Watch out there is an Examination about !




It is examination time this week and the 4th years took part in their OSCE on Tuesday.  The 5th years have Finals Part 1 on Wednesday.  The ecourse discussion board on our elearning site had been going strong with scores of messages posted at all times of night.  Well done to all the members of staff for keeping up with the discussions.  Soon the discussion areas will be gearing up for the end of specialty area examinations. Busy times ahead for Staff and Students.

-------

Association of Dental Hospitals

The Hospital and School were visited by the Association of Dental Hospitals who held their annual conference at Birmingham.  The visit was organised by Kath Jakeman who is at the top of the stairs and tallest person on the photo!  Quite a collection of important people all in one place!

Visit of Professor David Eastwood

The Dental School was pleased to welcome Professor David Eastwood, Vice-Chancellor to the University of Birmingham.  This was the first visit of the Vice Chancellor since taking up office earlier this year.  The Head of School, Professor Lumley hosted the visit and took the opportunity of showing Professor Eastwood around the school.  the Vice Chancellor visited the clinical floors of Periodontology, Prosthetic Dentistry and Clinical Practice.  Professor Smith briefed the Vice Chancellor on our high quality research which is of International standing and also showed him our laboratory areas on Floor 7 and 8.




The Vice Chancellor was also taken through our award winning ecourse and also saw the new 8th Floor facilities which will be officially opened later in the month.  During the tour of the building, many of the students and staff welcomed the opportunity to meet and discuss their work with Professor Eastwood. 



---------------

Award for Biomaterials

Julian Leprince (PhD student, Louvain University, Belgium) and Mohammed Hadis (PhD student, Biomaterials, Birmingham) were winners of the “Paffenbarger Award” for research in Dental and Biomaterials Sciences at the recent Academy of Dental Materials conference (Portland, Oregon) for the paper entitled “Lucirin-TPO: Photoinitiator Reactivity and Curing Time Reduction”, J Leprince, M Hadis, J Ferracane, A Shortall, G Leloup, W Palin. Julian presented this work at the ADM following a visit to the Biomaterials laboratory for 6 weeks this summer to conduct the research with Mohammed who is currently in the final year of his PhD (supervised by Will Palin and Adrian Shortall). Many congratulations to both students for their achievement in this prestigious international competition.

The following is a figure from the poster which shows the “effective irradiation of a halogen curing light (EMS) operated at different intensities and absorption characteristics of the photoinitiators, TPO and CQ”


----------

Coffee Mug

Just got my Christmas Coffee Mug and it is filled up with special Christmas Coffee.  Just the thing to cheer you up for the coming weekend.  Staff Development Day today so will be drinking lots of coffee whilst listening to the lastest developments in the School.  Hope you have a good Bonfire Party if you are going to one tonight.

---------

Postcard from Brazil

Professor Tony Smith has just returned from a gruelling lecture tour of Brazil and this is a few notes from his postcard.

On Saturday I had a day off in the Pantanal fishing for piranhas and chasing alligators (see pics) !  The rest of the time, I was lecturing on research journal publishing and having discussions on research interactions - see Research Councils UK sign groundbreaking MoU with Brazil   Interestingly, I briefly visited the FAPESP offices in Sao paulo on Wed am when one of my hosts was submitting a grant application. Maria Fidela de Lima Navarro was my main host and is Secretary General of University of São Paulo and President-Elect of the International Association for Dental Research (IADR).  Sao Paulo is the biggest university in Brazil

 Thanks Tony and I like the alligator!!

------------

End of our Summer



Here is Birmingham on a Monday morning with the Sun shining. 

However I think this is the last of our Indian Summer. Enjoy before the rain comes!

October 2009

Halloween in Paediatric Dentistry

Be scared, be very scared as our students (Group 4.5) in the Paediatric Department dress up for Halloween.  All the costumes were provided by Tracey Sanders and Gaynor Partridge, Head Nurses on Paediatric Dentistry.

What Trick or Treat do you think we should do with these guys this Halloween?

Thanks to Jason Pike, Gabrielle Stanley and Kris Coomar for alerting me to this photograph.

----------

It is the small things in life that make a difference....

Many staff and students make their way through the city centre and one of the routes is past Snow Hill station.  Last week they opened up on part of Snow Hill Plaza allowing you direct access to the new Office Block that is adjacent to the junction between Snow Hill Queensway and Colmore Circus.  It may only knock off 1 min off your normal walk to work but as the title says it is the small things in life that make a difference.......

