INTER VIEW
PROMOTING GOOD DENTAL HEALTH
BRITISH DENTAL HEALTH FOUNDATION CHIEF EXECUTIVE NIGEL CARTER REFLECTS ON 40-YEAR CAREER AND THE CHALLENGES OF THE FUTURE
BRUCE OXLEY D
r Nigel Carter, now BDHF chief executive, qualified in 1975, ran his own dental practices for 20 years and was heavily involved with dental nurse and dental
technician training. He joined the foundation’s Midlands branch a couple of years after qualification and became its chair shortly after, which meant he attended national meetings as a trustee. He was overall chairman of the foundation between 1987 and 1989 and continued as trustee and member of the executive and finance committees prior to being appointed chief executive in 1997.
Do you feel the work you have done with the foundation has made a difference? Absolutely, the foundation was formed against a backdrop of very poor dental health in the UK, with the expectation of total tooth loss and dentures by middle age. We raised awareness that this could be avoided and teeth could be for life.
SCO TTISH DENT AL
Te mission throughout has been to educate the public to improve dental health. I have seen major improvements in the levels of oral health. Water fluoridation, advances in technology and easy accessibility to oral health information are but a few of the things I have witnessed. Patients seek answers, and
having the information a couple of clicks away is vital, we provide expert and thorough advice via our website and social media channels.
What career achievements are you most proud of? For more than 20 years, my company in Birmingham was responsible for training more than
“I HAVE SEEN MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE LEVELS OF ORAL HEALTH”
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2,500 dental nurses and dental technicians and we played a big part in improving the uptake of qualifications for local dental teams. Over the years at the foundation
we have hugely grown the range of our activities and the size of the BDHF itself. I inherited an enthusiastic team of five but now have a much larger team to support our work and help turn us into the one of the UK’s leading oral health charities. Our website is visited by over
three million people a year, with almost five million page views, and we distribute over a million patient education leaflets each year too. Our Dental Helpline has
answered over a quarter of a million enquiries from members of the public in the last decade alone. We are also rapidly approaching ten thousand Twitter followers. National Smile Month has
become the premier oral health campaign and continues to be hugely successful in helping to raise awareness of the key messages
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