Happy New Year and welcome to the 13th volume of BDJ Team! Your free, online publication for the whole oral healthcare team has been going from strength to strength over the last 12 years, with visitors to the website peaking at unprecedented levels in 2025, and a steady flow of new articles being submitted.

Would you like to contribute to BDJ Team's success? With some of our recent reader panellists moving on to new projects, the floor is open to new volunteers.

Reader panellists are dental care professionals (DCPs) who help contribute to BDJ Team through writing at least one article (in a year) and who might be asked to provide feedback on published content or ideas for content; suggest themes for special issues; review a book for BDJ Team; or volunteer to be an interviewee. If this appeals to you and you are happy for your details to appear on the Reader Panel page on our website, please contact me by email.

To launch 2026, our cover star is British Dental Association (BDA) staff member Elisa Fisher, who is from Australia but trained as a dental nurse in London, moved on to practice management, and is now thriving as an Adviser for the BDA Good Practice scheme. Elisa shares her unique career journey is this issue.

Returning contributors Karenn Davila and Patrycja Galonzka reflect on volunteering as a BSDHT coach and mentor, and on how practice managers are shaping the future of dentistry, respectively. Jessica Patel discusses the importance of supporting the community dental workforce, with a particular focus on morale. Ruth Potterton explores considerations when venturing into community engagement with those who struggle to access advice or care.

We have so much interesting and varied content lined up and I am excited to hear what new volunteers will propose as well!

Enjoy reading BDJ Team in 2026.

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Kate Quinlan

Editor

k.quinlan@nature.com