Charles Gaine (1827-1914) - an orthodontic pioneer in Brighton and Bath.

John Nutting Farrar (1839-1913) has been hailed as the 'father of American orthodontics' and his textbook, published in 1888, is often claimed to be the first devoted exclusively to orthodontics, while the American Emerson Angell is supposed to be the inventor of the orthodontic 'jackscrew'. However, the unknown Englishman Charles Gaine, identified by Lilian Lindsay in 1933 as the author of the first British orthodontic textbook, could be said to be the father of British orthodontics, as the publication of his book in 1858 and his demonstration of the screw appliance at the Great Exhibition of 1851 predated both these transatlantic events.

The Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England: An overview of the first 70 year's achievements.

The events leading up to the founding of the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England are described. The role of the FDS in establishing the training for dental specialties and research is recorded.

Ernest Victor Davey (1888-1957) a mechanical dentist and dentists in North Bristol at the time of the First World War.

Ernest Davey practised dentistry in Bristol until 1924 when his lack of a dental qualification restricted him to work as a dental technician. He appears to have served in this capacity in France during the First World War before returning to Bristol in 1919 where he spent the rest of his life.

Building leadership capacity in medical education: developing the potential of course coordinators.

The School of Medicine at the University of Southampton has undergone a process of consultation and staff development aimed at developing the leadership role of course coordinators. The paper reports on the negotiation of a generic framework of tasks and the development of a successful leadership training programme for course coordinators. The authors recommend a complex adaptive style of leadership based on whole systems theory and argue that leadership training for course coordinators is vital to the success of undergraduate medical programmes.

Negotiating strategic direction for education staff development: the Southampton experience.

The School of Medicine at the University of Southampton has identified and implemented strategic direction for education staff development. This paper reports on the processes of consultation and negotiation undertaken to ensure the success of a strategic approach and reflects on the difficulties involved. In particular, it reports on the development of a successful training programme for established teachers and course coordinators. The authors recommend adopting a transformational style of leadership for staff development and argue that focusing on student needs helps overcome tensions between the institution and individual staff members.

Orthodontic referrals via TeleDent Southwest.

The information presented in this article must be interpreted with caution. Ideally the trial should have lasted longer because five of the seven participating dentists said they felt constrained from taking in more cases because access to TeleDent advice would cease before completion of all but the shortest of treatments. Second, the number of practitioners recruited into the trial was small, and the dentists chosen were highly selected. Third, almost all the data are based on the opinions of the participating dentists, and for three of the dentists the number of cases on which those opinions were based was small. Finally, it must be remembered that all United Kingdom NHS dentists are busy and work on a highly structured "time of service" payment system. Although the costs of hardware, software, line rental, and training were borne by the TeleDent project, there was no financial compensation for the time spent by dentists capturing images of their patient records and putting together the whiteboard and transmitting the information. There was a significant financial disincentive for using the system. Ideally, a long-term prospective randomized study of the effect of teledentistry advice on outcome of orthodontic treatment provided by general dental practitioners should be undertaken. The data collected in the current study supported the dentists' opinions that TeleDent SW enabled them to offer a better service for their patients and use specialist services more appropriately.

The use of teledentistry to provide GDPs with advice in orthodontics.

This article describes a pilot trial to determine whether the transmission of digitized clinical records of potential orthodontic cases supported by access to video and data conferencing may help to reduce the current high level of inappropriate referrals to consultant orthodontists in the UK.

The report of the Information Technology Task Group of the Dentistry Modernization Steering Group.

The Dentistry Modernization Steering Group was set up to monitor, evaluate and facilitate progress in the implementation of the Government's strategy for the dental services. Information Technology was an important part of this remit and the report of its IT Task Group is summarized here.