-------------

Wedding Congratulations

Congratulations to Nav Karir and Vishali Hondocha who got married at the weekend.  Nav is a specialist registrar in Restorative Dentistry at the Birmingham Dental Hospital having previously held a Senior House officer post.  Likewise Vishali was also a Senior House Officer and followed this with a clinical assistant post in the Prosthetics Department.  Both the School and Hospital congratulate them on their happy event and wish them well.

-----------------

Student Talking Points in Dentistry 2009



We pride ourselves on being a friendly school and always say hello to visitors.  At this year's Student Talking Points in Dentistry lecture we were pleased to welcome Professor Mike Lewis. Mike is a busy chap but he found time to talk to our students in the Alex McGregor Lecture Theatre.  His talk was entitled "An essential guide to xerostomia".  It was a well illustrated and informative review on this debilitating  condition.  The introductions were given by John Hamburger and the vote of thanks by Iain Chapple.  The students enjoyed both his talk and the free "pizza" lunch afterwards.

Student Talking Points in Dentistry was organised by GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (GSK)
---------------

MSc in Primary Dental Care

Here is proof that the MSc in Primary Dental Care at the School of Dentistry is as popular as ever.  This year 9 dental practitioners have signed up for the 5 year course with the University of Birmingham.  Here is a picture of the new group at the famous coffee break in the dental hospital cafeteria with the Course Organiser, Professor Trevor Burke.

-----------------

Two European Treasurers together

Iain Chapple, Treasurer for the European Federation of Periodontology (EFP) and Damien Walmsley Treasurer for the Association of Dental Education in Europe (ADEE) were together for a recent workshop in Spain.  ADEE have recently updated the paper on "Profile and Competences document for the graduating European Dentist" and this has instigated many specialities looking at their own educational documents.  Prof Mariano Sanz, Dean of Madrid organised a European Workshop in Periodontal Education on behalf of the European Federation of Periodontology.  The setting for the workshop was in the picturesque town of La Granja de San Ildefonso, near to Segovia. 

There were 4 working groups covering the educational requirements of periodontology.  Iain was Chair and Damien was co-Chair of Group 4 which was tasked at reviewing the Innovative educational methods and technologies applicable to continuing professional development in Periodontology.

Although the workshop involved a great deal of work there was time to visit the Palace which was once the summer residence of the Kings of Spain and the gardens are spectacular in their autumn colours.

---------------

Tooth Music

Ektor Grammatopoulos is currently studying for his MPhil in Orthodontics at Birmingham Dental School and Hospital as part of his specialist training.  His research has focussed on the effect of malocclusion on wind instrument playing.

Ektor has shown that playing a wind instrument does not affect the position of the teeth. This is contrary to previous research and popular belief amongst wind instrument players and music teachers who have insisted that there was an effect.  Ektor's research was a cross sectional observational study comparing the study casts of different groups of wind instrument players to string and percussion players. His study involved very strict inclusion and exclusion criteria and the clinical material was obtained from 14 orchestras, 4 jazz bands and 3 music colleges.  Dr Ashish Dhopatkar, senior Lecturer in orthodontics was Ektor's supervisor

Ektor has received several awards for his work.  These include the Ivor Whitehead Prize, British Dental Association West Midland Hospital Group and British Dental Association Central Counties Branch Joint Study Day Meeting, April 2009.  The TC White Lecture Award Glasgow (a 1 hour lecture presented at the British Society of Dental Research Conference, September 2009). This prize was sponsored by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Glasgow. He has also won the Hawley Russell Prize- First prize for Poster Presentation, British Orthodontic Society Conference, Edinburgh, September 2009. He will also be presenting this work as an oral presentation at the 7th International World conference, Sydney, February 2010.

The picture shows Ektor with Joe Patton who is from the City of Birmingham Symphony orchestra.

---------------

Minder : Mindee

Ahmed Din, the BUDSS publicity officer provides a report on the Minder:Mindee event.

It’s that time of the year when the newly arrived first years get paired up with their minders. This year they did it dressed up as aliens and astronauts. The evening started with bowling.

First the “Mindee’s” had to search for their “Minder’s” and once they did they had to try their hardest to swindle as many notes/books/advice out of them as possible!

Once everyone had bonded they were moved to Urban Village Bar in Selly Oak where the socialising continued!

Now the “Mindee’s” are being looked after!

--------------



Brian Schottlander hosted the annual prize BSSPD dinner at Cafe 21 in Newcastle.  There was a strong Birmingham connection as the main prize was won by Kushal Gadhia with his presentation "Is botulinum toxin effective and safe? A systematic review of randomised controlled trials". This paper was given earlier in the year at the Annual BSSPD conference in York.  Kushal was a Senior House Officer in Prosthetics and has now moved onto the Eastman where he is an SPpecialist registrar in Restorative Dentistry.  The picture shows the Birmingham connection with left to right Chris Butterworth (previously SpR at Birmingham), David Attrill, Craig Barclay (BSSPD president and formerly member of staff at Birmingham), Damien Walmsley (BSSPD president-elect), Brian Schottlander and Prize Winner Kushal Gashia.



