College of General Dentistry
The Grant of Arms has been made under Crown authority by the College of Arms, the heraldic authority for England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. Coming less than four years since CGDent opened its doors to members, it is a highly significant step towards fulfilment of the College’s aspirations to be incorporated under Royal Charter and to create a Royal College for dental professionals.
The Grant includes a Coat of Arms, Crest and Badge, which will soon start to be incorporated into the College’s certificates and awards, publications and a re-designed logo. Behind the distinctive design of the heraldic elements lies a rich story dating back to the 14th century, which has been documented by Sir Nairn Wilson CBE FCGDent, Honorary Founding President of the College. This will be published shortly on the College website, alongside the full text and images of the Grant.
The Grant also includes the College’s motto, sanitate oris venit fortitude (“Strength through oral health”).
Signed and sealed on vellum by the Kings of Arms – the King’s three most senior heralds – the Grant was recently received on behalf of the College by Sir Nairn, who called on the profession to support its mission through membership:
“It was truly a privilege to take receipt of the Grant of Arms on behalf of the College. This is a hugely significant moment not only for the members, who have supported the College to date, but for each and every existing and future dentist, dental therapist, dental hygienist, dental nurse, orthodontic therapist, dental technician and clinical dental technician with roles and responsibilities in oral healthcare throughout the UK and beyond. My message to all these colleagues is that the College of General Dentistry is now all the more established, and by joining the College you can be part of the historic mission to give our noble profession the independent, influential Royal College it has deserved and needed for so long.”
The Grant will be on display at the College’s Summer Reception which takes place on Friday 13 June 2025 in Sheffield. This is open to all dental professionals and others with interests in the future of dentistry, with discounted tickets for College members. For further information, and to book, click the button below.
The College has announced the results of recent elections to six seats on its Council, with five new members elected and one re-elected.
(l-r, top row first) Re-elected CGDent Council Member Eldo Koshy and newly-elected Council Members Martin McKinstry, Charlotte Jeavons, Pejman Khaki, David Offord and Laurie Powell
Charlotte Jeavons FCGDent, Head of the School of Human Sciences at the University of Greenwich, has been elected to the National seat, which represents College members from across the UK. She began her career as a dental nurse before moving into oral health improvement with the Community Dental Service, and has been a Dental Public Health Lead and Dental Services Manager for two NHS Primary Care Trusts. With 25 years’ experience of teaching and academic leadership, she was previously the Programme Lead for Greenwich’s BSc in Public Health and MSc in Global Public Health. She holds a Certificate in Oral Health Education, a Postgraduate Certificate in Medical and Dental Teaching and Learning and an MSc in Public Health (all from Queen Mary University of London), as well as a BSc in Health and Social Care from the Open University and a PhD in Dental Public Health Ethics from City University. A Fellow of the College, she is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, an Honorary Member of the Faculty of Public Health, a past Chair of the National Oral Health Promotion Group and current President of the British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry.
She succeeds Helen Kaney FCGDent, who is standing down after six years’ service on the College Council and its predecessor, the national board of the former Faculty of General Dental Practice UK (FGDP).
Dr Jeavons is the first Dental Care Professional in the history of the College to be elected in a seat representing members in all dental team roles. All registered dental professionals are eligible to become Associate Members of the College, and can qualify for Full Membership, Associate Fellowship and Fellowship – which enable them to stand and vote in elections to regional seats – on equal terms.
There are two other dental nurses on the College Council, both in role-based seats – Jane Dalgarno AssocFCGDent, the elected Dental Nursing and Orthodontic Therapy representative, and Debbie Reed FCGDent, Chair of the College’s Faculty of Dental Nursing and Orthodontic Therapy.
Pejman Khaki FCGDent, Principal Dentist at a private general practice in Crawley, has been elected to the South Thames (formerly South East and South West Thames) seat. Having initially graduated with a BSc in Neuroscience from King’s College London (KCL), he qualified BDS from Bart’s and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry in 2004 before working in corporate dental practice. He has since gained Membership of the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow (RCPS), both a Postgraduate Diploma and MSc in Dental Implantology from the University of Salford, and Fellowship of both CGDent and the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS). Actively involved in dental education, he has been an Educational Supervisor for Dental Foundation Training, ITI study club director for West Sussex, an MJDF examiner, deputy lead for the MFDS Part 2 examination and an undergraduate teacher at KCL.
He succeeds Roshni Karia MCGDent, who represented the seat on the FGDP Board and Council from 2017 until becoming President of the College last year.
