Managing Editor, Tom Roberts, returns to the world of weekly editorial updates, seriously, there might even be videos on the way\.\..

This month, I am incredibly excited. There are two major events on my mind, two competitions, both very close to my heart, have been won. I'll give you some hints: they involve the print magazine, they involve preventive dentistry and they involve the recognition of excellence in the preventive side of the dental profession...
What are these exciting competitions? I answer with a drum roll, streamers and a ticker-tape parade:
• The announcement of the winner of the Preventive Dentistry Practice of the Year 2008, and;
• The announcement of the winner of the Preventive Dentistry Article Awards (PDAA) 2008.
With no further ado, lets have a look at the competitions and the winners.

Practice of the Year 2008
We were inundated with 100% top quality entries into this competition, and choosing a winner was extremely hard for all of us on the Preventive team. We deliberated, argued, debated, discussed, reviewed and re-read until we finally agreed. Taking into account everything from the preventive message the practice spoke, the services it provided, the emphasis on patient relations and plenty more, we picked Sparkly Smile (Blackheath Village Dental Practice) as the winner of the 2008 award.
We on the team had a hard time choosing; all of the entries were fantastic, but Sparkly Smile captivated us with a certain ‘je ne sais quoi' and is thoroughly deserving of the award.

Article Awards 2008
Being a journalist, this was an important award for me. I wanted to see what people could do when motivated to write, and boy did I get what I wanted. The entries were thoughtful, carefully considered articles with brilliant insight into the future of preventive dentistry. The winners in order from 3rd place to 1st are:
3) Hayley Lawrence
2) Michael Croft
1) Maria Cockle.
So, big congratulations must go to Maria for her brilliant article, and also to Hayley and Michael for their entries. Out of the many we received, these three wrote what we considered to be the best and most probing articles. (No pun intended, obviously)
Congratulations to them and you can all look forward to reading their entries in the coming issues, starting with Maria's article. Maria's look at the future of preventive dentistry will have you nodding along compelled. It will be online shortly, if it's not already...

Final thought
To conclude, if you have any news items, opinions, articles or ideas you would like to share with the Preventive Dentistry team, let us know by contacting me by email at thomas.roberts@fmc.co.uk or by phone on 01923 851756.

Until the next time,

Tom Roberts
Tel: 01923 851756
Email: thomas.roberts@fmc.co.uk