BDA CDS Group Conference 2024

Natalie is Consultant in Special Care Dentistry at Kings College Hospital and Clinical Director for Dentaid the Dental Charity. She holds a Masters in Special Care Dentistry from Kings College London where her thesis looked into models of dental care for people who experience homelessness. She has had a wide range of clinical experience working in general practice, community and hospital dental services and in 2018/19 completed a fellowship with the Office of the Chief Dental Officer. She is Chair of the BDA's Young Dentist Committee and a deputy chair of the Managed Clinical Network for Special Care Dentistry in London. Her blog 'A Tooth Germ' has reached over 1 million views. 

Gillian qualified from the Royal London Hospital in 1985. Her initial career followed the path of Oral and Maxillo-Facial Surgery (OMFS), with Senior House Officer, Registrar, and Honorary Consultant posts in OMFS.

In 1994, Gillian took a sideways career step into Special Care Dentistry (SCD) in Hertfordshire, including a Clinical Directorship in Community Dental Services.

Moving to East Yorkshire in 2004, Gillian’s SCD career led to a Consultancy and a Training Programme Directorship.

Gillian’s particular interest in Oncology within Special Care Dentistry, led to her winning the Community Care Award for Patients Experience National Network Awards (PENNA) in 2015.

Gillian has been both Chair and President of the British Dental Association Community Dental Services Group, including representing the group on the Advisory Committee for Community Dentistry (ACCD) for the Royal College of Surgeons of England.  She has also been President of The British Society for Disability and Oral Health, an Examiner, a Reviewer and National Lecturer in SCD.

In February 2024, Gillian has been formally elected as the new Chair of ACCD, as ACCD re-establishes its role within the Royal College of Surgeons of England, post The Pandemic.

Marie is Head of Department of Paediatric Dentistry at the King’s College Dental Institute. She holds honorary Professorships in the University of Warsaw and the University of Jordan and is the Deputy Chair of the pan-London managed Clinical Network in Paediatric Dentistry.

Graduating in Glasgow in 1985, she is among the few dentists in the UK with training in administering general anaesthesia, and she is a world-recognised expert on paediatric dental sedation and as such has authored the British, European and Brazilian guidelines. Her research interests are the pharmacological and behavioural management of anxious and socially and economically disadvantaged and excluded children, especially this who need general anaesthesia and sedation, and the genetics of children with clefts. She is co-founder of a UK-Brazil collaboration named CEDACORE (Children Experiencing Dental Anxiety Collaboration on Research and Education).  Her research funding has been mainly for Phase III randomised controlled clinical trials from NIHR and the Scottish Chief Scientist office. She is currently the independent Chair of the CHOICE Trial Steering Board.

Marie completed both her higher specialist training in Paediatric Dentistry and her Doctorate in Birmingham, England. She spent a year as a Fellow in the Children’s Hospital, Washington DC. A Senior Lecturer and later Reader in 1998 in the University of Glasgow, she was appointed to the Chair in Paediatric Dentistry at King’s College London in 2008. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Glasgow and was an examiner for the Intercollegiate Fellowship Specialty Examination in Paediatric Dentistry for eleven years. She has previously served as the Glasgow representative on the ADA Board.

She has contributed and edited dental and medical textbooks and is a reviewer/ external assessor for NIHR, New Zealand, Middle Eastern, Singapore and Hong Kong institutions and is currently a member of the American Academy of Paediatric Dentistry and the International Journal of Paediatric Dentistry boards.

Cyrus graduated with honours degrees in both medicine and dentistry from the University of London. During his combined time as an undergraduate he was awarded 14 prizes.  He passed the Intercollegiate Examination in Maxillofacial Surgery in September 1998 and has been on the specialist register of the General Medical Council since August 1999.  Cyrus was appointed as a Consultant at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford and North Hampshire Hospital in Basingstoke in 1999 before joining the head and neck unit at the Royal Marsden Hospital in 2008.  He is the current Head of Department and Lead Medical Examiner for the hospital.   

Carole is a Glasgow graduate but has spent her professional career in England. She has worked at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust since 1997 and has been a Consultant in Special Care Dentistry (SCD) since 2008. She is on specialist lists in both SCD and Oral Surgery.  Her clinical interests include using sedation for people who require special care dentistry, teaching sedation both to undergraduates and postgraduates and providing dental care under general anaesthesia.

Carole has over 30 publications in the fields of special care dentistry, sedation, oral surgery and dental education.

She is the course director SAAD (Society for the Advancement of Anaesthesia in Dentistry the largest provider of conscious sedation teaching in the UK.  As SAC Chair ( Specialty Advisory Committee in SCD) Carole led the development of the new curriculum in SCD and now chairs the Advisory Board Speciality Training in Dentistry. She is a member of Dental Council Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and dental editor for Surgeons News.

With bachelor degrees in biochemistry and optometry, David is a speaker, author of the book 'Let It Go' and an expert mind coach since 2004. He has worked with U.K. and European Universities, U.K. Government, the U.K. Parliament, British Dental Association (David's dental training 'Attitude Is Everything' is an accredited BDA CPD training for dental professionals.), Police forces and an assortment of International businesses. David has delivered over 500 mindset trainings and workshops in the last 10 years. He doesn't believe in standing still and has just launched a Mind Coach training school and an empowerment active wear clothing company all in the same month! 

Charlotte has been the BDA Scotland Director since November 2022.

She graduated from the University of Dundee in 2001, before completing general professional training in the East of Scotland, locuming in Australia and then working for the Community Dental Service.

Before taking up her current position, she was an elected representative on a number of BDA committees and held the position of Chair and Vice Chair of the BDA England Community Dental Services Committee, where she advocated for the profession but also spoke up for vulnerable patient groups, where much of this work involved stakeholder and political engagement.

In 2019, she secured a Westminster Public Accounts Committee inquiry on NHS penalty charges or ‘Patient fines’. A change in policy followed this hearing with the UK Department of Health abandoning its ‘fines first’ policy which was based on the presumption of guilt.

She also represented the BDA as part of a coproduction project to promote the use of Makaton in the dental setting, to help break down barriers to communication for dental patient’s with learning disabilities. A second phase of this collaboration launched a dedicated website ‘Team Smile’ in 2024.

As BDA Scotland Director, a key role for Charlotte is to support BDA representatives in negotiations with the Scottish Government and overseeing outreach to the Scottish Parliament, officials, the press and wider stakeholders.

Niall graduated from the School of Dentistry, University of Dundee in 2013. He has completed foundation and core training in a range of dental specialities including General Dental Practice and Community Dentistry. Niall’s final year of core training was spent working with the Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme as the first Dental Core Trainee in Quality Improvement and Clinical Practice.

Niall completed Specialty Training in Dental Public Health with NHS Fife/NHS Lothian in 2022. He completed his Master of Dental Public Health degree during Specialty training and is a Fellow (Dental Public Health) by examination of the Faculty of Dental Surgery, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.

Niall was appointed Clinical Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Dental Public Health at the University of Dundee in August 2022. He leads NHS Scotland’s Oral Health Improvement Programmes for Homelessness, and Scottish Prisons. His research interests include inclusion oral health, and he is part way through his PhD focused on the early detection of oral cancer. He is Deputy Programme Lead for the Master’s in Dental Public Programme at the University of Dundee and teaches Dental Public Health on the School’s undergraduate programmes.