Martin McKinstry FCGDent, a general dental practitioner and owner of a mixed NHS-and-private practice in Glasgow, has been elected to represent West and North Scotland. A Fellow, Foundation Member and Certified Membership Facilitator of the College, he is also a committee member of CGDent Scotland, an MFDS tutor, a VT Trainer (Educational Supervisor) and VT Adviser (Training Programme Director), and a committee member of Greater Glasgow and Clyde LDC. He graduated BDS from Glasgow in 2006 and also holds certificates in orthodontics and dental sedation, the Diploma of Membership of the Joint Dental Faculties of the RCS, a Master’s in Medical Education from the University of Sunderland, an MSc in Advanced Restorative Dentistry from the University of Manchester, and both the Diploma in Implant Dentistry and the Membership in Advanced General Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
He succeeds Patricia Thomson FCGDent, who is standing down after completing the maximum nine years’ service, which included two terms as Vice President of the College.
David Offord FCGDent, CEO of a large referral-only dental practice with clinics in Edinburgh and Kelso, has been elected to the East of Scotland seat. Born and bred in Greenock, he was in the last year group to graduate from the University of Edinburgh Dental School in 1994 and is a specialist oral surgeon. In addition to working in general practice in Edinburgh, he has been a Senior House Officer in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery units, held staff grade roles in a District General Hospital, spent two years working as a dentist in Australia and Singapore, and for five years combined oral surgery staff grade jobs with working in specialist practice. A Fellow of CGDent, he holds a Diploma in Conscious Sedation from the University of Newcastle and the Membership of the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the RCPS, and is currently working towards a PhD at the University of Ghent. For four years, he represented Scotland on the board of the Association of Dental Implantology.
He succeeds Yann Maidment FCGDent, who has represented the region since 2016 and has served as the College’s (and former FGDP’s) Research Lead since 2017.
Laurie Powell FCGDent, a GDP and partner in a three-surgery, mixed NHS-and-private practice in Bicester, has been elected to represent Wessex and Oxford. He qualified from Sheffield Dental School in 1993 and holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Restorative Dentistry from the University of Bristol, where he was also a part-time clinical lecturer for undergraduate dentists and dental therapists for five years. A keen advocate of clinical research, he has been Principal Investigator for three practice-based University of Dundee studies into treatments for toothache and deep tooth decay, and is the Primary Dental Care Research Champion for Thames Valley and South Midlands. He is also currently an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow in Primary Care Dentistry, studying for a research-based Master’s in Primary Care at the University of Manchester. He is a Fellow of both the College and the Higher Education Academy, Chair of Oxfordshire LDC and represents primary care on the NHS Integrated Care Board for Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West.
Eldo Koshy FCGDent, a prosthodontist and implant dentist in Kerala, India, has been re-elected to the Overseas seat, which he has represented since the College opened, having previously held the same seat on the FGDP Board from 2019-2021.
The Council is the voice of the College’s members, overseeing its role as a professional body and guiding its development to fulfil its mission. Elections are held annually on a rotational basis, with the Northern Ireland seat due for election in 2026.
Elected Council members serve three-year terms, and are then able to stand for re-election – subject to a lifetime limit of nine years’ service on the Council, including any past service on the FGDP Board.
Those elected this year will be inaugurated at the next Council meeting, which takes place in Sheffield on Friday 13 June on the day of the Inaugural College Lecture and Summer Reception.
Roshni Karia MCGDent, President of the College, said:
“Many congratulations to Martin, Charlotte, Pejman, David and Laurie on their election to Council, and to Eldo on his re-election. My sincere thanks on behalf of the whole College to Patricia, Yann, Helen and Sami, all of whom have served on Council since its establishment and on the FGDP Board before that. They have all remained dedicated to the College and I am grateful to them all for their hard work and steadfast commitment. I look forward to working with our new representatives of our growing membership as we continue to build the College the general dental professions need and deserve.”
Associate Fellows of the College will soon begin being presented for ceremonial admission for the first time.
Professor Sreenivas Koka FCGDent being ceremonially admitted into Fellowship by College President Dr Roshni Karia
Associate Fellowship of the College recognises enhanced knowledge and skills, and demonstrates commitment to lifelong learning and the highest levels of patient care. Advancing their journey towards Fellowship, Associate Fellows are senior members of the College who are recognised as Enhanced Practitioners on the College’s Career Pathway, and their professional standing is marked with the use of the postnominals ‘AssocFCGDent’.
As part of the College’s Fellowship community, Associate Fellows have always been able to attend its biannual Fellows’ Receptions at which new Fellows are ceremonially admitted, but they have not previously benefitted from the opportunity to have their own achievements recognised in this way in front of their peers.
However at the forthcoming Summer Reception, Associate Fellows will be presented by the President of the College in front of gathered members and Fellows and the wider dental community. All Associate Fellows attending the Summer Reception will be ceremonially admitted, and as presentees will benefit from a complimentary ticket to the event if they book their place by 30 April 2025.
