Leading by example

The well-oiled wheels of the Dentistry Awards machine are now firmly in motion, and with all eyes fixed on the 12 December ceremony, now is the time for Northern Irish practices to stand up and be counted.

The Dentistry Awards celebrate success on both a regional and national scale, and have gone from strength to strength since their inception in 2006.

Emily Cameron, managing director of FMC and organiser of the Awards, said: ‘The awards have become the biggest award event in the profession with the highest number of entries ever. The standard of the entries has also increased substantially, year on year.’
Irish dentists have set a particularly high standard in recent years. Do you have what it takes to be the best in 2008?

Irish success
The winner of Best Young Dentist for Northern Ireland, James Hamill, went on to pick up the same award for the whole of the UK. The winner, from the Blue Apple dental practice, said at the awards: ‘This is not just for me – this is for the whole team at Blue Apple.

‘Success comes from all the staff working together. I was delighted to win the award for Northern Ireland and it’s unbelievable to be the overall UK winner. These awards give confirmation to what we do. It’s validation for everyone that works with us, especially as we were up against such stiff competition.

‘I don’t believe it’s about the money, it’s about providing the patients with the best possible care, and it has been an honour to win again after winning Best New Practice in Northern Ireland at last year’s awards – this really is the icing on the cake. We will definitely try our chance again next year.’

The other Northern Irish winners – Affinity Dental Care (Best Team) and Dunmurry Dental Practice (Best Practice) – were also praised for their efforts.

Emily Cameron: ‘The judges were especially impressed with the high quality of the Northern Ireland entries. In fact, the standard of the short listed entries for Northern Ireland was so high that the judges struggled to choose a winner.’

Regions
The awards have been created to stand apart from other dental-award formats, in that the organisers have broken the UK down into nine separate regions. This allows you to prove not only to your patients, but also to your direct competition, just how good your practice and staff is. Battle it out with other practices in these nine regions:
• Northern Ireland
• Scotland
• North East
• North West
• Midlands
• East
• London
• South West and Wales
• South East.

Entries
Each entrant must tell us, in 500 words or less, the reason why their practice, they themselves or their team should be considered for the award they are going for. This should be backed up with evidence in the form of testimonials, photographs, marketing support and letters of reference.

Remember – it’s worth taking into account that the more information you supply, the clearer picture the judges get of you and your practice.

To reserve your space at the ceremony on 12 December, and for a full list of guidelines and criteria for each category, please call Elisa on 01923 851734 or email elisa.barnett@fmc.co.uk. Alternatively, please visit www.dentistry.co.uk/awards2008/.