“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.” This is a TS Eliot quote and resonates with all of us in the Faculty of Dental Surgery. 2025 has been quite a year, and in the December 2024 blog I noted that 2025 would be a busy year for our Faculty. I commented that the wider governance changes across the College would involve the creation of new Faculty of Dental Surgery regulations and at the same time, there would be much work to do both in the running of our Faculty and in the activity that is seen in the UK and across the world. This year has not disappointed either in terms of amount of work or the impact our Faculty has on our profession.
Firstly, our Faculty team and wider College staff team provide the focus and rhythm for everything we do. In an almost seamless transition for our Senior Faculty Administrator, Cire Grimmer moved to a different role in the College and was immediately replaced by Louise Donaldson. Louise works closely with Catherine Thwaites (Faculty Development Manager) and Gill Mitchell (Head of Faculties) and as a team, ensure that Dental Executive, Dental Council, our Advisory Boards and the overall team of volunteers deliver on the key objectives of Faculty business. Nothing is too much trouble, and I am grateful to the Faculty team, the staff in examinations, education and everyone across the College for everything to drive our Faculty forwards. Thank you!
This year has seen the final jigsaw pieces of the College governance review being put in place. We discussed and debated the new Dental Regulations at Dental Council, and whilst these have considerable similarity to the laws that preceded the new Royal Charter, the opportunity was taken to update key aspects of our strategic and operational priorities. The new Dental Regulations have future-proofed most potential changes for the foreseeable future. We will welcome a second Dental Vice-Dean, an elected SAS/LED (Specialty, Associate Specialist, and Specialist / Locally Employed Doctor) dentist, a second trainee representative as these unfold. The other subtlety is that all members of Dental Executive now have voting rights, whilst the Immediate Past-Dean will be ex officio, without voting rights. Many Members and Fellows will have noticed that at the College AGM when we welcomed our new President, Clare McNaught, we transitioned to five Vice-Presidents with the ‘Dental Dean’ now having the title “Dean of the Faculty of Dental Surgery and Vice President (Dental)”. This has resulted in much amusement within the Office Bearers as the ‘Dental Dean’ now has the longest title of anyone in the College. On a serious note, this change recognises the importance of the Faculty of Dental Surgery in RCSEd life, and I am privileged to be the inaugural holder of this role.
Turning to the work of our Faculty, Tim O’Brien was appointed to the role of Deputy Dean (Dental) Examinations this year. Tim has considerable experience in leading our examination portfolio and we surpassed our proposal to increase examination candidate numbers by 43% during 2025. With 56 exam diets (17 international, 37 UK, 2 online) and a total of 2695 candidates (66% international), we ended the year by increasing examination activity by 86%, which represents tremendous growth for the College. Our biggest exams are MOrth Part A (1321 candidates), MEndo / MPerio / MPros (296 candidates), MOrth Part B (295 candidates) and it is wonderful to see the resurgence in MFDS with 191 Part 2 candidates. The work of our examinations has been a herculean effort by College staff and examiners, but also our Quality and Standards Team, Question Bank, Delivery Team and many other parts of the College. It was a pleasure to see our new Dental Diploma Examinations go live in 2025, and at the same time for our Faculty to be a key partner in developing the new Tricollegiate MFDS and Dental Specialty Fellowship Examinations. I am grateful to everyone who has stepped forward to work at pace in developing the new examinations, but also to those who remain committed to the existing examination portfolio. Although considerable changes are afoot, we will continue to run 10 examinations exclusively for RCSEd, and of course our international diets of MFDS and the specialty examinations will remain ‘collegiate’ activity in the future. Change is not to be feared and the opportunity the new suite of tricollegiate examinations offers is far greater than any perceived concerns.
The Faculty of Dental Surgery education portfolio was led by Lochana Nanayakkara until September when she moved from Convener of Dental Education to her election as a Member of Dental Council. I am grateful to Lochana for all her work, particularly as Lochana is leading the preparations for the Dental Triennial meeting which will run 22-23 October 2026. The theme is “AI and Digital Dentistry” and proves to be an exciting meeting of cutting-edge technology and innovation. Add this to your diary now. Ulpee Darbar has been hard at work with developing the Faculty's education strategy since her appointment to the new role of Deputy Dean (Dental) Education. Ulpee is well known to many and is expanding the education on offer to our membership, as well as developing new courses and resources for those sitting our examinations. The collaboration with ProDental CPD has been a runaway success with 95% of the accounts being active. Radiography and IRMER are the most popular topics so far. If you haven't set up your account, the following link will take you to the sign-up page Opt-In Form: Register to Access ProDental CPD. The webinar series in 2025 saw a total of 22 webinars with 7076 registrations, with some being run in conjunction with the British Association of Oral Surgery and British Society of Special Care Dentistry. Our Annual Dental Symposium “Managing dental patients’ pain and anxiety: everyone’s challenge” in September was run by Dr Carole Boyle and was a resounding success. Dental Accreditation continues to be driven forward by Richard Cure with a steady stream of applications being reviewed by the staff team and volunteer accreditation reviewers alike. This group receive neither recognition nor award, but without their valuable input, this key aspect of our standards agenda would not progress. If you would like to join our team of accreditation reviewers, please contact dental@rcsed.co.uk. The first Foundations in Dental Leadership courses ran this year with more to follow in 2026 and our exciting collaboration with the College of General Dentistry will see more joint educational offerings next year along with more education of all sorts!
