It was a day of celebrations in the foyer of the dental school.  The celebration ? – the NHS is 70 years old!  Staff, Students and patients all got into the fun of it as the video shows.

Each Graduation Year has a story to tell about their time at Birmingham.  It may be the laughs along the way, the difficult examinations such as the OSCE or those wonderful Annual Student Balls.  There are stories in every year.  The year of 2018 is no exception and their story is that everyone who was entered for the final examination passed.  This allows the Head of School to wear white gloves when announcing the results.  Forever more the year is known for the award of the white gloves.  There have been 4 such occurrences over the time of the School of Dentistry and the previous one is documented on this blog.

Graduation day is always one to remember and the following pictures provide a memory of the day.  There are also pictures from the Prize giving that was held in the afternoon at the Dental School.  Prof Chapple had invited  guest of honour  Jill Knight, Baroness Knight of Collingtree to present the prizes.  Following the ceremony staff, students, Graduates, family and friends gathered in the Hospital Restaurant to enjoy some food and a drink.

The School of Dentistry hosted a workshop on Opportunities and Building Collaborative Connections with Brazilian Industry & Academia in Dental Research.  This visit was organised by Josette Camilleri form the School of Dentistry and was a suitable curtain raiser for the IADR conference which takes place later in the week.  This workshop is a follow on from a visit in March by Birmingham Academics lecturing to 3 dental schools in São Paulo (Unicamp, USP and UNESP).

The Brazilian delegation included Prof Brenda Gomes (UNICAMP – Brazil), Prof Marina Marciano (UNICAMP – Brazil), Prof Flares Baratto Filho (Curitiba- Brazil) and Dr Roberto Alcantara (Angelus – Brazil).

The guests were greeted by Prof Iain Chapple the Head of School who provided an overview of the School history and its future research aspirations.  This was followed by Damien Walmsley who gave an overview of the College and University research structure.  There were then presentations by Marco Dias da Silva on “The experience of a Brazilian academic working in Birmingham” and Richard Brunt and Flavia Pires Rodrigues on the Internationalization agenda. This was followed by a tour of the school and the research laboratories.

The delegates then transferred to staff house to a meal hosted by Robin Mason ProVice Chancellor for Internationalisation.  He emphasised that the dentistry links to Brazil are the University’s strongest and longest.  He is keen to see them do well.  Anne Simper from the Business engagement team was present.

In the afternoon Prof Paul Cooper introduced the symposium which included.

The new Angelus Bioceramic product line
Dr Roberto Alcantara – CEO Angelus-Prima

Biomaterials Unit Research at the School of Dentistry
Dr Richard Shelton – University of Birmingham

Panorama of the research developed on endodontic microbiology and its related clinical aspects by the Piracicaba Dental School
Prof Brenda Gomes – UNICAMP, Brazil

Stimulation and therapeutic application of dental pulp stem cells
Dr Ben Scheven – University of Birmingham

Causative factors and mitigation of dental discoloration
Prof Marina Marciano de Silva – UNICAMP, Brazil

Exploiting bioactive dentine matrix components in the treatment of apical periodontitis
Mr David Green – University of Birmingham

The day was a great success and everyone departed ready for the IADR meeting taking place in London.

It was difficult to get excited about an IADR (International Association for Dental Research) meeting in London but as it turned out I was to be proved very wrong.  It was an eventful conference and I enjoyed it even though the Excel centre is massive, and the Royal Docks are not really London.  The weather was very hot and the temperatures were well above 30⁰C.  Thankfully it was cooler in the conference centre. Wednesday began with a spectacular sunrise over the Royal Docks and it opened up the start of the conference. Birmingham was well represented with our researchers winning prizes, giving keynote lectures, presenting their research either as an oral or poster presentation.  The highlight for Birmingham was Prof Chapple winning an IADR distinguished investigator award for his work in Periodontology.  Our students did well with Hannah Serragewinning the 3 minute thesis competition and Arwa Al-Maswarywho won the Pulp Biology Group 2018 Travel award.  Everyone from Birmingham was a winner just by taking part and promoting the research at the conference.  The School also had its first stand at the conference which promoted the distance learning masters in dental materials science.  Congratulations to Samir and Mo for their promotion of Birmingham on the stand.

