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April 2009

A few more news items

This one is from Shaila Vasant (Final BDS)

To mark the end of a term, the final year headed out to The Living Room on Broad Street for a joint Firm Dinner on Thursday.  The event was organised by Saniel Gandesha and the staff included Mr Stewardson, Mr Mosedale, Mr A Milward, Mr Patanwala, Mr Orchard and many dental nurses.  The stylish, contemporary surroundings and live music created a great ambience, and an enjoyable evening was had by all!

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Happy Easter Holidays to everyone out there!

A few final pictures before the Easter break and we have Upen Patel receiving the New Graduate prize from Professor Mark Thomason, President of the BSSPD.  Well done Upen!



Also we have Temilade Ajimoko (Final year BDS) who introduced himself as a student from Birmingham on the Weakest Link on the Tuesday show (7-4-09).  To find out how far Temi got on the show as he pitted his knowledge against Anne Robinson then you can still catch him on iPlayer.  Let us hope that finals go as well in a couple of months time.


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Birmingham wins Schottlander Prize at BSSPD

Hot off the plane from Miami, it was straight up to York to attend the British Society for the Study of Prosthetic Dentistry conference.

The effort was certainly worthwhile as Kushal Gadhia won the Schottlander Prize with his excellent presentation "Is botulinum toxin effective and safe? A systematic review of randomised controlled trials".  Kushal is a Senior House Officer in Prosthetics and his supervisor on the project was Professor Damien Walmsley.  This was a great effort on behalf of Birmingham Dental Hospital and School.

Also Upen Patel, Lecturer in Restorative Dentistry, and Ayanthi Wickramasinghe, Senior House Officer were the recipients of the Young Graduate Prize giving them a fully paid conference attendance.  Also presenting a poster was Freccia Williams, Final Year Dental Student who was the winner of the BSSPD elective Prize 2008.  Freccia topic was "Marginal gap corrosion of dental implants". 

Other poster presenters included Upen Patel "Slippy Skin and Lazy Bones: A Prosthodontic Rehabilitation" and Sarah Gale, Senior House Officer, "Prosthetic Restoration of a Cleft Palate Patient" and Kushal Gadhia "Implant support prostheses in the management of adult cleft deformity".

There were 13 delegates from Birmingham Dental Hospital and School and all are shown here except we forgot to collect Freccia for the photo shot!



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Postscript to IADR - Saturday morning saw presentations from Iain Chapple, Stephane Simon and Adrian Shortall.  There was also good representation from Birmingham in the subsequet poster session.  It was then time to do some shopping for the folks back home and start getting packed up.  Saturday evening and we were out at Lincoln's Mall and Jimmy Steele was invited as an honorary Brummie for the evening.  Today we are getting ready for the long haul home but happy that we had flown the flag for Birmingham.

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Sunrise on the beach and still lots to look forward to from the conference.  You will see that I have also included poster presentations from Mike Milward, Lisa Palmer and Deborah White.  The other highlights from the conference today included presentations from Jimmy Steele on "What is effective care for older people", Gary Slade on "Caries preventive effects of Community water Fluoridation amongst adults" and the symposium on Quantitative Methods for Oral Health Research".  The poster session was very good and there was also numerous board meetings including the Journal of Dental research (Editor Tony Smith) and Journal of Dentistry (Editor Damien Walmsley).  So it was an exhausting day with many highlights but still Saturday beckons.

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Dear Dr Shortall,

I hope you are enjoying reading the IADR program but I must tell you about the interesting sessions that I visited today.  One I enjoyed immensely was  the distinguished scientist session by Professor Elizabeth Blackburn from UCLA who gave a very interesting lecture on "Telomeres and Telomerase in Human Health and Disease"  She showed how human cells age and how to prevent this happening.  She likened Telomeres to the caps on your shoe laces that fray after prolonged use.  Apparently cells will stop reproducing after a while if the enzyme telomerase runs out.  However exercise and healthy living helps to reduce the ageing effect by increasing levels of the same enzyme.  I am sure I have heard that somewhere before.  One of the packed sessions of the day was on dentine bonding and the keynote was given by Dr Franklin Tay.  It was followed by several interesting presentations.  Time for lunch and some of us were pulled into committee work.  Then it was off to the trade stand and the poster session.  Some interesting work was presented and then it was time to attend various meetings and receptions.  One was left thinking where the day had gone.  So Dr Shortall I do hope you found some good sessions to attend and hope you are looking forward to tomorrow's conference day.

