September 2012
July 2012
Mehreen has sent us pictures in her costume from the opening ceremony. If any staff or students have any pictures of the Olympics to share then please send in and I will place on the site. Come on TeamGB!
One of my Twitter followers is past dental student Mehreen Umar who is taking part in the opening ceremony on Friday. Mehreen has tweeted a picture of herself outside the stadium. No clues as to the ceremony but she promises to send us a picture of herself in full costume after the ceremony!
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Catching up on an incredible week of events which all centred on one day of the week Wednesday where the following took place Graduation Day, Prize Giving and the Master's BBQ.
Prize giving was held at the Dental School and the guest speaker was Professor Laird. The prizes were announced by Professor White and each recipient had their photograph taken with Prof Laird. Following the handing out of the Prizes, Prof Laird gave his speech where he encourage the prize recipients to take advantage of the opportunities in life. Professor Lumley gave his annual address where he highlighted the achievements of the school which as always were numerous. Both students and staff had been active in many different activities.
Graduation was to be held at 4.30pm in the afternoon and many were worried given the vagaries of the British weather that there may be problems. Incredibly it rained till 4pm and then the clouds parted and the sun came out. As you can see from the photographs it was a lovely evening and there were many happy faces around.
Many of the staff then moved onto Professor Trevor Burke's invitation to take part in the Master's BBQ at Horton Grange. Although it was a dry night, it was a little chilly. A few of us braved the evening and sat outside. Trevor thanked both staff and students for a successful year. Also Lynn Malthouse received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from Prof Burke for all her work for the masters. A great day for all concerned, with lovely memories as we move onto the remainder of the term.
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Many Congratulations to all our undergraduate and postgraduate students on their Graduation Day. Lots of Pictures and information to follow shortly.
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A great big thank you to Michelle Middleton who was there at the Graduation Ball and had her camera at the ready. Michelle is a regular contributor on Flickr and takes some great photographs. Here are some of her shots from the Graduation Ball that was held at the Forest of Arden Hotel on Saturday.
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Some of our 4th year away on electives and they find interesting places to visit. Here is a picture of Priya Chandarana and Jasdeep Bhandal in Valdivia, Chile. They are pictured with Sergio Uribe who is on the Faculty at the dental school at Universidad Austral de Chile. We are looking forward to meeting Sergio next year at the ADEE conference in Birmingham 2013 where he will be one of the speakers. For those on Twitter here is the page that shows where they are in Chile.
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June 2012
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The campus was very busy with the first of two open days. Here we see the stands for both Dentistry and Dental Hygiene & Therapy. Whilst the weather was not good, it did not dampen the spirits of many potential students accompanied by parents who wanted to apply to Birmingham to study.
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England is into the quarter finals and we are starting to believe just a little. However we have our own Goals scorer in Shiraz Khan and he gives an account below of his attendance and presentation at the Student Millennium Goal conference in Lund, Sweden organised by Health Sciences section of Universitas 21.
U21 UNMDG is a multidisciplinary health sciences group which focuses on getting students and staff alike, to endeavour to undertake the United Nations, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
I have been fortunate enough to have been elected as the Secretary for the student committee, which, in brief, involves monthly teleconferences, formulation of educational materials and assimilation of this knowledge so that I am able to present to fellow peers. Lund University, in Sweden, housed a U21 UNMDG workshop for students who were in the European sector. Students had come from Dublin, Nottingham, and even Birmingham (me) to join the students of Lund in undertaking case studies and ascertaining a greater understanding of what the U21 health sciences group is about. I was responsible for delivering a lecture to fellow students about how it is to be part of the committee, and in effect, to inspire people to perhaps become more actively involved.
The trip was a great one, met a lot of new people and look forward to the next endeavour.
Shiraz Khan
It was the Fancy Dress at Stratford upon Avon and as the pictures show many of our students went to town on costumes. It is impossible to take pictures of all the creations and apologies if I have missed one or two. There were a few of our ex students along for the evening so see if you can spot them. The weather held and it provided an opportunity to catch up with the final years who were so pleased with themselves that they had passed their examinations. Hope you enjoy the pictures.
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The Dentistry Final examination took place over the last two days and the results are out. Here are some pictures of very very happy students with their proud teachers looking on and congratulating them on their success. There will be many of our past students reliving their own results day with fond memories. The two days of clinical examinations can be very stressful but it is so pleasing to see the joyful faces when the results are posted on the notice board. Well done to everyone who passed and we look forward to the coming weeks including Stratford Pub Crawl, Graduation Day, BDH has got talent and the Graduation Ball.
