The Faculty of Dentists is a constituency comprising all dentist members of the college, and the faculty board advances the interests of dentists as a discrete professional group. The chair is appointed for a three-year term, advises and reports to the college council, and works closely with the president and other faculty board chairs in realising college priorities.
Avijit is a professor of cariology and operative dentistry, clinical lead for undergraduate education, and honorary consultant and clinical lead for restorative dentistry at the Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences at King’s College London (KCL) and Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospitals Trust.
He is also KCL’s head of conservative and minimum intervention (MI) dentistry, programme director of its distance-learning MSc in advanced MI dentistry and leads its cariology and operative dentistry research programme. Avijit continues to work in private practice in north London as a specialist in restorative dentistry, prosthodontics and periodontics.
Born in Kuala Lumpur and raised in Bolton, after graduating in 1993 from the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals (UMDS, now part of KCL), he became a house officer in oral surgery and orthodontics at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth. Avijit then became a senior house officer in oral and maxillofacial surgery at Mount Vernon, Hillingdon and Watford General Hospitals.
With 30 years’ experience as a researcher, teacher and examiner, he has worked at KCL since returning to the then-UMDS as a clinical training fellow in 1995, becoming a clinical lecturer in 1998, senior clinical lecturer in 2005, and reader, then professor, in 2011.
He holds an MSc in mineralised tissue biology and a PhD in cariology. In 2022 he received the International Association of Dental Research’s William H Bowen Distinguished Scientist Award for research in dental caries.
Editor-in-chief of the journal, Oral Health & Preventive Dentistry, he is an associate editor of the British Dental Journal, an editorial board member of the International Journal of Adhesion & Adhesives and Dental Update. Avijit is a peer reviewer for thirteen dental journals.
Avijit is also the author of 158 published peer-reviewed papers covering cariology and MI operative dentistry, microscopy, dental biomaterials science and dental education research, and author or editor of seven books (and a number of book chapters). His most recent book is A Clinical Guide to Advanced Minimum Intervention Restorative Dentistry.
A fellow of CGDent and chair of its Career Pathways Programme Board, he is a reviewer of the forthcoming third edition of the ‘College’s Standards in Dentistry’ publication. Avijit has previously served on the editorial board of the Primary Dental Journal and as a subject matter expert for the diploma in restorative dentistry of the former Faculty of General Dental Practice UK (FGDP).
He has also gained fellowship of the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, of the Higher Education Academy, of the International College of Dentists and of the former FGDP.
He is deputy lead of the NIHR Clinical Research Network Oral & Dental Specialty, a council member of the European Federation of Conservative Dentistry, and a member of the BDA Health and Science Committee and BDA Indemnity Advisory Panel. He has previously served as a council member of the British Society of Restorative Dentistry and the British Society of Oral & Dental Research, and as president of the BDA Metropolitan Branch.
Avijit is a member of the European Organisation for Caries Research and of the British Association for Teachers of Conservative Dentistry. He is also an honorary member of the Association of Consultants and Specialists in Restorative Dentistry and of the British Association of Dental Therapists, and an honorary fellow of the Society of British Dental Nurses.
Also, he is an honorary consultant advisor to the office of the chief dental officer for England, a visiting professor at CEU Cardinal Herrera University in Valencia, and a distinguished adjunct professor at Siksha 'O' Anusandhan University in Bhubaneswar and at Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals in Chennai.
He was previously a visiting professor at Oman Dental College, and an honorary professor at Hong Kong University.