The photographs included give a pictorial record of the conference and it is difficult to include everyone and I know that there were many more.  I am always happy to include any other pictures that people have available.

I have also added a few of the docklands and Canary Wharf area around the conference centre.

Prof Chapple was in London to receive his prestigious award to recognise his outstanding research in periodontal disease. He received the award at the opening ceremony of the IADR conference. Here are some of the pictures taken by friends and colleagues of Iain receiving his award from Prof Angus Walls, President of the IADR. It is the first time in 13 years that a UK scientist has won the award, with only three UK-based scientists ever previously having won the awards

More details about the award and an interview with Prof Chapple may be found on The University of Birmingham News Web page

Would you be able to talk for 3 minutes on your 3 years work for your PhD thesis.  Well that is exactly what Hannah Serrage did at the recent IADR in London.  Hannah entered the IADR 3MT thesis prize ( 1 slide 3 minutes to present her research project).  Hannah won the competition against strong international competition.  Congratulations Hannah.  Also a mention to your supervisors Dr Mike Milward, Prof Paul Cooper andProf Will Palin,  Hannah also received support from Dr Mo Hadis.

Caird Hall, Dundee was the location for the 2018 British Society of Paediatric Dentistry (BSPD) annual conference. This year saw the introduction of an undergraduate poster prize category. Two of our final year BDS students presented at the conference, Christie Grove and Dimitri Mulkern.

Christie Grove presented her management of a non-vital immature central incisor, delegates were impressed by her clinical care. Dimitri Mulkern gave a confident presentation on the management of a child with enamel defects. Judges were amazed by his in-depth knowledge of the management of this patient and the materials used. We are delighted to announce Dimitri won an Undergraduate Poster Prize.

Mrs Tanday, Mr Causaus and Mr Sisson lecturers in Paediatric Dentistry, came to the rescue of the conference organisers in the ninth hour when a speaker had to cancel. Mrs Tanday gave an inspiring talk on the art of communication: A beginner’s guide to Makaton. The success of her talk was largely due to a short video produced by Louise Davis (fourth year dental student) on basic Makaton signs.

Mrs Tanday, Christie and Dimitri following their success, commuted back to Birmingham (a long 6-hour journey). Christie excelled the following morning in her Paediatric prize viva. Well done Christie – a future paediatric dentist in the making.

Next year’s conference will be held in Birmingham and we are hoping for similar success.

Rahul Kalia (BDS5) writes

“Traveling to a developing country for a volunteering experience has been something I have wanted to do for many years. I found the Universitas 21 Global Learning Partnership a particularly unique opportunity due to its focus on sustainability, inter-professionalism and worldwide collaboration.
I was delighted to be offered the opportunity to participate in this program and concomitantly visit Nepal. The whole experience ended up being life-changing in many ways. Not only was I able to help make a difference to the lives of those in the developing community by working with others, but I personally developed in ways which would not otherwise have been possible and made numerous friends with people stretching from Vancouver to New Zealand in the process.”

If you wish to read more then please visit his blog 

Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh Clinical Skills Competition
2018-2019

Final year dental students showcased there operative skills in the Birmingham heat of the national undergraduate dental skills competition sponsored by Dentsply Sirona this week. There was an excellent turnout with over half of the final year taking part. This was one of 18 heats held in the UK and Ireland in which the winner from each heat wins a travel and accommodation package to compete in the Grand Final in Edinburgh.

The competition consisted of students carrying out a crown preparation on a maxillary canine. At the end of the competition the preparations were assessed anonymously by Professor Philip Lumley (Deputy Head of the College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham) who was representing RCS Ed and Dr Phil Tomson (Head of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics). Professor Phil Lumley commented that the standard was the best he had seen in the three years he had been judging the competition in terms of the quality of the best performing students but also for overall standard. Following much deliberation by the judges the results were as follows:

1st place Mr Bhawandeep Singh
2nd place Miss Hinali Patel
3rd place Mr Tayib Mahboob

We thank everyone who took part and we wish Bhawandeep good luck in the grand final which will take place on 28th February 2019.

