1992 was a year when the funding of National Health Service dentistry was dramatically cut by the government.
Many dentists decided that they could only continue to give their patients a high quality service by treating them privately.
A small group who were making this transition got together and formed the Cornwall Independent Practitioners group as an organisation for mutual support and encouragement.
We have particularly concentrated on postgraduate education and have put on courses, bringing eminent speakers from all over the world to lecture to us in Cornwall.
This is what we have done so far:
November 1994
Dr. Kevin Lewis lectured on 'Ethical Practice' at Headland Hotel, Newquay. This gave an opportunity for our initial group to tell other practitioners what we were doing and to appeal to our colleagues to join us.
May 1995
Talk by Dr. Colin Hall Dexter at Budock Vean Hotel on 'Preventive Practice'.
November 1995
Official launch of the Cornwall Independent Dental Practitioners (IDP). Talk by Dr. Ellis Paul on 'The Future of Dentistry' at Alverton Manor Hotel, Truro.
February 1996
Two-day course on 'Occlusion' by Dr. Roy Higson, presented in Truro. The first day was lectures. The second day was 'hands-on'.
June 1996
All day course entitled 'Private Practice for Profit and Pleasure' by Jennifer de St. Georges and George Manolescue at St. Mellion Golf Club.
November 1996
One day 'Periodontology Update' by Dr. Richard Palmer and Dr. Peter Floyd, at Greenbank Hotel, Falmouth. This coincided with the publication of their BDA book.
June 1997
Rick Whitehead (Impetus Training). One day teamworking course at St. Mellion Golf Club.
November 1997
Symposium on Capitation Schemes, at the Postgraduate Centre, Truro. Speakers were Mark Adams from Denplan, Quentin Skinner from DPAS, and our members, Dr. Chris Smirthwaite and Dr. Mike Cook, who have their own in-house schemes.
April 1998
Dr. Harris Sidelsky presented a one day course entitled 'Is Private Practice a Waste of time?' at Greenlawns Hotel, Falmouth.
October 1998
Dr. Stanley Malamed from California lectured at St. Mellion Golf Club. The morning session was about local anaesthesia and the afternoon about medical emergencies.
November 1998
Tom Edge gave an after dinner talk entitled 'Business Development Update' to members and their partners at Penventon Hotel, Redruth.
March 1999
With 'Partners in Practice' we organised a full day course in Truro entitled 'Team Communication'. It was led by Dr. Jerry Watson and Ms. De Birkett.
May 1999
'Tooth Bleaching', presented by Dr. Colin Hall Dexter and Dr. Robert Webster, was promoted in partnership with Optident, at St. Mellion Golf Club.
November 1999
Dr. Michael Wise lectured for a day on 'Management of a Private Restorative Practice' at Headland Hotel, Newquay.
March 2000
'The Restoration of Endodontically Treated Teeth with Carbon/Quartz Posts and Dentine Bonding Systems', presented by Dr. Francesco Mannocci from Italy. This was an evening meeting in Truro.
June 2000
An all day seminar for the practice team, entitled 'The Premier Practice', was presented by Dr. Bud and Karin Sipko from Vancouver, and took place at The Falmouth Hotel.
September 2000
'Hands-on' Composite Build-up course, presented by Dr. Michael Heilbron at Newquay, in partnership with Optident.
March 2001
Dr. John Besford presented "Meeting the Expectations of Your Prosthetic Patients" at Newquay. The meeting was attended by dentists, prosthetic dental technicians, and dental nurses. The nurses had a separate session in the afternoon led by John's dental nurse, Ruth Pessok.
July 2001
Our first meeting with an orthodontic theme took place at Carlyon Bay Hotel. Dr. Brock Rondeau from Toronto, Canada, presented two sessions - 'Early Orthodontic Treatment in the Mixed Dentition' and 'Temporomandibular Joint Problems'.
November 2001
A day of instruction entitled 'How to Make the Difficult Restorative Case Easier' was presented by Dr. Bill Comcowich at St. Mellion Golf Club. Bill is a very skilled teacher, with a great gift for making the difficult subject of occlusion more easily understandable.
February 2002
We presented a seminar entitled 'Evidence-based Complementary Medicine, as it relates to Dentistry' at Tregenna Castle Hotel, St. Ives. This was a first for a general practice group in Britain. Speakers were Professor Edzard Ernst, who holds the chair of Complementary Medicine at the University of Exeter, Reg D'Souza, a physiotherapist and acupuncturist, Dr. Peter Darby, who is Dean of Dental Homeopathy, and Dr. Stuart Ferraris, a holistic dental practitioner.
May 2002
'A Day with Dr. Harris Sidelsky' took place at Greenlawns Hotel, Falmouth, almost exactly four years since his last visit to Cornwall. As before, it was a day of excellent clinical teaching, delivered in Harris's inimitable style, and spiced up with his gems of Jewish humour.
July 2002
A hands-on workshop on the latest dental fibre-reinforced composite materials was presented by StickTech at Carlyon Bay.
October 2002
'Marketing and Risk Management for the Private Dental Practitioner' was presented at Headland Hotel, Newquay, by Kevin Lewis and Chris Barrow. It was the first time the two of them had lectured in tandem, but will probably not be the last.
