Top spot honour for Queen

Professor Edward Lynch has taken first place in Dentistry magazine’s ‘Top 50′ of the most influential people in the UK dental profession.

A hugely influential  academic with a bulging CV, Edward  is Professor of Restorative Dentistry and Gerodontology at Queen’s University Belfast, as well as a Consultant in Restorative Dentistry to the Royal Hospitals.

Dr Lynch has been awarded more than 90 research grants (totalling over £5 million), successfully supervised more than 50 MSc, MPhil and PhD students, and been awarded many prizes for his research. He is also chairman of the European Experts Group on tooth whitening and has presented on the subject to the EU parliament.

His clinical commitment has been in restorative and prosthodontic care of patients for more than 25 years. He believes that promotion of better health is best served by research, and to this end is constantly encouraging the development of more young, enthusiastic researchers. His research team at Queens University has been awarded first prize at several annual award meetings of the International Association for Dental Research.

Edward has served on many committees including secretary, treasurer and president of GORG, Council of the Irish Division of IADR, the University of London Dental Subject Panel of the Medical Faculty, and is on the editorial board of numerous international journals.

He presents at many prestigious courses worldwide each year, and is a highly esteemed postgraduate teacher throughout the UK. His courses are well received in terms of content and presentation, with his hands-on teaching in high demand, enabling him to enhance the careers of GDPs, community dentists, hospital dental staff and many more over the years. His enthusiasm to provide continuous support for his students’ dental education and scientific endeavours well into their careers has also won him much praise.

Fellow academic Ian Benington, who is now retired, also placed in the Top 50, achieving a more than respectable 39th place.

Ian Benington

A former president of the BDA, Ian has enjoyed a distinguished career and is voted into the Top 50 for the first time.

He qualified in 1961 and was the first chairman of the British Prosthodontic Conference, representing the British Society for the Study of Prosthetic Dentistry.

He was also director of the School of Dentistry at Queens University, Belfast (1989-1998), consultant in restorative dentistry and honorary lecturer at Glasgow Dental Hospital & School (1972-1978), senior registrar for dental prosthetics at the Eastman (1965-1972), and in 1997 was awarded an OBE for services to dentistry.

When he became president of the BDA in 2002, he was the first person from Northern Ireland in nearly 25 years to be given the role. His research interests include developing new techniques and materials for maxillofacial prostheses and heat generation during bone preparation for endosseous implants.

Between 1990-2000 his research was awarded in excess of £100K in grants from educational and commercial bodies.