With kind regards

Your Blogger

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Today the conference started in earnest and the first on for Birmingham was Owen Addison and Phil Lumley who gave accomplished presentations on their work.  It is difficult to jump around finding where each session is taking place as there may more than 6 different sessions at any one time and it is often a quick dash to find each one.  There are often clashes that prevent you from seeing all those presentions.  That evening the Welcome session took place and then it is off for a bite to eat before the jet lag sets in.  Another busy day tomorrow.

March 2009

Miami Beach is the setting for the IADR conference and after an uneventful flight the Birmingham contingent has arrived.  The Beach looks very quiet and there was a lovely cool wind blowing in the evening as we strolled along the sands.  We discovered the Conference Centre and will be registering tomorrow morning.  More updates to come so keep looking in.

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The hospital is being redocorated and it is time for School office and the University Corridor to be done.  Here we have Gill and Frances from School Office giving a helping hand to Dave the Carpenter as they check out the flooring.

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The School will be somewhat quiet this week as many staff will be over at the IADR in Miami Beach.  In preparation for what is taking place here is a list of the staff who will be over there together with a link to the abstract of their presentation at the conference.  Be prepared for some photographs over the next few days. 

Prof Philip Lumley
Influence of crowns on the extraction of root filled teeth

Prof Iain Chapple
Periodontal disease: Inflammation and nutrition status assessment

Prof Tony Smith
Publishing Your Manuscript - a JDR Perspective

Prof Deborah White
Relationship between dentists' primary qualification and practising location

Prof Damien Walmsley
Mapping the occurrence of cavitation along ultrasonic scaler tips

Prof Thomas Dietrich
Predicted Vitamin D Status and Incidence of Tooth Loss

Dr Adrian Shortall
Fracture Resistance of Commercial Composites Indicates Product Specific Exposure Reciprocity

Dr Kirsty Hill
Musculo-skeletal disease as a cause of ill-health retirement among dentists

Dr Owen Addison
Seating load and loading time impacts on resin-cemented ceramic strength

Mr Mike Milward
Antioxidant modulation of oral keratinocyte response to periodontal pathogens

Mr Stephane Simon
Expression of p38-Mapk in odontoblasts during primary, secondary, tertiary dentinogenesis

Dr Melissa Grant
Oxygen and activation of oral epithelial NFkB by plaque bacteria

Dr Changxiang Wang
Abrasive Particle and Toothbrush Filament Effects on Dental Tissue Wear

Miss Lisa Palmer
DNase Activity in Plaque and Crevicular Fluid During Experimental Gingivitis

Miss Ruth Poole
Evaluating Vibrations Transmitted through Teeth during High-Speed Cutting

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With all the fuss about Street View in Google Earth, I decided to see what the Dental School and Hospital looked like.  I loaded up Google Earth with Street view and there are several views of our beloved building.  The  first pictures show the usual traffic jam around the place with lots of cars.  But the Google camera passed by the building at another time as depending on which view you use it is either a sunny or gloomy day.  Also it is either in the morning or on a Sunday as some views show few cars around.



So it is difficult to see who is in or out.  No pictures of car park space 41 either.  However I did have a look around and see if anyone was in the Bull and there are some nice pictures of the building but difficult to make out who is in there.  Would it be funny to see a few dental school staff at the entrance?



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The Annual Cheese and Wine took place in the Dental Hospital Canteen.  There were 9 teams playing but whilst there was one team of Senior House Officers there was not a full staff team this year.  However this did not stop the students enjoying themselves.  Professor Walmsley was quizmaster once again and questions ranged from Sport History to Dentistry.  However the Dentistry section was not answered as well as the TV and Film category.  One knows where the students' priorities lie. 



By the end of the evening there was a Karaoke sing off between two Student teams, "Tangy" and "The Gajjarj".  Harmeet Gill led the singing on the Backstreet Boys song "I Want It That Way" for her team but she was outshone by Priya Shah's rendition of the same song. 

There followed a party after the quiz before everyone went home.  Many thanks go to Shiralee Patel and her team for organising one of the most enjoyable Wine and Cheese evenings in recent times.

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End of an Era
Take one last look at the paternosters for by the end of the week this piece of history will become entombed within the ageing structure of the Dental Hospital probably never to be seen again. They were installed in 1965 and up until the last 2 years have provided both an enjoyable and invaluable service to the students and staff in the building. The newly created walls blocking the opening to the paternosters are planned to host attractive pieces of artwork to brighten up the corridor. I hope you will all agree this truly is the end of an era.


