Next year holds an exciting prospect – a 40-year reunion with all the dentists in my year at Birmingham dental school. There were 75 of us and most are still going strong. Interestingly, one fifth of the group were – and still are! – women. I don’t think any dental school today would launch a cohort with less than 50% women. I hope this reflects the greater equality in society but it might also be simply that women get better exam results!
I am sad that there are some colleagues who won’t be there: Four have died and two have been forced to leave the register. Quite a few colleagues have retired although I’m hoping that they will come along anyway.
It’s a shame that the new Birmingham dental school won’t quite be ready. This is going to be the site of the former BBC Pebble Mill studios and will be the UK’s first stand alone dental school and hospital in 40 years. It will open its doors, so I’m told, in 2015. So, in the next two years I will be paying two autumn visits to Birmingham, one in 2014 looking nostalgically backwards in time and then again in 2015, looking to the future of the dental profession.