Here are a few shots of bridges over the Tyne which were taken on our way back to the hotel.

---------

Rohin Butani won a bursary from the Sands Cox Society and presented his work at their Annual meeting.  Rohan's talk was entitled "An Investigation of Ayurvedic Principles in Dentistry and Their Use in Dental Extractions without Local Anaesthetic".  Rohan travelled to India to meet Dr Makwana who is an Ayurvedic doctor from Rajkot, Gujarat. Dr Makwana performs dental extractions without the use of local anaesthetic with the use of an ayurvedic technique called Jalandhar-Bandha Yoga (JBY).  Rohan reported that Dr Makwana has a 74% success rate using this procedure.  During an entertaining presentation, Rohan showed some interesting videos which demonstrated the technique.  Rohan was one of 5 students who won Bursaries, the others being Medical Students who also presented their work to the Society. The picture shows Dr John Rippin (Chairman of the Sands Cox Society), Rohan and Dr Kirsty Hill (Chief Electives Co-ordinator).

After the business of the Annual General Meeting and the presentations by the students, there was a guest lecture by Peter Rock MBE, JP. Peter is a former Reader in Orthodontics at the School of Dentistry and also a Magistrate.  He gave a humorous and reflective talk on a "View from the Bench".  In his speech he covered the role of a Magistrate and also gave some amusing cases studies which highlighted the varied nature of his role as a Justice of the Peace.

For information the Sands Cox society is for Medical and Dental Graduates of Birmingham University. It organises 2 to 3 meetings per year, publishes a journal (Aesculapius) annually and supports current medical and dental students in their elective projects.

----------------------------------

Well done to all those who took part in the Birmingham Half Marathon yesterday.  Runners included Prof Lumley, Rob Mew (4th year dental Student) and Vince Higham (Hospital Porter).  These are the ones I know about. If anyone has any photos or stories of people from the School or Hospital who took part then please forward them to the dental school Blogger and I will share them with you.

------------

30 Year Reunion Dinner



At last some news to put on the Blog and what could be better to report than the 30 year reunion dinner that was held on Friday evening. The  Arthur Thompson Charitable Trust provides the funding necessary for Birmingham Dental graduates who qualified 30 years ago to come together and to share all those memories of when they were dental students at Birmingham.



The year of 1979 were welcomed at Staff House by the Head of School Professor Philip Lumley.  Next to the table plan was a poster of their student "mugshots" which revealed some very interesting hairstyles that were around at the end of the seventies.  Staff House provided an excellent meal and followed by speeches from Prof Lumley, Prof McNeish and Dr Peter Rock.  Philip reminded us of what happened in 1979; the politics, the sport and entertainment of that year.  Prof McNeish welcomed the year on behalf of the Arthur Thompson Trust. The final speaker, Peter Rock, gave a humorous account of memories of the Dental School.  There was time for group photographs and endless talk of what people were doing now, how their families are and their exploits/careers since 1979.  Glyn Thomas brought along an old instrument box which many of today's dentists looked at with amazement when they consider their present day infection control in dental practice.  A few had their pictures taken with the "box". 



The party went late into the night and there will certainly be a few tired people in the morning.  Special thanks go to Carinna Chilton from School office who organised the event.  The 30 year Reunion Event is as always a special evening in the social calendar of the School of Dentistry.




------------------

September 2009

European Society of Endodontics - Edinburgh



Birmingham had a strong contingent at the European Society of Endodontolgy biennial meeting in Edinburgh last week which included Prof Phil Lumley, Nick Adams, Stephane Simon, Mike Waplington, Andy McRobert, Giles Round, Phil Tomson and numerous alumni. The congress was attended by nearly 1400 delegates from all over the world. The scientific programme was excellent with 4 simultaneous presentations given at once which made for some difficult choices.

Excellent oral presentations were given by Stephane Simon and Nick Adams. Stephane gave a thought provoking talk titled "the dental pulp - the root filling of the future?" and Nick presented an audit carried out with alumni Adjit Tanday and Karen Darby on the technical quality of root treatments carried out by undergraduates at Birmingham School of Dentistry.



