History of the BSGDS

'Care Competence Continued Learning'

Membership of the Society is by invitation which is extended to the holders of any of the following post-graduate diplomas:

The diploma in Membership of General Dental Surgery awarded by the Royal Colleges which are MGDS RCS(Eng.), MGDS RCS(Ed.), MGDS RCPS(Glasgow), MGDS RCSI (Ireland), and more recently the Fellowship of the Faculty of General Dental Practice (UK) at The Royal College of Surgeons of England (FFGDP[UK]).

The diploma of Membership in General Dental Surgery (MGDS RCS Eng) was developed by the Faculty of Dental Surgery (FDS) of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS Eng) as an examination for experienced general practitioners; the first examination being held in May 1979 at Royal College of Surgeons of England. 37 practitioners presented for the examination of which 24 were successfully acquitted. In order to cope with the early enthusiasm a second diet was arranged for October 1979.

It was in 1981 that John Reeves, the first general practitioner to become a Postgraduate Dean (Trent), convened a meeting of the new MGDS diplomates. 36 MGDS holders attended this meeting. It was from this first meeting that the Society was conceived. In 1983 the first residential conference was held in Cheltenham. John Reeves was elected the first President of the Society.

Such was the enthusiasm to convert others that many of the society members have played (and continue to play) a significant role in encouraging other practitioners to work for the MGDS by setting up MGDS Study Groups. The largest of these was initiated by Raj Rajarayan in 1986. The co-founder members were Ken Eaton, Ruby Austin, Manny Vasant, Mike Townsend, Roger Goulden. The study group ran under the aegis of the British Postgraduate Medical Federation (BPMF) and was launched at the University College Hospital, London (UCL), with assistance from Prof Aubrey Sheiham, the then postgraduate tutor at the UCL. Similar groups also erupted in the Midlands and elsewhere and also within the Defence Services. In the early days, the BPMF also supported week long residential course which were run by Edgar Gordon.

With the MGDS built into her training and career structure, the Defence Services, for several years to come, has provided slow and steady growth of the membership. Few general practitioners have filtered through. Sadly, due to the time commitment and rigor necessary to obtain the qualification, attainment of the qualification is within the reach of the dedicated few. Only around 500 or so have attained it thus far. The membership of the society remains steadily at around 300.

BSGDS And The Faculty of General Dental Practice (UK)

The first step towards an autonomous academic home for general practitioners (albeit, not the intention at the time) started when the FDS set up a small sub-committee - the Committee on General Dental Surgery in 1981. Over the next four years this Committee evolved, and at its last meeting in 1985 there were eight Society members, three of them being members of the FDS board, and five elected MGDS diplomates. This Committee became the Advisory Board in General Dental Practice in 1986 with a remit 'to advise the FDS Board on matters affecting the maintenance and advancement of standards in general dental practice'. Liaison officers, from within the pool of MGDS holders were appointed, whose role was to liaise with the existing postgraduate tutors to enhance postgraduate educational opportunities for general dental practitioners. The constituency was holders of dental diplomas of RCS, not restricted to MGDS diplomates, and the enrolled membership soon reached into thousands.

At the very first meeting of the Advisory Board, Hans Kurer, a proactive member of the Society, who subsequently became the Chairman of the Board, presented a paper on a future Faculty of General Dental Practice. Progress was slow, until Derek Seel became Dean of the FDS, and in 1991 the Council of the College issued a statement 'The Council supports the principle of the establishment of a Faculty of General Dental Practitioners within the Royal College of Surgeons of England'. This was a major leap forward. Once the principle had been accepted it became a matter of prolonged negotiations in which Stephen Rear, the Chairman of the Advisory Board at the time, and Edgar Gordon, both active members of the BSGDS, played a major part. Parallel to this, the UK Conference of Advisors in General Dental Practice (a body of Vocational Training Advisors) were following another path towards an academic home for practitioners, a UK College of General Dental Practitioners. The two groups eventually agreed to pool their efforts and on May 16, 1992 the Faculty of General Dental Practitioners (UK) was formally launched at the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

With the creation of the FGDP(UK) the BSGDS had realised one of its main objectives, an academic home for general dental practitioners.