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"Feedback can be a positive experience."
 
Mr Upen Patel (Lecturer in Restorative Dentistry) has been selected as a winner for "Rewarding Excellence in Learning and Teaching (Medicine)" awards organized by the Subject Centre for Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine.
 
 

Upen was among the four winners of the competition (the only winner shortlisted from Dentistry), and has a full fully paid conference registration, accommodation and travel to attend the Association for Dental Education in Europe Conference 2009 in Helsinki 26-28 August.

Upen will be presenting his work as a poster at the conference.  The competition required applicants to write about how feedback can be a positive experience for both teachers and students.  The judges scored Upen’s application highly and commented that that it was “an excellent, reflective application which is properly thoughtful about the use and impact of feedback. It is reflective and interesting.”

We look forward to reading about Upen’s experiences at the ADEE conference and also his thoughts on Feedback which will form the basis of his poster.

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The food that Carole and Vib prepared for Red Nose Day was very good and your Blogger was up there to taste it for you.  Here are a few pictures showing the spread and a great one of Carole and Vib with their Red Noses.  The following email was sent around to everyone in the School.

Dear All

Thank you all very much for your support for Red Nose Day!  We raised an amazing £168.40 for Comic Relief!

Carole and Vib


Dear All

For ‘Red Nose Day’ there will be Samosa’s, Pakora’s and cakes available for you to purchase on the 8th Floor (Vib’s office) with all donations going to charity.  They will be available between 12.00-1.30 and we are hoping to raise a nice amount of money for charity so please come and support this with us and give generously!  

Many thanks

Carole and Vib
Biomaterials Unit & Cons Unit

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"Tell me that you will open your eyes"

 

That is what Gary Lightbody sang from Snow Patrol last night at the NEC .  A great concert and it was good to meet up with a few of our ex dental students who were also enjoying the evening.  I am not sure how the day will be with my ears ringing from the Wall of Sound!  It was also a good day yesterday for Birmingham yesterday as Deborah White was elected Vice Chair of the Central Committee for Dental Academic Staff of the British Dental Association at the start of the new Triennium of the committee at BDA HQ in Wimpole Street.  We wish Deborah every success in this role.

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Would you employ these final year students in your practice?  The final year of 2009 pose for a group photograph prior to setting off for the round of VT interviews that are taking place around the country.  all the best with these interviews and we are keeping our fingers crossed that you are successful in your job hunting.  Once the T interviews are over then it is heads down in the books for finals papers in early May followed by the clinical examination in June.  Phew makes me exhausted just thinking about what they need to do!

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Congratulations to Prof Deborah White, Dr Kirsty Hill and Dr John Morris from the School of Dentistry.  They are part of a successful University led consortium that have been awarded the contract for the 2009 Adult Dental Health Survey.  The consortium is being led by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and includes the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) together with the Universities of Birmingham, Dundee, Newcastle and Cardiff.

Birmingham has been involved with every Adult Dental Health and Child Dental Health Survey since 1968 and is proud to be part of this consortium.

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It is the first day of spring or first Monday of Spring to be exact.  The Sun has got his hat on here in Birmingham and it is a grand start to the day.  Also they have brand new ultra efficient hand driers in the toilets of Floor 3 which does make a difference to the start of the day!
 
Here are some of the crocuses coming up in my front lawn for you to look at.

The School of Dentistry at Birmingham features heavily in this month's British Dental Journal.  it is good to see Phil Tomson pick up his award (Nice Picture Phil).  It was also nice to read about Megan Cross and her success at the recent Dentsply awards.  Pity there are no pictures but I thought you might like to take a look at Megan getting her certificate again.

February 2009

The School of Dentistry was successful in its bit for a Wellcome Equipment Grant allowing the School to purchase a Skyscan MicroCT.  The bid was led by Dr Paul Cooper and after a few months of negotiation we finally took delivery of the MicroCT.  It is a very heavy beast at 240 kilos and one of the tasks for the porters was to relocate the machine into Dr Cooper's laboratory on the 7th Floor.  This took a couple of hours but finally the instrument was up and running.  The pictures show the MicroCT in its home on the 7th Floor and one of our first pictures showing the cross section internal anatomy of a tooth.