January 2003
An evening dinner meeting was held at Alverton Manor, Truro, with George Manolescue of Dental Business Solutions as the speaker.
June 2003
Dr. Ron Jackson, from Middleburg, Virginia, USA, lectured on Mastering Direct Resin: Anterior and Posterior. A well attended meeting at St. Mellion heard the latest information on these materials, together with Ron's personal approach to handling them. It was a masterly display of the highest quality dentistry.
October 2003
Dr. Cathy Jameson presented 'Great Communication = Great Production' at St. Mellion. A day of intruction in communication skills presented by one of the great communicators on the dental lecture circuit. Sound tuition, presented with mid-west American evangelical fervour, and even including a country and western song.
January 2004
An evening dinner meeting for members and their partners was held at the Penventon Hotel, Redruth. The speaker was Chris Barrow. Chris did not give a formal presentation this time, but, instead, spoke 'inter-course' and answered questions.
June 2004
Friday 18th June 2004 was the date of another highly successful study day, when we presented Dr. Marvin Berman from Chicago, lecturing on the subject, 'Dentists, Children, Parents.....It's a Brave New World - providing quality care for our young patients'. With the impending changes to the National Health Service system of delivering dentistry this was a highly topical subject.
November 2004
Dr. Peter Gulgut lectured on 'Periodontology Now!' at St. Michael's Hotel, Falmouth. He dealt particularly with the problems of host resistance and identified many areas of which we still have little understanding. He also discussed why is it that some of our patients have severe periodontal problems despite having very little plaque present, and suggested chemotheraputic adjuncts to treatment that can alter the host response. This was our first meeting to be completely sold out.
June 2005
Bud and Karin Sipko returned for another study day. They gave a fascinating insight into their unique dental practice, where they spend two hours on each new patient, and they outlined their treatment planning criteria for most of their oral rehabilitations. It was an excellent day with much to offer the young private practitioner and the more experienced alike.
September 2005
A successful 'hands on' course took place at Tresanton Hotel, St. Mawes. Peter Galgut returned, as a follow-up to the November 2004 meeting, and gave a well presented and informative update in current concepts in periodontology.
September 2005
Dr Amarjit Gill gave a pesentation, entitled 'The Funding Futures', at Alverton Manor, Truro. He discussed the future of dentistry, both in the private and NHS sectors, and outlined the possible scenarios for general practice in the next 3 - 4 years.
November 2005
A group of IDP members met at Carlyon Bay Hotel for a hands-on course entitled 'Adhesives and Composites' with Brian Millar and Nic Hodson of Guys, Kings and St Thomas's. All aspects of enamel and dentine bonding were discussed, and all the members had the opportunity to build up fractured incisors using the layering technique.
November 2005
Cornwall IDP welcomed Professor Richard Ibbetson for the first time. He gave a presentation at St. Mellion entitled 'Predictability in the Restoration of Extensively Damaged Teeth'. He stressed the importance of meticulous planning, simple construction, and conservative techniques with as little further destruction of tooth material as possible. His excellent lectures were accompanied by heavy snowfall which made the journey home difficult for some and impossible for others.
December 2005
Robert McAndrew and Jeremy Hayes from Cardiff led a hands-on endodontics course at Carlyon Bay Hotel.
May 2006
A new venue - we held an all-day seminar at The National Maritime Museum, Falmouth. 'Current Concepts in Cariology' was presented by Professor Edward Lynch.
November 2006
The Headland Hotel, Newquay, was the venue for a two-day course entitled 'Lifelike Adhesive Restorations: Advancing from Good to Excellent', presented by Dr. Nasser Barghi from San Antonio, Texas. The first day was a day of presentations for whole practice teams and the second was a hands-on day for dentists.
February 2007
'Bridging the Gap - Nutritional Support for Optimum Health' was the title of a full-day presentation by Drs. Mark Draper and Alan Holland. They concentrated on the value of improving the nutrition of patients, especially those with chronic infection problems.
May 2007
Dr. Martin Kelleher, presenting a bleaching symposium at Tresanton Hotel, St Mawes, gave an overview of all aspects of internal and external tooth whitening. Chairside and home tray systems were compared and evaluated, with numerous references to recent research, and the controversy surrounding the legal issues associated with bleaching was explained with much clarity.
June 2007
We presented Ashley Latter at the National Maritime Museum, Falmouth. The meeting was about ethical sales and was entitled 'The Selling Coach'.
November 2007
Scott Perkins, the expert on efficiency and ergonomics in the dental practice, lectured at St. Mellion.
April 2008
Bedruthan Steps Hotel, Mawgan Porth, was the venue for a presentation on Dental Photography by Dr. Irfan Ahmad. He discussed the advantages of digital photography and the technical issues involved in image capture, processing and display. He then described all aspects of the equipment and settings required to achieve the necessary excellence and went on to show how he achieves such perfect and artistic pictures. Finally he used an interesting case presentation to demonstrate the value of quality photography.
home | members | objectives | code of practice | practices | committee | postgraduate courses | news | join us? | jobs | useful links | sponsors | hypatia websites