Congratulations to the students of the School of Dentistry, The University of Birmingham.
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Did you have a good weekend? The Jubilee celebrations were fantastic even for someone like myself watching on the television. Well done to those who braved the weather and went down to the celebrations in London. Just to give you a flavour here are some of the activities that happened in the hospital before the weekend, we have posted some Jubilee photographs. The nurses decorated the Hospital corridors and the School Office held a cake sale. The money raised from the Cake sale came to a total of £493.62 for St Mary’s Hospice from the cake sale & raffle. Well done to all for raising everyone's spirits for the Jubilee.
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May 2012
All our 4th year BDS students do a school visit (by groups) to a local junior school to teach them about diet, oral hygiene and visiting the dentist. The students are given fairly free reign on how they deliver their dental education message to the primary school children, and every year we see lots of good ideas and effort put in to the school visits. Our students are always very well received and we continue to get many invites back each year.
This is an example of a school visit by Group 4.4 to Brookfields School in the Jewellery Quarter. Shiraz Khan did a short break dance with a dental theme . All the group helped out on the visit and made it really fun for the children. As you can see our students are such an enthusiastic group. A hallmark of such visits is how well the students prepare for them. Such activities are greatly enjoyed by all and it is nice to see the enthusiasm in our students!
(BTW thanks should go to our enthusiastic staff, Kris Coomar and Gabrielle Stanley for arranging these visits - Your Blogger)
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The Cheese and Wine annual quiz took place in the Canteen. Once again it was a lively night with some difficult questions and the quizmaster Prof Walmsley managed to keep the use of mobile phones to an absolute minimum. There were still complaints especially from the 2nd years who found the dentistry round difficult! Upen Patel got around the use of Shazam for Mobiles by distorting the tracks in the music round but we still ended up with a tie for first place. Whilst "Made in the DH" came last, the two winning teams, "One does not simply" and "Quizzle Kicks", nominated players to come to the front for a tie breaker. After a long and agonising wait the tie breaker produced a winner. The team won £100 and were ever so happy. The evening finished with everyone leaving very happy having enjoyed an entertaining evening. Well done to the BUDSS committee for organising the event.
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Carolyn Evans retired from the Hospital and School today. She is a popular member of staff who has worked tirelessly in Oral Surgery providing a front line service. In her career she has championed the dental team and been a great supporter of junior staff. The dental canteen was packed with her friends and colleagues as both Rick Roberts the Medical Director of the Trust and Gerry Flaum led the tributes to Carolyn. The hospital and school say thank you to Carolyn for her long and dedicated service. We hope you have a prosperous and relaxing retirement.
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First off Pan Taneja, Speciality Dentist in Oral Surgery here at Birmingham Dental Hospital who has been picked from thousands to play a part in history by taking part in the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay. This is a fantastic once in a lifetime opportunity for him.
http://www.bhamcommunity.nhs.uk/news/olympic-torch-bearer/
Next do not forgot to book your tickets for the Cheese and Wine and all proceeds will be going to St Mary's Hospice.
Finally if you see Prof Walmsley around the School and Hospital, you will find out by his smile that he is very very happy with how the football results went this weekend.
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Eisha Comar presented her work entitled “Peritubular Dentinogenesis - Experimental Modelling” at GSK Weybridge on Thursday 3rd May. Her supervisors Prof Tony Smith and Dr Paul Cooper were also in attendance. The symposium was well attended with supervisors and students sponsored by GSK from many of the dental schools in the UK. Presentations were varied in topic, including microbial biofilm characterisation, new caries diagnostic techniques as well as studies on the properties of bioglasses. There were several keynote lectures as well as shorter presentations from PhD students reporting the progress of their work. Eisha’s presentation went down very well and generated a lot of interest from researchers within both academia and industry. There were plenty of opportunities to network throughout the symposium and at the previous day's evening meal and poster presentations.
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Congratulations to Professor Deborah White who was elected Chair of the Central Committee of the Dental Academic Staff at the British Dental Association. The committee is concerned with all matters that affect university dental teachers and research workers. Its remit covers dental education and research. This is a great achievement for Professor White and her appointment is for three years.
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Upen Patel writes - The Wellcome Trust in London was the setting of the NIHR Dental Academic Meeting. Thomas Dietrich, Iain Chapple, Owen Addison, Upen Patel and Praveen Sharma attended the meeting from Birmingham which kicked off with a presentation by Sir Mark Walport. Funding opportunities were discussed together with personal accounts of the dental speciality training pathways.