MicroComputer Tomographer (microCT) is a relatively new device which uses x-rays to generate high-definition 3D images of experimental and biological samples. This imaging technique will assist research teams within The School of Dentistry to generate new ways to diagnose and treat oral diseases. Outcomes from the use of the MicroCT will addresses the aims of the Wellcome Trust by making key contributions to the creation, development and maintenance of major dental research resources. Also this work will lead to translational benefits for oral and dental healthcare in the UK.

The answer is 240 kilos of a MicroCT



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What is in this box?



This box was seen late Friday morning and is being opened up at 9.00am today. 

Clue it is sitting outside Dr Paul Cooper's laboratory on the 7th Floor

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YourBlogger was at the European Parliament to see the first reception hosted by the Association of Dental Education in Europe.  The Association is rising in prominence and Dr Milan Gal’a, an MEP from Slovakia and a practising dentist hosted the reception.  Speeches were given by the President Malcolm Jones, Prof Derry Shanley past investigator of the DentEd projects and chair of IFDEA and finally Prof Fons Plasschaert who is be acting as the European Champion for the Association.  This will lead to more knowledge of affairs that may affect Dental Education in Europe including Life-Long-Learning.  It was good to see that Birmingham Dental School is assisting in this important development process of Dental Education in Europe.



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The Executive of the ADEE were hosted by ACTA Dental School in Amsterdam. It was here that the committee had an initial preview of the conference to be held in the city in 2010.  ACTA are undertaking an ambitious building project of a new school, hospital and research facility to replace the old building.  As someone waiting to see a new school in Birmingham, it was very exciting to see inside the building which will be completed in 2010.  The theme will be virtual reality and will feature many exciting speakers both within and outside dentistry.  We went to the factory of Moog who are sponsoring the conference.  Moog are the world’s largest manufacturers of virtual reality equipment including flight Stimulators.  We were also allowed to try out a brand new Haptic device for operative procedures which will be installed in the new ACTA dental school.  We can see Your Blogger trying it out and it is rather like an absorbing computer game as the Haptic device provides a real simulation of using a burr. 




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A bit more catching up of news and this is from Tony Jacobs of GDP-UK fame who writes on an Endodontic Study Day. 

Members of GDPUK web forum http://www.gdpuk.com met for an Endodontic Study day at Birmingham Dental School on Saturday 7th February, with lecturers Dr Bill Seddon and Dr Alyn Morgan, both also group members.

Feedback from the course praised the lecturers for their relevance to general dental practice, and for not having other hidden agendas. The lecturers were able to upload movie version of their slides to the GDPUK site, these acted as a refresher.

Tony Jacobs, founder of the GDPUK group was also pleased the event had a social and networking function, dentists from all over the country share ideas and opinions online, but rarely get chance to meet. The timetable allowed time for the lectures, viewing relevant trade stands and peer review.

In addition proceeds from the event raised about £500 for charitable donations.

Images from Steve van Russelt - http://www.the-dental.biz

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News catch-up - We have been so excited as a school with Megan Cross' success that we have neglected to let you know what else is happening in the school.



Birmingham was well represented at this year's Young Dentist Conference which was held at the Royal College of Physicians in London at the weekend. Phil Tomson defended endodontology in a debate where the audience acted on behalf of "NICE" and had the opportunity to put periodontology, orthodontics or endodontology into Room 101! After a closely fought contest the audience decided to banish orthodontics to room 101! Neal Raval (who can forget Neal),  a Birmingham graduate from 2007, gave an excellent presentation in a session entitled "Because you're worth it!" giving dentists confidence in valuing their skills when moving into a practice environment. This was a unique format for a conference and was a great success with the young dentists having an enjoyable and rewarding day.

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BDA Dentsply Student Clinician Prize 2009

Friday night was a great night for Megan Cross and the School of Dentistry.  Megan won the BDA-Dentsply Student Clinician Prize which was held as the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Knightsbridge, London.  Not only does she receive the first prize but she also wins an all expenses trip to the American Dental Association conference in Honolulu Hawaii.  The title of Megan's Presentation was "DNase Activity within Dental Plaque and Gingival Crevicular Fluid during a 21-day Experimental Model of Gingivitis." 

The night is also an important one on the social calendar for academic dentistry and many staff and students were there as well.  The pictures show a few familiar faces.  Everyone from Birmingham was very proud of Megan and her winning result.  It goes without saying that there were loud cheers from the Birmingham tables.  The last time that Birmingham won was 1998 and it was worth the 11 year wait to be back on the winning streak.  The School of Dentistry has a strong research ethic having done very well in the recent RAE.  Megan's result is a tribute to the hard work and dedication of staff within the building.




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Snow what is all the fuss about?





