CDS Group Conference 2024

By Graham Smith, President, CDS

I was humbled and honoured when I was asked to be president of the CDS group by my colleagues in the management committee. The last Scottish President of the group was the late Jackie Morrison in 2009/10, and I remember attending his presidential meeting in Glasgow. I became President designate in 2020 with a view to assuming the Group presidency for 2022/23. The pandemic ensured that I didn't actually take office until October 10 2024, so I've had quite a long time to plan the conference! I must give special thanks at this point to Sarah Rockliff, Senior Local Services Manager at the BDA. Sarah and the BDA events team were a huge support to me and ensured that the event was planned and executed so professionally.

The conference itself began with a networking event on Wednesday 9 October. The regional and national divisions met for an informal discussion. This was followed by a social event with food and a quiz.

The presidential dinner and drinks reception were held at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. Guests were piped into the historic venue in Edinburgh's New Town and enjoyed an excellent ceilidh after the dinner.

The main conference was held at Murrayfield Stadium over 10 and 11 October. I first visited the stadium around 50 years ago, when I stood as a schoolboy on the old open terraces to see Scotland defeat the mighty Wales team of that era. Nowadays the stadium has changed beyond recognition, and we were accommodated very comfortably in the President's Suite.

The theme of the conference was Access all Areas? I chose this to reflect access in the widest sense. Access to dental care is a real issue for the whole population at present, but as CDS/PDS services come under increased pressure due to lack of dental services, I wanted to highlight on our core patient groups and how we provide dental care to them.

We had excellent presentations on delivering dental care to bariatric patients, sedation and GA for special care patients, paediatric dentistry, MRONJ, dentistry for homeless patients and patients in prison. Charlotte Waite delivered an excellent overview of the BDA's work in ensuring our vulnerable patient groups are heard, and there was a presentation on self-care.

A new feature this year was a panel discussion on careers in the CDS/PDS, and the challenges our services face going forward. Overall, I thought we had a really good mix of presentations which were all relevant to CDS/PDS.

As well as the main programme we had our annual Poster competitions. The standard is always excellent, and this year was no exception.

Wrights were our main sponsor, and we had 11 exhibitors present on each day who were well visited by delegates, and I am thankful for their continued support.

Overall, I was delighted with the conference and feedback has been very positive. It has been interesting to get an idea of what is happening in different parts of the UK, meeting up with like-minded people, realising we are facing similar problems, and trying to figure out a way forward to make improvements together, for together, we are stronger.