Associate Fellowship is currently open to any dental professional holding the MGDS; DPDS; a relevant and accredited Level 7 Postgraduate Diploma providing 120 UK credits; a relevant Master’s degree or PhD; a Specialty Membership of a Royal College or Royal College Faculty; the FGDP(UK) or RCS Edinburgh Diploma in Implant Dentistry; the FGDP(UK) Diploma in Primary Care Oral Surgery or Diploma in Restorative Dentistry; or the CGDent Diploma in Primary Care Orthodontics. Experienced-based routes to Associate Fellowship are also expected to be announced soon.
The Summer Reception, an opportunity for dental professionals to network with their peers, will take place from 5pm-8pm on Friday 13 June 2025 at Cutlers’ Hall, Sheffield. Open to all College members and dental professionals, it will also include the presentation of the President’s Award and the announcement of the 2025 winner of the College Medal (tbc), and will be preceded in the same venue by the Inaugural College of General Dentistry Lecture.
Photographs of each presenting Associate Fellow being ceremonially admitted by the President will be made available shortly afterwards to download free of charge.
Anyone successfully completing an application to join the College as an Associate Fellow (or to upgrade their existing membership to become an Associate Fellow) before 30 April will also have the opportunity to be ceremonially admitted at the Summer Reception and will therefore be able to book their reception ticket at no charge.
It is advised to submit applications as soon as possible in order to allow enough time for admissions procedures to be completed.
To secure your place at the Summer Reception and/or inaugural College Lecture, click the button below:
The College has issued an open invitation to all College members and other dental professionals to attend its 2025 Summer Reception.
The Summer Reception, incorporating the fourth annual College Fellows’ Summer Reception, will be an opportunity to network with your peers in the grand surroundings of the historic Cutlers’ Hall, and all dental professionals and those with professional interests in contemporary dentistry are invited to attend, with discounted tickets available to College members.
The College Summer Reception takes place from 5pm to 8pm on Friday 13 June in Sheffield, with registration open from 4.30pm.
It will be preceded from 2pm by the Inaugural College of General Dentistry Lecture, to be delivered by Martin Kelleher FCGDent, Consultant in Restorative Dentistry at King’s College Dental Hospital. Intended to stimulate and provoke healthy debate, this will challenge the notion of the ‘ideal treatment plan’ and contend that subconscious bias and possible self-interests can lead some supposed experts to confuse their version of a questionable ‘gold standard’ with what is really in a patient’s overall best interests and with what the law expects. This is also open to all dental professionals to attend, and CPD certificates will be provided.
Tickets are available for the reception only, lecture only, or combined lecture and reception. ‘Early Bird’ rates currently apply.
Voting is now open for seats on the College Council, and all eligible members are encouraged to cast their vote(s).
The Council is the voice of our members, overseeing our role as a professional body and guiding the development of the College to fulfil its mission. Six regional seats are being elected this year, with elected candidates due to serve from June 2025 – June 2028. A ballot of eligible members is required for three of these seats: National, Overseas and South Thames.
All Full Members, Associate Fellows and Fellows of the College are eligible to vote in the election to either the National or Overseas seats (depending on the address they have registered with the College), and those registered within the South Thames region (formerly South East and South West Thames) are eligible to vote both in that election and for the National seat.
College Council elections employ the Alternative Vote (AV) system, under which eligible members rank candidates in order of preference. A candidate receiving over 50 per cent of first preference votes is elected. Otherwise the candidate with the fewest first preference votes is eliminated and their second preference votes are reallocated to the remaining candidates until one candidate has more votes than the other remaining candidates put together.
All eligible members have been sent an email (on Wednesday 26 March 2025) by the College’s election services provider, Mi-Voice, to the email address which the member has registered with the College. This email confirms the election(s) for which the member is eligible to vote, and contains a unique link through which they can complete and submit their vote(s) online.The deadline to cast votes is Friday 2 May 2025.
Please ensure that your membership of CGDent is up to date before you vote, otherwise your vote might not count. The CGDent member register displays a list of all current members. Alternatively, you can contact us at [email protected] to confirm your membership status. If you do need to renew your membership, you can do this easily online here
New members joining during the voting period will also be eligible to vote, but should note that it will take around a week for their unique voting details to be issued to them, and late votes will not be counted.
The candidates are listed below; their election statements can be read via the email(s) from Mi Voice.
Following the election, the results will be announced in late May or early June.
If you are an eligible member but cannot find the email from Mi-Voice inviting you to vote in your inbox, please check your junk or spam folder, and if necessary double-check the email account you have registered with the College by logging in at https://cgdent.uk/my-account
If you experience any technical difficulties submitting your vote(s), please contact Mi-Voice at [email protected] or on 02380 763987.
