President's Address

It is a tremendous honour to be elected President of the British Society for General Dental Surgery and certainly a long way from my first MGDS Study Club meeting with Steve Perry and Audeon Healey over 10 years ago. I will do my utmost to ensure that the Society’s ethos and traditions are maintained, none more so than Care, Competence and Continued Learning.

I believe that the Society is unique; it stands apart from other bodies and groups within the dental community. The main strength and attraction of the Society is the people in it – just look round the room at the Annual Conference and you will see all the ‘movers and shakers’ for general dental practice in the United Kingdom. Our members, and indeed the Society, has been shaped by the rigors of the MGDS process, and similar postgraduate examinations, and we all should be proud of the levels of Care, Competence and Continued Learning demonstrated by all of our members.

However, the demise of the MGDS examination and subsequent impact on membership numbers has caused concern. The Society has looked to align ourselves with dentists who hold a variety of postgraduate qualifications, centred on primary dental care, precisely the sort of dentists who have gone on to do that extra bit for themselves and their patients. Unfortunately we have not attracted as many new members as we feel we need in order to maintain a flourishing Society.

I have been tasked by the Committee to produce a discussion paper on the future of the BSGDS and I will examine all aspects of the Society from defining the criteria for membership through to the planning and timing of our Conference. Over the next few months I shall be contacting all of the members to canvass their views on the next steps for the Society.

I do believe that the BSGDS has a future within the modern dental world and I feel that we have an excellent opportunity to shape and develop the Society for many years to come. I have already stated that it is our membership that allows the Society to stand out from the crowd; it is your Society so don’t be shy and let me know your views.

Clearly, it is going to be a busy year, and not without its challenges, but I am confident that at the end of my year in office at our Annual Conference in Warwick the BSGDS will still be centred on Care, Competence and Continued Learning.

Roy Dixon

BSGDS President 2009 - 2010