Praveen Sharma, currently an Academic Clinical Fellow in Restorative Dentistry at Birmingham, presented his poster entitled, 'Periodontitis: A Determinant of Arterial Stiffness in Chronic Kidney Disease' for which he was awarded the Best Poster Prize at the meeting. An ex-student was also in attendance looking for more information about dental career pathways. Can you guess who from the picture?
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April 2012
The British Dental Association Conference was held at Manchester and as always it was an opportunity to attend inspiring lectures, see the latest techniques and catch up with old friends. It was pleasing to see Amneet Sidhu, research hygienist in Periodontology, collect her DCP award at the Colgate awards. Louis Mackenzie flew the Birmingham Flag with his presentation “The Good Matrix Guide” as part of the Hot Tips in Dentistry session. As always his presentation was of a high quality and it generated much interest with the delegates.
Catching up included meeting up with many Birmingham students both present and past. A selection of pictures is included of people that were caught on camera by the Birmingham Paparazzi. The conference was attended by over 5,000 dentists and included an address by Lord Howe, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State with responsibility for Dentistry. The trade show was very lively and there was a large demonstration theatre allowing several presentations to take place throughout the day. The content of the presentations was of a high standard and both international and national speakers covered topics such as aesthetic restorations, periodontology, oral surgery and other mainstream dental subjects. Some interesting and wide ranging presentations included Cross Infection control on Cruise Ships, how to look after staff in the Virgin Limited Edition Brand and Fitness to practice case studies. After the conference activity on Friday night, there was entertainment of a different sort as the delegates danced away the evening to Queen Tribute band “Killer Queen”. As always the BDA conference remains a good learning experience in a friendly and enthusiastic setting and it was great to see Birmingham involvement as well.
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Don't they scrub up well! Here is a picture of our final year 2012. Finals is just around the corner and the papers start in a few weeks time. But for now they are smiling for the camera. Can you remember when they first started at the school and just look at them now!
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As part of an ongoing collaboration with the Department of Engineering at Oxford University, a three-day time frame was granted at the Diamond Light Source synchrotron facility (http://www.diamond.ac.uk/). During this prestigious time PhD student Michael Sandholzer could acquire important data on pathological alternations of dental ultrastructure as well as gaining important research experience in an international research environment.
This picture shows Michael and part of the experimental setup inside the beamline hutch after two days of non-stop experiments.
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Professor White was part of an ADEE delegation to the dental school at Ege University, Izmir Turkey. The Association for Dental Education in Europe was invited by the school to conduct a peer review assessment of the course. ADEE continues to co-ordinate a visitation system to dental schools both within and outside Europe. This visit to Turkey is the latest in a long series of such visitations in this area which have proved beneficial in improving dental educational standards. The ADEE team consisted of Heikki Murtomaa (Helsinki, Finland), Henk Kersten (Amsterdam, Netherlands), Katalin Nagy (Szeged Hungary) and Prof Deborah white. The pictures show Deborah meeting with the Faculty at Ege University and with the Dean, Prof.Dr.Celal Artunc.
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Lynne Reynolds our school administrator turns 50 today. The School and friends gathered yesterday to say happy birthday, as quite deservedly Lynne is taking today off to be with her family. Thanks to Marina Tipton for these photographs taken at her presentation. Lynne has served as School Administrator for quite a while and been a terrific supporter of the school over the years.
Many Happy returns of the day and happy half century!
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Birmingham University’s Bhangra Team lead by our very own Harsharn Mudhar (BDS3) placed 2nd in a national dance competition this year - The Bhangra Showdown. It was held at the HMV Hammersmith Apollo to a sell-out crowd and they were up against 8 other university teams. The team has now placed in the top 3 for three out of four years and have grown as a society from a handful of dancers to over 350 members.
Congratulations to all those who took part, including Harsharn Mudhar (BDS3), Jasdeep Bhandal (BDS4), Jyoti Parwana (BDS3), Mandip Singh (BDS3), Taran Rai (BDS1).
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Another of our occasional shots of the School and Hospital
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These images of Easter were created by our 3rd year students Hannah Hopkins and Zahra Din for a recent Prosthetics tutorial on impressions taking. They were constructed from special tray materials! Also the tutorial group were treated to Easter eggs that were handed out.
The School wishes everyone all the best for the forthcoming Easter Holidays and look forward to welcoming you all back for the start of the Summer term.
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This is the result of letting four PhD students travel to a conference by themselves. A bizarre postcard from the Skyscan users meeting in Brussels. More to be revealed in due course.
