Over 80 Dental Foundation Trainees were offered career and postgraduate exam advice at the 2012 South West Deanery Dental Foundation Conference.

The event took place at Longleat on Tuesday 4th December 2012. Pamela Ellis, College Regional Dental Adviser, and Jane Rooney, Associate Postgraduate Dental Dean, explored with trainees questions they had about career pathways in dentistry.

With the help of Fellows and Members based in the UAE, a team of three from the UK arranged the course and travelled to Dubai in December 2012.

The Dental Faculty were approached by Ahmed Al Desoky, an Oral Surgeon, to organise a Part 1 MFDS course in Dubai.

This was the first MFDS course held in Dubai and participants were attracted from all over the Gulf region. A hotel near the airport was the venue for four days of teaching and mock examination questions.

The participants gave positive feedback and found the course faculty particularly approachable, appreciating advice on the knowledge expected of candidates sitting the examination.

The course faculty also gained insight into the needs of non-UK based candidates. A hectic few days were followed by an eventful journey back to the UK with fog at Heathrow resulting in an unexpected night on the terminal floor.

The International Academy of Oral Oncology is to host its Congress in Rhodes in May 2013.

The IAOO has made significant strides with expanding membership and attracting specialists from all parts of the world who are interested in oral cancers. The tremendous successes of the previous three world congresses (Amsterdam in 2007, Toronto in 2009, and Singapore in 2011) are a testament to the need for an assembly of oral oncologists from all sub-specialties.

New Council Members and Regional Dental Advisers were welcomed at the Annual General Meeting on 21 September 2012

This year’s AGM of the Dental Faculty saw three new members of Council welcomed and sworn in by the Dean, Professor Richard Ibbetson. Dr Sarah Manton had been re-elected to Council for a further term whilst we were delighted to welcome Professor Helen Craddock and Dr Dirk Bister, who were elected for the first time.