A letter from our President, Dr Mark Ide…

Dear Members

We are approaching the end of another year and I am about to formally hand over BSP Presidency to Nikos Donos. However, before any Seasonal Greetings, I need to express my deep sadness related to recent events.

We found out that Dr Nik Pandya had passed away during a BSP Council meeting day. We are all devastated by his loss and have offered our condolences to his family, friends and colleagues. Nik was a kind, enthusiastic, caring person, an excellent teacher and clinician, and a fantastic advocate for his profession and specialty. We are planning to honour his plans for what would have been his Presidential year meeting in 2021, and to continue our work keeping him in our plans and thoughts.

I have outlined Society events this year in our recent “Periodical”. What this does not really cover is the record numbers of webinars and attendees through the year and we must thank all our webinar hosts/adrenaline junkies for delivering what can be a challenging role, not only in terms of content but also the “live”  nature of their performance on the internet!

The Patient Forum has now spread across the UK and is getting into places of influence, liaising with various Executive and Government bodies to improve the profile of periodontal disease with decision makers, and to also now work with dental students. Ian Needleman’s work with this group has been recognised with further funding from GSK and we hope to supplement this with other aligned initiatives soon. In terms of influence, BSP has also been represented at a range of other consultations, including those around professional regulation, career pathways, clinical manpower and service, and Advancing Dental Care.

We have managed to hold two successful meetings this year, alongside various other events, including courses across the UK on various aspects of periodontal management. In addition, we also published perio-focussed issues of the British Dental Journal and most recently Dental Update. I wish to thank all the contributors who worked extremely hard on these publications.

The roll-out of the BSP Classification Implementation has been very successful and we are hoping to build on this in the near future, including a new edition of the Good Practitioner’s Guide and our other publications.

Please remember that we exist to support you, our membership, and to help improve oral and periodontal health for the UK, regardless of setting and the means of delivery! This can involve various initiatives alongside our regular webinar activity, national and other meetings.

The involvement of you, our professional clinical members, whether it is through activities such as promotion of Gum Health Day, speaking to and working with local dental and medical colleagues or patient groups, or even liaising with local media is critical to help get our messages across. Please do contact BSP if you are involved in these activities, or if you are about to start, as we will be happy to support you accordingly.

The other ultimate way for involvement with BSP is to work on or with Council! We would welcome more members from the practice coalface following this pathway, as it helps to ensure that policies and developments are truly grounded for the benefit of as many as possible. If you wish to think about taking this on, also consider that it is not a massively onerous task and takes minimal time from your (busy) lives. People tend to find these roles enriching and even enjoyable! If you need any more information, please contact us.

My final comments must be thanks: to Paula Dunn and Tamsin Lawson for the huge amounts of organisation, support and hard work that they give us. It probably seems cliched to read this, but it is only when one is fully engaged with BSP that their input and commitment comes fully to the fore. This is complemented by the work of Nicola West and Mike Milward. We have relied on their massive enthusiasm and dedication for several years, as the cornerstones of BSP. Mike is stepping down at the end of this year and BSP owes him a huge debt for steering the Society through some interesting times. I would have been completely lost without any single one of them!

I hope that you all have an enjoyable and peaceful Christmas, with a chance to recharge and relax before the New Year arrives, and offer you all my best wishes for a happy and successful 2020.

Best wishes

Mark

Dr Mark Ide

President