Guiding lights

Everyone has a different reason for attending a conference: CPD, genuine subject interest, socialising; it is part of foundation dentist obligations; to look at buying equipment from the trade stands –or perhaps it's a healthy mix of all of these. The BDA Conference in Manchester was helpfully at the same venue as last year – so no excuse for getting lost A broad range of subjects in the lecture halls and liberally sprinkled with core CPD subjects, it should have been a raging success and bustling with activity.

The opening presidential meeting is always thin on the ground audience-wise but the British Dental Association president Frank Holloway who took over the baton from Janet Clarke gave a very upbeat start. He listed all the career changes he had made and said at each one he had been greeted by senior colleagues preaching doom and gloom – dentistry was looking at self destruction. His message was that in the event it may seem gloomy now but it will get better and the present generation of young dentists will view this era with affection – thank goodness someone is positive!