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The School and Hospital were well represented at the BSSPD meeting at the Hilton Hotel Liverpool. President Chris Butterworth (one of our former SpRs) had organised an exciting programme called “Complex Problems – Innovative Solutions”. There was a large turnout from Birmingham of the departmental clinical team as the picture show. There were seven posters presented 6 in the main section and one by our three DF2 house officers. The conference covered implants, precision attachments and forensic dentistry and the turnout of over 200 delegates made it a highly successful conference.
A special mention goes to Sunaina Ghandi a 4th year Dental student who presented a poster on Dental Tourism. Sunaina won the BSSPD undergraduate elective prize which requires a presentation at the Annual conference. Her topic generated a great deal of interest and she has received a great deal of feedback and completed questionnaires on the subject.
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March 2012
The first glimpse of the new Dental School is unveiled in the Birmingham Post. At the same time, there was an exhibition of the plans in the foyer of the Dental Hospital. Dr David Attrill shows how the dental chairs in the clinics may look. Exciting times.
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The College of Medical and Dental Sciences Research Gala is always an enjoyable day and it is an opportunity for young researchers in the College to showcase their talents. The brochure may be downloaded and it provides an overview of the presentations held on the day. Dentistry was well represented by both our students and research staff.
For the presentations Owen Davies gave a talk on his research "Adipose-Derived Stem Cells : MSC-profile and potential for tissue engineering". Dr Mike Hofman gave an enthusiastic presentation on his research career and his title was "Cementing a career with cementitious biomaterials".
In the poster section the following students represented the School of Dentistry. Eisha Comar and her poster "Solubilisation of Dentine Matrix Components for Promotion of Dentine REgenerations: Action of Bioactive Glass" and Gareth Wynn-Jones who presented "Injectability of Portland cement for orthopaedic application". Gareth was highly commended on his poster by the Judges.Finally a big thank you to Karen Carter and her team from the College who undertook the organisation of the day.
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| 2012 MDS Gala - The Day in Pictures |
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…to see videos from the 2011 BDH Talent Show then go to
http://www.dentistry.bham.ac.uk/currentstudents/talent2011.asp
The School and hospital are looking forward to the next show so watch this space for more details of this years event which will be advertised soon.
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School office are raising money for ‘The National Blind Children’s Society’ and wish to make people aware that this is taking place. There is a lovely fluffy dog which can be won simply by choosing a place where he lives! Please visit us and meet the prize pup! £1 a guess and you may well be taking him home with you.
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The Educational Technology Team roadshow dropped by the dental school with the aim of meeting staff and looking at ways that we could interact with them. Giles Perryer who is the e-learning lead for the college was at hand to introduce everyone and make sure that staff at the school would realise the potential that the team could bring to their learning needs. We also have a picture of Giles doing his Usain Bolt impersonation.
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Hal Duncan is Lecturer/Consultant in Endodontics and is visiting us from Trinity College Dublin. Hal is undertaking his PhD in the area of “Histone Deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi): Cellular Effects and Opportunities for Restorative Dentistry” under the supervision of Dr Paul Cooper, Prof Tony Smith and Dr Garry Fleming (Trinity College Dublin). Hal visits Birmingham for supervisory meetings and to learn techniques in cell & molecular biology and biochemistry under the guidance of Gay Smith and Michelle Holder.
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February 2012
This week promises to be very mild and already the spring flowers are out. The annual picture from my garden of spring flowers shows the vivid colours that are out there this year.
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The ADEE executive held its executive meeting at Birmingham. The School of Dentistry will be the venue for the annual conference in 2013 and it is customary for the Executive to visit the site of the future meeting 18 months before hand. The visitors who included the President Cecilia Christersson from Malmo University met in the Board Room of the Dental Hospital and School on the first day and this was followed by a tour of the conference facilities on the second day of the visit. David Oram from the College of Medical and Dental Sciences CPD centre is arranging the lecture and breakout rooms and the various venues for the social activities including the gala dinner. The ADEE committee were pleased with what they saw and now it is up to the local organising committee to start putting together the programme. Watch this space over the following months.
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"Dr Tracy De Peralta is Associate Professor/Associate Director of Clinical Dentistry and is visiting us from Peninsula College of Medicine & Dentistry. She is currently being trained in a range of molecular and cell biology laboratory techniques by Michelle Holder and Gay Smith and is collaborating with Prof Tony Smith and Drs Ben Scheven & Paul Cooper in the area of neuropeptide/neurotrophic factor influences on odontoblast and dental pulp cell function." BTW Paul Cooper is the flash behind the photograph.
