The Faculty of Dental Surgery is delighted to have hosted the first conjoint in Orthodontics with King’s College London Dental Institute on 23-26 April 2012

Arrangements had been in place for the previous four years, allowing a conjoint MClinDent and MRD examination in the restorative specialties. This conjoint, in the era of major governance frameworks, was one of the new-style conjoint arrangements.

The Dental Faculty is expanding its presence in North America

The College had high visibility at the annual American Academy of Oral Medicine (AAOM) meeting in Charleston, South Carolina, in April. This year saw four candidates sit for the Conjoint FDS with the American Board of Oral Medicine (ABOM) examination. While this number is small, it is the largest number of AAOM members ever to take this College examination at one meeting and needs to be seen with the backdrop that the specialty is very small. Currently, 26 AAOM members have FDS RCSEd.

On 3 March, over 90 delegates visited the College for ‘Teamwork – Straight from the Horse’s Mouth’, the 16th conference for Dental Care Professionals

First speaker, Dr Sadaf Khan, Consultant Orthodontist from the Eastman Dental Hospital and John Radcliffe Hospital, covered buried teeth and involved the delegates with audience participation in his demonstrations.

‘Managing the periodontium in sickness and in health’ was covered by Dr Manar Elkhazindar, Consultant in Restorative Dentistry at the Edinburgh Dental Institute. This was a broad presentation covering the local and general factors that influence the progress of periodontal disease and modern treatment modalities.

Professor Jonathan Cowpe, Director, Dental Postgraduate Education in Wales and past Dean of the RCSEd Dental Faculty discusses life as a ‘has-Dean’

 Having attended my successor’s recent triennial dinner in September 2011 and whilst on a recent flight, it struck me how quickly the three years had passed since I completed my term of office as Dean of the Dental Faculty. At the same time it occurred to me that although we hear through the grapevine what deans or other College office bearers have done after they step down, rarely have we seen any written confirmation that life goes on! It was at about 3000 feet, when reading Surgeons’ News from cover to cover, that I recollected the origin of the term ‘has-dean’. If I’m correct, the phrase was coined by one of my predecessors, Murray Meikle, as he rose to reply to the then Dean, Nairn Wilson’s after dinner toast at the latter’s triennial dinner in 1998. He thanked the ‘has-dean’ for his significant contribution over the past four years.