However, the title of one of the lectures to be given by Robin Mills is distinctly untraditional. A specialty doctor in Paediatric Dentistry at the Royal United Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in Bath, Robin’s topic is: ‘How to be cool.’
This will feature a brief history and update on light curing in dentistry. He will be describing his pioneering research into high power blue light emitting diodes (LEDs) for curing dental composites. His second talk will examine safeguarding issues in relation to the commissioning of paediatric dental services. He has served on two safeguarding children boards and Wiltshire Council appointed him to its ContactPoint safeguarding database implementation group to roll out the database locally.
Robin has an MSc in Child Dental Health (Paediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics) and he gained his doctorate in 2003 for his research on LED light curing at Bristol. Robin won a Shirley Glasstone Hughes Memorial Prize for Dental Research of the British Dental Association in 1995 and was appointed an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Bristol the same year. As vice-president, he recently spoke on behalf of the BSPD at the Westminster Forum.
The President in 2014/15 was Janice Fearne who stood down at the annual conference which was organised by BSPD’s South West Branch. It’s another tradition that the new president’s takes responsibility for organising the conference at which they take on their new role. This year it was held at the Hilton in Bath and Sarah Dewhurst, a consultant in paediatric dentistry at Bristol Dental Hospital, was chair of the organising committee.