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Dr Booth, for those who don’t know already, what is your main role within the Dental Institute? Well, I’m a Consultant in periodontology and have been running the year 4 perio course for a number of years now. I like to keep an eye on service provision and the standard of clinical teaching the students are receiving. I am also heavily involved in academics and re-search, especially when it comes to microbiology and the immune system involved in perio. My most recent involvement was in the !rst longitudi-nal study regarding the deep sequencing of plaque in experimental gingi-vae with the help of James Kistler, PhD student.

How did you get to where you are now? I chose dentistry at school after some work experience. I really enjoyed the thought processing aspect as well as the clinical aspect and the opportunity of working with people. I studied dentistry at Edinburgh and was part of the 1st pilot scheme for DF1 instead of jumping straight into a house officer job. #is was great as you got to use the clinical skills you had learned straight away. Two years into practice I missed the academic side of things too much and decided to do a masters in perio at Guy’s. After the masters, I worked at Eastman Dental Hospital for 3 years as a registrar in restorative dentistry before heading back to Guy’s to start a PhD and to teach and lecture. I moved to the Royal London for a promotion but returned to Guy’s after just 3 years – I couldn’t stay away!

What are your favourite parts of the job? Seeing my students progress on the course, both clinically and academically. It’s great to see them succeed in their exams! My job revolves around working with people and I love the human contact aspect of my position. I also get a real buzz when the research I am working on shows interesting results.

If you had to name a mentor who was integral to your own development and career, who would it be? Most de!nitely the late Professor Frank Ashley who supervised both my masters and PhD. He was Dean of the school and paid massive service to the institution and was instrumental in promoting the dental school. He was a great mentor who led by example and I hope this is mirrored in the way I work and in my personality.

In your opinion, what are the benefits of the new system? One of the most prominent bene!ts is that students will be better equipped to carry out whole patient care with fewer obstacles. When it’s working well, it will exhibit true integrated care which will be good for both the patient and the student as it is how you will work in the future. It also allows us to keep things more personal due to the continuation of teaching staff throughout a student’s training - tutors are able to become more involved with their students and vice versa. #e new system also allows students to get to know each other better and have the opportunity to gain knowledge and experience from working with students in higher years.

What is your vision for Shard? A happy, busy and productive team. If we’re busy then we are getting the education we need and patients are receiving

the treatment they require. If we’re all happy then the days will run in a pro-ductive and memorable manner.

Do you have time for any hobbies outside of dentistry? I enjoy needle craft, like crochet – I suppose as it’s a continuation of the hand skills I have used in my career. I enjoy singing and used to play the trumpet in a band, taking part in public performances, however, there’s not enough time to practice now. I also like gardening as I enjoy watching things grow and it’s actually great exercise!

If you could give a piece of advice to any dental student what would it be? Make the most of any opportunity given to you – don’t sit and be bored! Enjoy and make the most of your time at dental school.

You’re stuck on a desert island, you only have one music album, what is it? I have a large reggae collection at home so it would have to be ‘Exodus’ by Bob Marley and the Wailers. #ere are some fantastic songs on that album.

Finally, what would you be doing if not dentistry? God only knows! Perhaps I’d be a seamstress.

#e nights are drawing in, the freshers %u is doing its !nal rounds, and dental students across the UK are !nally recovering from their post-BDSA Sports Day hangovers. After such a frenetic !rst few months of the academic year one might conceivably predict a lull in the social calen-dar... how wrong you would be. With November staring us full in the face, KCL dental students can expect the most jam packed few months of the year (probably).

#is month look out for Oral Cancer Awareness Month (lea%ets to be circulated on clinic), fruity moustaches popping up all over campus as people worldwide raise awareness for prostate cancer, and a host of un-missable events and activities from Dent. Soc., KOMSOC, Smile Soc., #e Dental Show and many others. My only words of advice would be to light your proverbial candle at both ends and get burning!

Luke Green!eld Editor

THE KING’S CROWN

Special Feature.Follow the Leader – Shard Edition.Part two of the Team Lead interviews. With the new structure up and run-ning, !nd out more about our Leads and their views on the changes.

Social.What Happens Onboard Stays Onboard.An account of the extravagant Dental Society Boat Party by Sabrina DatuAs one of the most popular events of the year, the boat party is always a highly anticipated evening. #e queue to purchase tickets is enormous, re-sulting in students falling over themselves (Amarinder Sehda, BDS 3) in their haste to guarantee a spot by leaving lectures early! Luckily, Hirra and I managed to elbow our way to the front of the queue and then began plan-ning our out!ts. #e boat party is the perfect event for dental students to tear off their tunics and dress to impress! We’ve been every year and it never fails to disappoint. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to the drinks reception but we’ve been informed it was a very successful start to the night. Once we stepped onto the boat, the music and atmosphere took over. #roughout the

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night there were professional pictures taken by Yick Chan, great songs played by the DJ and some crazy moves displayed on the dance %oor! We also managed to take in the sites from the top deck, whilst the Presi-dents pop open champagne. #e evening was a lot of fun and a great start to the year!

