18 / 63
Concordia
Merchant Taylors’ School
I even owned
Monacle, an
amazing horse
that came
second at
Badminton in
1979 and was
selected for the
1980 Moscow
Olympic Games.
Life in practice was wonderful. We built
a brilliant team, invested in the best of
equipment, worked ourselves to the bone,
did a multitude of post graduate courses
and after nearly four decades ended up with
a huge international reputation. I was also
an active City of London Barber Surgeon
and rebuilt the company library and helped
redesign the Gerard Herb Garden.
Implantology arrived and I was one
of the first to use it. Crown and Bridge
technology blossomed, bonding metal
to porcelain and later finding porcelains
strong enough to need no metallic
support and all the while I kept up the
oral surgery by operating in the evenings
in many of London’s private hospitals
often taking out wisdom teeth.
We began to do extensive oral
reconstructions on badly damaged
mouths, making major changes to
people’s lives. We could offer superb
aesthetics with the backing of the
Regent Dental Laboratory. The days of
inevitable full dentures, which we had all
been trained to make, were on their way
out. All these technical advances had
to be based on good dental hygiene so
I pioneered prevention too and in 1978
launched a new clinic in Devonshire
Place, near Harley Street, with two
other colleagues. It was called the Oral
Hygiene Centre and was the first of its
kind in the world. The idea was to provide
the services of a large team of Dental
Hygienists under the supervision of one
Dental Surgeon to make prevention the
priority and lower the cost of providing
better dental health.
Hygienists, I explained to the
politicians, are cheaper to train; they
require minimal equipment, and the
fear level for patients should be less too,
with no drilling. I imagined a worldwide
Oral Hygiene Centre franchise but the
dream was somewhat thwarted by both
politicians and the profession. In the
USA, where I also introduced the idea,
state laws only allowed hygienists to
work one to one with surgeons and under
their direct supervision. I think I was a
few years ahead of my time; most dentists
now have their own hygienists and I
believe they are the most important part
of any practice.
Not long after the start of my career
in 1972 I had been unfortunate enough
to experience synchronous bilateral
malignant seminoma and was advised
I might only have a short time to live.
It was only six months after my first
marriage to Sue. I was lucky enough to
be completely cured by two wonderful
surgeons and aggressive radiotherapy,
and while recovering I took up riding.
Sue and I bought a weekend cottage
in Wiltshire and I took to horses like a
duck to water, ending up riding one and
three day events. I even owned Monacle,
an amazing horse that came second at
Badminton in 1979 and was selected for
the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. Sadly,
Mrs Thatcher asked our team to withdraw
as a protest against Russia’s occupation
of Afghanistan – somewhat ironic in
hindsight – but I still can’t live without
horses in my life.
Portcullis and Crown at No 1 Parliament Street
The Race for Riderless Horses