General Dental Practitioner

Background

I have lived in Kent my whole life and my parents were doctors who practiced in Medway. I went to school in Rochester, - quite an experience being a strict cathedral school in the days of corporal punishment in the early 80s.

Early Career

I qualified from King’s College London in the UK in 1992 when the course was just 4 years and a term and started dentistry at the tender age of 22. One year of VT and then onto the practice where I still work 27 years later. For the first 4-5 years I must admit it was not fun. I came close to leaving dentistry as I found the experience in our 100% NHS practice tough and felt dentistry was perhaps not for me - feeling hurt because despite really trying hard, some patients didn't trust and did not seem to value us. But in the mid 90s my then boss, bought an intra-oral camera for me to use. This was and still is a game changer and the MOST important tool in my whole career. It started real daily communication and built trust like nothing else.

I then took numerous courses in aesthetics, photograph, occlusion and dentistry really changed for me. Particularly with the Mike Wise course and a couple of Pascal Magne courses I took.  I also was able to carry out much more private treatment on my own patients and also review it months and years later. I learned lots of lessons from this.  For some years I carried out a lot of cosmetic dentistry but always felt a bit uncomfortable with some options people wanted. Commonly patients did not want Orthodontics ,but chose veneers instead because in those days it was rare for patients to be offered limited orthodontic treatment.  In 2003/4 I started using simple orthodontic before cosmetic dentistry. This changed everything and using the Inman Aligner in particular over several years I treated about 200 patients who came in wanting veneers and left with Align, Bleach and Bond. This process we called progressive smile design, and it was a game changer. I strongly believe in ethical dentistry and only carrying out treatment I would be happy to have myself,

Career progression

From about 2007 courses started and I started teaching here and all around the world , the concept of ABB using Inman/clear aligners and developed the concept further. I started this concept with my friends Tim Bradstock Smith and James Russell.This developed into IAS Academy with the help of Ross Hobson and the late Anoop Maini a few years later and we have run courses in the USA, Middle East, South Africa Australia and almost every country in Europe I have been the President of the British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry in 2012  and was on the Board of Directors since its inception in 2003. I also sat on the Editorial Board of Dental Update, one of Europe’s leading Peer reviewed journals for about 7 years. While this happened I also became a partner at Dental Elegance in Sidcup, Kent where currently I practice minimally invasive cosmetic and restorative dentistry. I also have 30 years experience in using the Dahl principle and understand when and when not to use it, with large numbers of case follow ups- Right now 2020 I am the Chairman of IAS Academy and I teach and mentor hundreds of dentists still teaching and practicing and critically following up all my work. I have cases well over 20 year old and it is eye opening to see how work survives and fails I love dentistry, but despair slightly at how over regulated it has become. I think we can do a lot better in the UK and my goal for the future is to try to make that happen.