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Elective Presentation Day

The best mask was awarded to Hurjoht Virdee, and the King and Queen of the Ball was awarded to Faisal Wahed and Claire Bolton.

Thanks to Shiralee Patel and her team for a great night and look forward to the next one.







January 2009

Atmospheric view of the Dental School at night.

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Writing up a PhD can be a real chore and it requires a lot of dedication and there should be no distractions.  Therefore one has to feel sorry for Bernhard Felver who is in the writing up stage of his PhD.  He is back at home in Austria busy completing the writing and hopefully will have it submitted soon. Bernhard says "Greetings from a Snowy Austria. This is the view from our balcony after fresh snow this morning. and the garden of my grandparents' house covered in snow."

Not sure if I would be writing up my PhD may be a snowfight or a bit of Tobogganing would be the order of the day!

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End of an Era



This week we see the retirement of Pam Jefferis from the School Postgraduate Office.  Pam has been working for the University for about 30 years starting on campus.  She came over to the Dental School for 6 weeks just to help out and stayed ever since.  First as a secretary to Prof Hugh Edmondson in Oral Surgery before moving on to become postgraduate secretary working with Prof John Frame.  There is not a person working within dentistry in the West Midlands that has not been touched by Pam's personality.  She is one of those people who is always there for you.  Pam is often found on Section 63 courses not only being the person that booked you on the course from the PG office but is there checking you have signed the register.  She is also the one that serves the coffee for you!  Practitioners up and down the West Midlands will have found Pam helpful and interested in the PG courses that they had enrolled on.  Visiting speakers always received a warm welcome and Pam always ensured that they were well looked after.  It certainly is an end of an era.  I know that Pam is looking forward to retirement and has a few grandchildren to keep her busy in the years ahead.  From everyone in the School we wish you well and we thank you for your company over the years.

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...and now for something completely different.

Two of our dental students, Rikki Dhody and Mandhir Dhillon have produced an elearning video module on British Sign Language as part of their Paediatric Dentistry special study module.  Have a click on the videos and it will take you into the ecourse pages. 

Well done to  Rikki and Mandhir.

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Sorry the Blog is so quiet in recent days.  It has to be that the School is very busy, with January being one of those months where people put their heads down and get working.  The 3rd years have started their speciality teaching and are getting to grips with the increased work load that this brings.  They have also had examinations this week which is concentrating their minds.  Fourth years are worrying about their summer electives especially as protocols need to be in this week.  So many exotic locations are being linked to dental projects.  Maybe this is being a little unfair but protocols are being put together that do include some interesting itineraries.  The whole year will then look towards the BASHD examinations which are happening in late Spring. For the uninitiated BASHD is an acronym for Basic and Applied Systemic Human Disease Course [formerly medical sciences]

For Final years January is the month to worry about presentation cases and whether they have their requirements to sit Finals.  The School is also slowly getting into being part of a College of Medical and Dental Sciences.  This week the College is undertaking its BIQAES review (Birmingham Integrated Quality Assurance and Enhancement System) and this has involved the Postgraduate Students and some of their supervisors.  Don't you love all these Acronyms that are used.  January is also a good time to get writing research grants as there are deadlines for European funding coming up over the following few months.  Writing grants is a slow process but very important for the research effort for the School.  We did well in the RAE and wish to consolidate our efforts and move forward.  Against this backdrop there is still the need to look after our patients who come in for treatment with our students.  As for your blogger there are the new series of "24" and "Lost" to watch in the evening.  Many of us are still trying to catch up with many of the DVD's given as Christmas presents.  Keep reading as there will always be something happening at the School of Dentistry.

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In the news today it is mentioned that this Monday is the worst day of the year psychologically for a number of reasons.  Personally I have always liked January and there is no time to feel down as we are well into the term.  The third years have all experienced their first two weeks of speciality departments and have examinations today.  Their view of January may be a little different. 

Here is some good news on our research activity. 

We have been successful with our bids to the Science City Advanced Materials 2 Project, funded by Advantage West Midlands and the European Regional Development Fund.  The recipients of equipment will be Dr Will Palin and Prof Damien Walmsley.  The equipment that the School received included a dental wear simulator, wavelength filters and single point vibrometer which will complement our existing suite of equipment for measuring composite materials and ultrasonic instrumentation.

Dr Paul Cooper led a team from Birmingham in the successful equipment grant application for a Xray Microtomography System.  The award was for £160k and will be used to assist research projects throughout the School.



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