REMINDERS: VOTES SHOULD BE CAST THROUGH THE UNIQUE LINK SENT TO ELIGIBLE MEMBERS BY MI-VOICE BY EMAIL; VOTING CLOSES ON FRIDAY 2 MAY 2025
The College has announced that Martin Kelleher FCGDent will be delivering the inaugural College Lecture on 13 June 2025.
‘Satisficing’ standards in dentistry: Who decides? Who benefits? will challenge the notion of the ‘ideal treatment plan’ and contend that subconscious bias and possible self-interests can lead some supposed experts to confuse their version of a questionable ‘gold standard’ with what is really in a patient’s overall best interests and with what the law expects.
Intended to stimulate and provoke healthy debate, the lecture will build on the rich legacy of the Malcolm Pendlebury Lectures hosted by the College’s predecessor organisation, the Faculty of General Dental Practice UK (FGDP).
Martin Kelleher has been a Consultant in Restorative Dentistry at King’s College Hospital, London since 1984 and has well- known interests in solving seemingly complex dental problems with various minimally destructive approaches. He is on the GDC specialist lists for Restorative Dentistry and Prosthodontics and owned his own practice in Bromley, Kent for nearly 40 years.
He is a Fellow of the Faculties of Dental Surgery at the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of Edinburgh and England, as well as the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. He is also a Fellow of the College of General Dentistry, a Fellow and former President of the British Society for Restorative Dentistry, and a former Chairman of the Southern Counties Branch of the British Dental Association.
Mr Kelleher graduated from University College Dublin in 1971, holds a Master’s degree in Conservative Dentistry and is the author or co-author of very numerous peer-reviewed articles on a wide variety of topics, as well as chapters in dental textbooks and a book on dental bleaching. He served on the board of Dental Protection for a decade, including three years as Chair of its Advisory Committee for Dental Claims. He is a renowned speaker, having lectured to many national dental associations and specialist societies as well as internationally for over 40 years.
The inaugural College of General Dentistry Lecture will take place in the historic Cutlers’ Hall in Sheffield, and will be followed by the College’s Summer Reception. CPD certificates will be provided.
All dental professionals, and others with professional interests in contemporary dental practice, are eligible to attend both events. Discounted places are available to College members.
To secure your place at current ‘Early Bird’ rates, click the button below:
Eligible members will receive the candidates’ election statements, with instructions on how to vote, when voting opens on Wednesday 26 March 2025. These will be sent by the College’s election services provider, Mi-Voice, to the email address which the member has registered with the College. Members will then have until Friday 2 May 2025 to cast their vote(s).
The College is looking for a Membership Manager to join its staff team.
The post-holder will oversee and deliver the College’s membership administration and support function. Dealing directly with our dental professional members and subscribers, they will assess sometimes complex applications, manage member queries and oversee membership subscriptions. They will also be required to confidently use and interrogate the College’s CRM database and payment platforms to support these processes.
The College is a small team, and so the role will be varied and dynamic, with the opportunity to help improve and build our processes as we grow as an organisation. We are looking for someone who is quick to learn, organised and who has excellent attention to detail.
You will need to have drive and a passion for process excellence and improvement. You will need to be able to think logically, and proactively deal with some complex information and situations related to membership and other applications. The role will therefore suit someone who is interested in thinking beyond the issue at hand and who will proactively problem solve, and advise on process improvement.
Previous experience in using and interrogating a CRM database is essential, and experience in a membership role is preferred. The role is full-time and hybrid (but predominantly home-based). Full details are available in the role description below.
The College is seeking a new board member for its Faculty of Dental Technology and Clinical Dental Technology, and all dental technicians and clinical dental technicians are invited to apply.
The Faculty of Dental Technology and Clinical Dental Technology is a constituency of the College automatically comprising all members who are dental technicians or clinical dental technicians. Advising and reporting to the elected College Council, the Faculty Board advances the interests of these members within the College as a discrete professional group.
Faculty Board members are appointed for renewable three-year terms, and the appointee will be expected to attend at least three Faculty Board meetings per year from June 2025 – June 2028.
Candidates will need to be an Associate Member, Full Member, Associate Fellow or Fellow of the College at the time of application, and anyone interested in applying who is not yet a member of the College is advised to allow at least two weeks for their membership application to be fully processed prior to applying for this role.
The role is voluntary, with any essential expenses covered. A role profile is available below.
Applications should be made by email, headed “Board member (Faculty of Dental Technology and Clinical Dental Technology)”, to [email protected], attaching a CV and covering letter addressing the person specification.
The closing date for applications is Sunday 4 May 2025.
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