The Science Gallery at the base of the Shard in London was the venue for the 2019 British Society of Restorative Dentistry Conference. Birmingham Dental Core Trainees and Speciality Registrars in Restorative Dentistry attended the meeting which included a half day session on entering post-graduate training and preparing for being a Consultant in Restorative Dentistry. Posters were presented by a number of the Birmingham Dental Core Trainees, all being judged for a conference prize. Birmingham trainees were successful in both the Clinical Case and Research categories.
Mr Khawer Ayub won best poster in the Research category entitled ‘Volumetric analysis of wear patterns on implant Locator abutments’ with analysis from Dr Nina Vyas (Post-doctoral Researcher) and supervised by Dr Upen Patel (Specialty Registrar and Lecturer in Restorative Dentistry) and Mr David Newsum (Consultant in Restorative Dentistry).
Mr Anurag Srinivas won best poster in the Clinical Case category entitled ‘Restoration of severe localised tooth wear with zirconia-reinforced lithium silicate’ supervised by Dr Gareth Brock (Consultant in Restorative Dentistry).

An email from Brussels

In case you want to add it to Brumdentists, the Brummies are making quite a big presence at the EDMC in Brussels. Pictures attached. 
Brian and I are presenting keynotes, Mo and Samir posters and taking part in prize competition, Will chairing and Flavia with her networking. 
Greetings from Brussels.
Cheers 
Dr. Josette Camilleri

School of Dentistry University of Birmingham 

Post conference news from Prof Palin.
“Samir Hamidi was a finalist in the Student Poster competition at the European Dental Materials conference in Brussels last week. He was awarded 2nd place for “Novel injectable, photo-curable and degradable polymer-based system” and was invited to give a 10 minute talk and research summary to >100 delegates.  An outstanding achievement given the high number of entrants and stiff competition. Josette also gave a keynote on hydraulic calcium silicate  materials which was very well received.”

Giles Perryer was responsible for so many of our technicological breakthroughs in the dental course at Birmingham.  Let us think back to the the legacy of Prof Perryer. First there was stand alone elearning modules such as “Wear’s the Tooth” that was delivered on a CD-Rom (1).  There were several other elearning programs made for delivery via CD. Around 2000 the possibilities offered by the Internet began to be realised by a few people. In dentistry, Giles was a visionary in this area and launched the ecourse. This online learning environment was started around 2004. It was different as it consisted of animations, videos and even had a computer game on the front page where you had to avoid drilling the teeth that flew around the screen! The Ecourse become the Student’s friend and was ahead of its time.  Even today’s learning environments have not caught up with the wizardry  that Giles created with the Ecourse.  There were many students who owe their dental career to last minute revision cramming on the site.  The discussion boards allowed students to anonymously post queries about dentistry. This was revolutionary for its time and still not adopted by other systems.

The Ecourse was awarded a prize at the prestigious Times Higher Education Supplement Awards, in the Outstanding ICT Initiative category, sponsored by JISC (2)

Not content with doing the ecourse, Giles moved onto MOOC’s and developed the successful online course Dental Photography.  This gained world wide acclaim and the work of Mike Sharland’s photography was showcased by the work of Giles. There there was DentalJuce, a grown up spin off from the ecourse that is still operating successfully as an online CPD elearning platform.  

Giles went onto start CAFS (Clinical assessment for students) which evolved from the old computer sheets that students had to fill in for their requirements. CAFS is fully implemented in the course and is being rolled out to other dental schools around the UK and the world.

Giles was also an inspirational teacher who won several accolades for his teaching including a national teacher of the year award.

His final success was with Prof Trevor Burke when they set up the Advanced General Dental Practice MSc (Distance Learning) that recruits dentists form around the world. It uses blended learning to deliver the course to dentists who can take advantage of the distance learning nature of the course.

Giles did not wish to have a fuss made of his retirement and a few of us caught up with him in a local restaurant and we had a convivial evening remembering past times.

References
1. Perryer G, Walmsley AD, Barclay CW, Shaw L, Smith AJ. Development and evaluation of a stand-alone web-based CAL program. A case study. Eur J Dent Educ. 2000 Aug;4(3):118-23.
2. Dentistry at Birmingham scoops the THES award

Come and study postgraduate dentistry at Birmingham with our distance learning courses. You too could be one of the many postgraduate students who have found success undertaking our degrees. We offer them in several subjects including Restorative Dentistry and Dental Materials Science. Just click the links below and you never know where it will take you!