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Always fun when there is a birthday around and Donald Spence was 65 last week. The first floor secretaries have prepared a special visitor for him. Not sure what he said when he saw a skeleton!
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There were two parties arranged this month. One for John Wilson who is one of the research technicians on the 8th Floor and another for Jo Alekna who is going to have a baby very soon. John has worked in the building for over 30 years and we wish him well on his retirement. As for Jo we are looking forward to hearing her news in the coming weeks.
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Congratulations to Gay Smith, Research Technician at the School of Dentistry who won the award of “Best Support for Research” at the BUAFTA. This award recognises an individual or team whose work in support of research reflects the values of the University: excellence, distinctiveness, impact, confidence and pride. Consideration is given to those who work directly with academic staff and students as well as those whose role indirectly supports research.
Gay received her award at a gala dinner and awards ceremony in the University’s prestigious Great Hall. The picture shows Gay with her award and her colleague Michelle Holder and Professor Tony Smith.
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The Students Clinician Prize was held at the Royal Horse Guards Hotel and the Birmingham representative was Daniel Caga. The title of his poster presentation was "The effects of red light laser exposure on the cell growth and inflammatory response of an oral epithelial cell line in vitro" and was supervised by Dr Mike Milward and Dr Paul Cooper. Although not successful in winning the main prizes of the evening, the School is proud of Dan's performance and there is certainly more research on this exciting topic. Many Birmingham staff made the journey down to London to support Dan where we treated to a great evening as guests of Dentsply, the British Dental Association and the Dental Defence Union. The dinning room was made to look like an old fashioned library and there were great views of the London eye. Following the dinner there was dancing and conversation into the early hours of the following morning.
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January 2012
Negar Mirzai - 3rd Year Dental Student writes :-
'The 126th Annual Dental Ball was held at The Burlington Hotel this Saturday with a Carnival theme. The venue was very classy and the BUDSS Ice Sculpture added an extra elegance to the theme. There were exciting performances from the Carnival Brazilian dancers and the Jamaican Steel Drum band. Once the wonderful meal was served and students won lots of prizes in the raffle, it was on to the dance floor! The night was a complete success as both students and staff enjoyed themselves greatly. Thank you Sarah Franks and the rest of the BUDSS committee for an unforgettable night filled with Chocolate Fountain, Gift Bags, BUDSS Cupcakes and Great music! '
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Professor Walmsley, Secretary General of ADEE reports on a recent DentCPD partnership meeting. DentCPD is a 2 year European project which aims to identify agreed essential CPD requirements of an EU graduate dentist and provide guidelines for the management and delivery of high quality CPD by European dental schools.
"The DentCPD team arrived to warm welcome in a chilly but bright Athens. The first evening was spent getting up-to-date on all activities over a typical Greek Meal in the Plaka area of the city. The group reconvened on Thursday morning in the Electra Palace meetings rooms and addressed a busy agenda. At the start the Chairman Professor Jon Cowpe welcomed the delegates and this was followed by an address from the Dean of Athens Dental School, Professor Kostos Tsiklaki from Athens Dental School.
After the introductions, the group members gave presentations on each Work Packages for which they were the lead partners. Each presentation was followed by useful discussion. Furthermore there was input from the team in Cardiff via a unique style of teleconference and Skype. There was a report from Alison Bullock on the recent Co-ordinators meeting held in Brussels earlier in the week. DentCPD was one of two projects selected for presentation to the rest of the conference and Alison received favourable feedback on the work undertaken to date."
For more details: - http://www.dentcpd.org
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On the way in to work and it is lashing down with rain. I found all the puddles that you could find around the Dental Hospital. It is a tough week not only weather wise. There are examinations for 3rd and 5th year students and the 4th year on residencies. But there is light at the end of the week as the BUDSS Student Ball takes place on Saturday and all the examinations and weather can be forgotten for a few hours at least!
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The AML as it is affectionately shown on all our timetables has had a facelift. It has a new AV system and most of all it has a great new sound system. This is just what is needed for the Dental School has Talent. Great to see the Grand Old Guy getting upgraded. Here are some pictures of the theatre and if you want to test it out then keep on reading till the end of the article.
An update in Restorative Dentistry, presented by the staff of the School of Dentistry
Friday, 3 February 2012 – Alex McGregor Lecture Theatre 9.30 – 4.30 pm
Speakers:
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The School of Dentistry
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