-------------

British Society of Periodontology - Diamond Jubilee

The Diamond Jubilee (1949-2009) Autumn Scientific Meeting of British Society of Periodontology took place on 24th & 25th September at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in London. The conference was titled 'Plaque on Trial' which debated the role of plaque and the host response in periodontal disease. The meeting included a celebration of the Sir Wilfred Fish Prize with past winners giving presentations on their research since winning this prestigious prize. Prof Iain Chapple took part in this session with a presentation titled 'The tangled webs neutrophils weave'. On the Friday a keynote presentation was given by Prof Thomas Dietrich entitled 'Gingivitis & Periodontitis - 2 distinct conditions with different aetiologies?'



Fiona Blair, Mike Milward, Paul Weston, Amit Patel, Sue Noble & John Taggart from Birmingham also attended this interesting and thought provoking conference.

----------------

Freshers 2009

BUDSS president Jag Hans and his team did a great job for the new intake of dental students.  The new students were met at the Medical school and following the necessary Fire talk, Jag gave a presentation on BUDSS and welcomed the new students to the dentistry course and introduced the Committee.  There was then a group photograph before the coaches brought them to the dental school where they were met by loads of Pizza.  After lunch, the freshers received their second Fire lecture of the day.  Don't worry readers of the blog, there will be dentistry orientated lectures next week.  Following the Trade fair in the common room, everyone assembled in the lecture theatre for the afternoon presentations including a video on the BDH has talent show that took place earlier in the year.

There was no let up in the proceedings as it was time for the Punch Party in the Common room followed by coaches back to the Vale.  The final event was a night in the City. Jag Hans and the Committee must be congratulated on making this one of the best Freshers events ever and I hope that all First Years are ready for lectures on Monday morning!!



----------------

Professor Roy Page’s swansong lecture delivered at Birmingham Dental School
 


Professor Roy Page gave the final lecture of his long and illustrious career at Birmingham Dental School on 22nd September 2009. As expected, the lecture theatre was packed with over 300 delegates to hear this iconic figure share his experiences of over 40 years at the forefront of oral health research. He was introduced by Prof Chapple and presented two excellent lectures in his own inimitable style to rapturous applause. Prof Chapple presented Prof Page with a commemorative gold medal as a gesture of our thanks to him for making the long journey to Brum and allowing general dentists, staff and students to share this prestigious event.  The event also gave Prof Chapple the opportunity to showcase the University spin out company Previsor which is the first evidence-based online risk prediction system for common oral diseases, specifically periodontitis, caries and oral cancer.






 
The event was generously sponsored by Johnson & Johnson, and students and staff alike partook in a glass of wine before the event began. The feedback from the event was extremely positive and complimentary, despite some humorous events surrounding an unwelcome security alarm just prior to the start. Professor Page will joining the British Society of Periodontology as one of the International Honorary Members at the Diamond Jubilee dinner celebrations of the BSP on 24th September 2009.

Special thanks to Mike Milward for the excellent pictures

---------------

A New Look

What a transformation! The 8th floor was the Ugly duckling of the School of Dentistry.  That is no longer the case.  The area has changed to a state-of-the-art clinical simulation laboratory.  The lab has all the latest gadgetry and ergonomically designed equipment that are needed to train our dental students to the highest standards before they commence their work on patients.  The School is pleased that it has opened in time for our new intake of pre-clinical students. It features three bays each with a central console.  The phantom heads are central to the individual workstations and each is equipped with the latest high speed handpieces and other essential equipment.  Each workstation also has a computer screen which will allow our students to access the Ecourse (Birmingham's award winning elearning environment) and also link to the clinical demonstrator working from the central console. 




The pictures show the simulation laboratory just after the handover from the company.  As you see the students will also have great views over the city surroundings. 

Just to remind you what the 8th Floor looked like back in 2000.  I hope you like the retro pictures of some of the staff as well.

------------

British Association of Teachers of Conservative Dentistry (BATCD)

The annual conference of the British Association of Teachers of Conservative Dentistry (BATCD) was held this year in London at Queen Mary, University of London hosted by Barts and the London School of Medicine & Dentistry. Dominic Stewardson and Phil Tomson attended from Birmingham. The theme of the conference was “is there a future for conservative dentistry?” Speakers included Professors Edwina Kidd, Callum Youngson & Lawrence Mair and Drs. Niek Opdam, Ben Roberts & Shakeel Shahdad whose topics included a look forward and back at conservative dentistry, future training in dentistry, the role of conservative dentistry in whole patient care, working without amalgam, e-learning and the impact of implants on treatment planning. Some excellent presentations which provoked lively discussions. Overall this was a very enjoyable and worthwhile conference.

And the answer provided by the speakers (and delegates) to the conference theme question? - a consistent and definite YES!

------------------