This year’s Private Dentistry Awards judging day celebrated the ever-growing talent, skill and sense of community within the dental profession.
Once again, FMC’s headquarters was filled with some of the top names in dentistry. Leaders in the profession came together to select the best in dentistry from the hundreds of entries we received for this year’s Private Dentistry Awards.
As always, transparency was at the heart of the process. All judges were put in pairs to guarantee that no one person is making a decision.
Checks are also carried out to ensure there’s no conflict of interest, with judging pairs and categories matched accordingly. All judges are required to write notes on each entry throughout the entire process, which are all kept on file.
After a number of tough decisions, the full list of this year’s finalists can be found here.
Unique experience
‘Judging for the Private Dentistry Awards is always are unique experience,’ said Julian English, editor of Private Dentistry magazine.
‘It entails up to 50 of the finest UK dental professionals all sometimes agreeing – but mainly disagreeing – over the winners and Highly Commended entries in a plethora of categories.
‘Such a demanding day is extremely well organised and piloted by Dr David Houston. This year’s judging went really well, with all judges doing their homework and all expected judges attending.
‘It is only when you arrive at the entrance to the award ceremony venue, seeing the effort that people have put in, seeing the excitement in their eyes, that you realise exactly how important a task the judging is and how much it means to people.’
Raising the bar
James Goolnik, the founder of Bow Lane dental group, is one of the long-standing judges of the awards. He said: ‘When the awards first started 22 years ago there were just five entries. This year there were over 900 entries.
‘Whatever you feel about the awards there has been a massive increase in the quality of the entries and it is a true honour to be a judge for the past five years. They are increasingly used for dental practice marketing so it’s an even more tricky task to separate the entries.
‘Setting ever higher standards and raising the bar for the whole dental community.’
He noted four key changes in this year’s entries:
- More emphasis on eco-friendly credentials
- Practices are giving back more to their local communities
- More emphasis on team approach and training
- Better photography.
For more information on the Private Dentistry Awards visit www.dentistry.co.uk/awards/private-dentistry-awards/.