Restorative Dentistry MSc/Diploma/Certificate Part-Time (Distance Learning)

Dental Materials Science MSc/Diploma/Certificate

Nessma Sultan was a visiting research student at the School of Dentistry for two years as part of a joint Egypt – UK PhD studentship scheme supervised by Dr Ben Scheven (University of Birmingham) and Prof Ahmed Zaher (Mansoura University) . Funding was provided by a scholarship from the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education.   The research project focused on the therapeutic application of dental pulp stem cells (DPSC) for repair of injured trigeminal nerves. For this purpose, Nessma established and characterised DPSC and new neuronal cell models including primary isolated trigeminal neural cell cultures.  Nessma was able to demonstrate that dental stem cells promoted trigeminal cell survival and neurite regeneration and identified specific secreted neurotrophic factors involved in these processes.  Nessma presented some of her research findings at last year’s BSODR meeting in Leeds.

Richa (Vice President) writes: This years Dental Ball was the biggest ever- with 350 staff, students and sponsors gathering at Edgbaston Cricket ground for a Night at The Oscars. There was fierce competition between the year groups on who would win the coveted Oscars, categories ranged from ‘Clinicians Pet’ to ‘Best Dressed’. There were lots of extra goodies that everyone could enjoy – popcorn, sweets and, of course, the famous vodka luge!

Great prizes were on offer for the raffle, with all proceeds going to Tudos Juntos – a South American charity that provides dental care to underprivileged children. All ball attendees danced the night away- it was definitely another night to remember! We’re all can’t wait for next years!

Here are some photos but you can pick up more on the BUDSS social pages

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Birmingham University Dental Student Society (BUDSS) organised a large collection of food during a 10 day period to donate to a local food bank during the recent half-term week. It was organised via WhatsApp and the Dental Students generously went shopping to build up a large food donation.

This caught the attention of the regional news who recently filmed the fantastic initiative and effort of our students to give back to the community.

Please see attached footage of the news piece featured as part of the ITV Central News bulletin on Friday 6^thNovember. Many congratulations BUDSS.

This term we say goodbye to Nigel Orchard and wish him all the best for his retirement. On his last day supervising students his fellow GDP colleagues arranged a Christmas Lunch, with gifts and cards from staff and students all over the hospital showing gratitude for years of hard work.

GDP colleague Ian Preston writes:

“Nigel joined the GDP teaching team at Birmingham Dental Hospital in around 2007. This was at least his third career in dentistry, by this time he had already been an officer in the RAF (mostly hiding in Cypress  and Germany) and a partner in a general practice on the English Riviera. 

Clearly he had an eye on civilised living and so was assigned to firm C. 

He was a great asset to the Firm and very quickly became a valued colleague and friend to those of us who were already long established as Firm C lecturers. 
Sadly after approximately 10 years (a little over three quarters of an hour in Nigel time) he was demoted to head of Firm B. Despite the blow to his self esteem, in typical Nigel style, he prospered. He became a great mentor to the Students he taught and helped them all come to terms with the fact that not everyone could be in firm C.

Probably Nigel’s most defining characteristics are his inspirational energy, stamina and calm leadership. His weekly commute to and from work is the stuff of legend, yet despite this challenge he has never shown signs of fatigue or impatience.

For past, present and future generations of dental surgeons he has consistently and clearly illuminated the way. None of us can remain in any doubt that the secret to achieving success and longevity in both our professional and family lives is a commitment to The Full English Breakfast, a modest sandwich based lunch and lashings of Bombay Sapphire when the days work is done.”

This week we said goodbye to Gay Smith after years of work in the research labs. There was a farewell Zoom which was recorded for anyone that would like to see.

Prof Palin says:

“Happy Retirement, Gay! Thank you for all you have done for the Dental School Laboratories, both in the old and new building. Your diverse skill set and dulcet Welsh tones will be missed and incredibly hard to replace. Wishing you a long and healthy retirement”

Our Head of School celebrates her 50th birthday today and was sent presents and flowers from a staff collection! Dr Hill received a lovely necklace organised by Clare

We are thinking of our final years today who are sitting their written finals papers – best of luck to them all!