Armed Forces Group Study Day 2026 - Performance and oral health with Ian Needleman

What to expect

This year's Armed Forces Group Annual Study Day will take place at Woburn House Conference Centre on Thursday 2 July 2026.

All BDA Armed Forces Group members and non-members are invited to attended, including those retired and currently employed on an MOD Contract.

The Group's AGM will be followed by three lectures with speaker Ian Needleman.

This annual event is a great opportunity to network with your colleagues.

*Retired are those who have retired from Defence Primary Healthcare (Dental) having accumulated at least 20 years of service, either in uniform and/or as a MOD dentist.

Timings

10:00 Registration and refreshments - BDA members

10:30 Annual General Meeting - Open to BDA members only / Registration - Non-members

11:00 Welcome, President's Opening Address, Prize presentation 

11:30 Can you eat or run your way out of periodontitis? - Ian Needleman

12:35 Lunch

14:00 How does oral health affect performance in the elite athlete? - Ian Needleman

15:00 Afternoon refreshments

15:20 Let’s develop a research study together, today! - Ian Needleman and panel

16:20 End

Learning objectives

Can you eat or run your way out of periodontitis? 

• Understand the importance of physical activity on health including periodontal health
• Describe the contribution of nutrition to general and periodontal health
• Understand how to incorporate brief interventions for nutrition and physical activity into daily encounters.
  

How does oral health affect performance in the elite athlete? 

• Recognise the prevalence of poor oral health in elite athletes
• Understand how oral disease impacts performance, recovery, and readiness
• Identify the determinants of oral health in elite athletes
• Apply simple, high-impact measures to improve individual and team oral health
• Consider relevance to military oral health and performance.
  

Let’s develop a research study together, today!

• Summarise what questions intrigue or interest you and your colleagues
• Understand how to design a research question the easy way
• Identifying what type of research would be appropriate for the questions
• Developing the project team.

Meet the speaker

Ian is Professor of Periodontology and Evidence-Informed Healthcare at University College London, Eastman Dental Institute, London UK. He leads the Centre for Oral Health and Performance (www.ucl.ac.uk/cohp) which was awarded recognition by the International Olympic Committee as part of the UK Research Centre for prevention of injury and protection of athlete health. He is also in specialist practice at PerioLondon. Ian was a Cochrane Editor for Periodontal Health 2002-2023. His research has been awarded prizes by the European Federation of Periodontology, Royal Society of Medicine, German Periodontal Society, German Cochrane Centre and International Association for Dental Research. He was awarded the UCL Provost’s Prize for Institutional Leadership in Public Engagement in 2017 and nominated as an inspiring teacher by UCL in 2007. During the pandemic, Ian worked in the Critical Care Unit at University College Hospital London to develop a Family Liaison Team which received both the 2021 Intensive Care Society Improvement Project and the UCLH Top Quality Patient care awards. Ian is a past president of the British Society of Periodontology and Implant Dentistry and a Faculty member of the International Olympic Committee Diploma in Sports Medicine. He has been a member of many international consensus Workshops in Periodontology and Implant Dentistry. When not injured, he is a keen endurance mountain and road runner.