Will Mclaughlin has worked tirelessly in 2025 and directs the dental ambassador team – we now have 24 International Dental Ambassadors across 16 countries (Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Cambodia, Egypt, India, Malaysia, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Trinidad, UAE & USA) as well as the UK ambassador team. Will provides considerable support to the ambassador network through focused discussions and webinars. On a personal note, I am grateful to our ambassadors for everything that you do for our Faculty. As part of our international activity, Will has overseen the development of a series of international partnerships with Letters of Intent and Memorandums of Understanding being signed with a number of key educational and geographical institutions around the world. Our international activity has been extensive this year with dental skills competitions in the UAE and Malaysia as well as the UK and our main competition. Faculty involvement in the IDEX conference in Cairo was complemented by participation in the AEEDC conference in UAE along with wonderful engagement events in UAE and Egypt this year. With input from Will and Caroline Berry (International Engagement Manager), the Faculty joined the rest of the College in the fantastic celebrations for the opening of the new College facility in Putrajaya, Malaysia along with numerous meetings with international regulators, registration bodies and universities.
Along with Lochana Nanayakkara taking up her elected seat on Dental Council, we sadly bade farewell to Ian Corbett and Andrew Baldwin from Dental Council. Both have and continue to work hard for both Faculty and College. Ivor Chestnutt is well into his stride as Dental Honorary Secretary and quietly and studiously ensures faculty business is undertaken diligently and without fuss, working closely with the Governance, Risk & Compliance team to ensure everything associated with the name of the Faculty and College is done ‘right’. Ivor has invested a considerable amount of time and effort in steering the Faculty aspects of the governance review through to a successful conclusion and I would publicly like to thank Ivor for his sterling work, wise counsel and diplomacy.
In 2025, we held four meetings of Dental Council, one being our Strategy Day as part of the celebrations for the opening of the College’s new building in Birmingham. It was generous of our former President, Rowan Parks to join us for part of the Strategy Day, and to take so much interest in Faculty business during his term. We also held four very busy meetings of Dental Executive, three meetings of the Advisory Board for Dental Education and 3 meetings of the Dental Examinations Committee. With 18 Advisory Board and Specialist Advisory Board meetings, a multitude of ad hoc and short life working group meetings, it certainly has been an action-packed year. Dental Executive are a hard-working team and interface with the College through College Council, Awards Committee, Trustee Board, Examinations Committee, Education Committee, International Committee, Professional Standards Committee, Heritage and Museums Committee, Office Bearers, Surgeons Quarter Board, Staff and Associate Specialist Liaison Committee, Research Committee, as well as many other one-off meetings throughout the year. Dental executive also meets the General Dental Council on a quarterly basis, and it was a pleasure to host the GDC Executive Team in May for a focused meeting on joint strategic priorities.
The Faculty participated in 16 College diploma ceremonies including ceremonies in Egypt and Kuala Lumpur in 2025, and it was an enormous pleasure to award Toby Gillgrass the Dental Faculty Medal for his unwavering support of the Faculty and College throughout his career at our December ceremony. We celebrated the careers of many at our Diploma Ceremonies through by awarding ten Ad Hominem and Honorary Fellowships in Dental Surgery. Diploma Ceremonies are a particular highlight throughout the year, both in the UK and abroad. With the McEwan Hall ‘mega’ ceremony in October and the dental ceremony in December, it has been a Diploma Ceremony year to remember. It has been delightful to celebrate the key steps of career achievement with so many diplomates and their families this year, and to work with the whole College team on Diploma Days. 2026 will see a further steady stream of Diploma Ceremonies, so keep an eye out for lots more photographs in the College media channels.
The Faculty calendar for 2026 has a lot booked in already, both in the UK and internationally. TS Eliot would be content that we have celebrated the achievements of 2025 and now look forward as “to make an end is to make a beginning”. I am sure 2026 will be another exceptional year for Faculty and College and I look forward to meeting you either in the UK or abroad during the year. Whilst the work we all do is crucial in advancing oral health for patients and populations, I trust that as the year ends and 2026 begins, you will take some time to meet with family and friends, and at the same time relax and recharge, to be ready for the New Year.
I look forward to meeting as many Members and Fellows during 2026 and hope the year is productive and positive for you, your family and our profession.
Please feel free to get in contact dental@rcsed.ac.uk .