This annual Dental Skills Competition, sponsored by Dentsply Sirona, was back again after a year off due to the COVID pandemic, but none of the excitement or fun of previous years had been lost and everyone was in good humour, as the Edinburgh sun broke through to announce the start of spring.
Students gathered from nearly all the UK Dental Schools for the final fun filled afternoon of skills tests. We had implant placement, setting up teeth for a try in, wire bending, placement of composites, spotting tooth anatomy, endodontics, scanning models, removing a buried root and suturing and even a bit of remote surgery. The students were superb and the quality of the work produced brought a cheer to even this old heart.
The competition is always crowned by a gala dinner which was as ever hosted by the College in the Playfair Hall. The Dental Council were there in force to welcome the students to our friendly College and the sound of the college piper filled the air as we waited for the final scores to be announced by the organiser Professor Brian Nattrass. The winner this year was Philip Eburne from Birmingham University and he won a cheque for £2000 and a Digital SLR camera, lenses and flash which was kindly donated by Tom Bereznicki. Second place was Jae Eun Lee from Queen's University Belfast and third Alice Sherrard from Liverpool University.
We can’t wait until next year for another highlight in the Dental calendar!
Travelling to Malaysia
As many of you are aware, the College has an office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and I am delighted to tell you that the Faculty are going out there at the end of April to attend in person a specially arranged diploma ceremony for our many successful candidates there.
This will be my first international visit as Dean and I will be accompanied on this occasion by the Exams convenor, Dr Tim O’Brien and deputy convenor, Dr Manar Elkhazinder. Together we will be visiting the IMU University as a possible site for our online exam centre in that region. I have also been asked to give a lecture while I am there and apart from meeting the new Dean of that university, who as a coincidence did her masters with me thirty years ago, I hope to be re-introduced to many of my own masters’ students who studied prosthodontics under me at QMUL.
I hope this Digest finds you all well and looking forward to helping the College and specifically the Dental Faculty to continually improve. My next Digest will tell you of our 40th Anniversary Celebrations and of a future visit to Chennai in India.
- Phil Taylor, Dean of the RCSEd Dental Faculty