Savvy.Portsmouth.Clare Grant, BDS5, describes the delights that Ports-mouth has to offer. One week per month, Monday morning lectures come to an end and twenty of us battle our way towards Wa-terloo, suitcases in tow, to catch the train to Portsmouth. #e smog, chaos and high-rise buildings of London

slowly !zzle out and we are met with greener pastures and visions of the sea. Less than two hours later, we arrive in Portsmouth and make our way over to our abode for the week – student halls of residence, located a mere 5 minute walk away from the University of Portsmouth Dental Academy (UPDA). Yes - this means most excuses for late arrival onto clinics are left behind in London!KCLDI and UPDA moulded a beautiful relationship four years ago, with the aim of bringing together their respective dental students and hygiene therapy /dental nursing students, to form a big, happy dental team – ad-vantageous for all involved! #is essentially means we work in what is a realistic large dental practice - a primary care setting where patients sign up and follow through their dental treatment with the whole team. For dentists, Tuesday to Friday is spent formulating care plans, collaborating with other members of the team, carrying out community dentistry in schools or probation offices and, of course, treating patients. A team of highly experienced tutors is on hand to supervise, as well as the ‘pink la-dies’ – Portsmouth’s very own group of extremely skilled and enthusiastic dental nurses. #roughout the week, we are given tutorials on speci!c aspects of clinical dentistry, but also the less-clinical facets - such as get-ting to grips with NHS dental contracts, understanding policies that we’ll have to negotiate in DF1, and stress management (including medita-tion… that was interesting!).All in all, Portsmouth often provides a very welcome break from London, and the chance to work within a dental setting very similar to that which we will experience on graduating. I would strongly urge those of you in the years that follow to consider applying!

Societies.Smile Society.Welcome to our !rst ever appearance in this stun-ning newsletter! If you haven't heard of us, allow me to !ll you in...KCL Smile Society (SmileSoc) is a volunteer-run organisation dedicated to promoting oral health in the community. Our main goal is to teach children how to take care of their teeth by showing them how to brush, eat healthily and not be terri!ed of us dentists. It's great fun, brilliant practice for the daunting experience that is 4th year Paeds, and our snazzy participation certi!cates brighten up any dreary portfolio.A big smiley thank you to all the people who attended our lecture and signed up to be part of our work. We'll be emailing throughout the year, inviting you to take part in events. School visits will take place on Wednesdays and #ursdays and places are '!rst come, !rst served' so check those inboxes! #is year we're also branching out to scary teenagers and the general public, so keep your eyes peeled for upcoming events.November isn't just about growing splendid facial hair, it's also Oral Can-cer Awareness Month and SmileSoc will be taking a lead at Guy's to help educate the public about the key signs and symptoms of mouth cancer. #is is an event for BDS4 and 5 volunteers, who will be given a training

lecture by an oral medicine specialist – and a great (potentially life saving) learning experience for students and the public alike, so get involved!For those who appreciate the more cerebral challenges, SmileSoc will be running our Annual Pub Quiz near the end of this term. Get a team to-gether, challenge our reigning champions and win fantastic prizes. We guar-antee there will be no tooth related questions and the hilarious bonus rounds alone are worth coming for. See you there!Carissa, SmileSoc Co-President

King’s Oral and Maxillofacial Society. Just in case you haven't heard about KOMSOC....We regularly organise lectures, workshops and social events. Keep an eye out for our up and coming lectures this term covering head and neck trauma's, cancers and infection. #is year we also have practical workshops lined up and possible research opportunities for our members. If you would like to be added to our mailing list please sign up on our website for updates on what's going on: www.komsoc.com

Word of Mouth.BDS2 reps, Ushma Patel & Jigar Mehta report on the BDSA Sports Day

After a long three month wait, we were !nally heading to Cardiff for a weekend of unforgettable madness with our fellow ‘Mental Dentals’. Having never been to a BDSA event before, we didn’t really know what was in store for us until we set foot onto the coach. As soon as we hit Cardiff, geared up in our raunchy red t-shirts, we made our way to Oceana to !nd ourselves mixing with other UK Dental Students. Cheap drinks ensured everyone had a wild one!9AM the following morning, we all awoke for the sports !xtures, sleep de-prived but eagerly made our way to the !elds to compete. Our players did exceptionally well. Our hockey team, lead by Bhavesh Patel, excelled by coming in third place and our Netball team destroyed the competition (in true KCL fashion), led by the unbeatable attacking trio of Steve Conteh, Lottie Molyneaux and Lucy Clements. #at evening, looking stunning dressed as Vikings, we made our way to Flux, Cardiff’s infamous SU (that frankly made Guy’s bar look like a closet). Everyone was dressed to impress in their costumes and it was another un-forgettable evening of social insanity.After barely any sleep, on Sunday morning, we stumbled out of bed to return to London - our weekend of mania had sadly come to an end. #e organisers of the trip and two of the most beautiful women in the world, Olivia John-son King and Kaly Gengeswaran, were determined to make this weekend one to remember. Success!

Submit your story.For all communications please email GKTDIKingsCrown@gmail.com

Dental Society Events (Oct-Dec) Date

Annual Ball 23/11/2013Ski Trip 27/12/2013 - 04/01/2014BDS Lecture: Preparing for DF1 12/11/2013BDS Lecture: 3D Imaging in Endodontics 21/11/2013BDS Lecture: Con!dentiality 03/12/2013