The Dentistry Top 50 2026 has been decided, and 19 new names will feature when the list is revealed, reflecting another year of significant change across the profession.
Following an open call for nominations earlier this year, the final 50 were selected by FMC’s senior leadership team, drawing on suggestions from readers alongside the panel’s own knowledge of the profession. It is not a quick process. Nominations were read, re-read, argued over and, in some cases, argued over again, before the list took its final shape.
That process is deliberately different from most industry recognition schemes. There is no public vote and no points-based scoring system behind the Dentistry Top 50.
Instead, the panel considers an individual’s professional achievements, leadership, educational impact, campaigning work and contribution to advancing dentistry over the past year and beyond. That approach makes the list harder to compile, but it helps ensure the Top 50 is about influence rather than popularity. We aim to recognise those genuinely moving the profession forward.
Measuring impact
This was the first year I’ve been involved in the selection process, and the shortlisting among FMC’s senior leadership team threw up plenty to debate. Some names arrived with almost universal backing from the panel. Others prompted longer discussions about what ‘impact’ means in a profession as varied as dentistry. Is it clinical excellence, commercial success, public advocacy, or the quieter work of mentoring the next generation? The 2026 list ultimately tries to hold space for all of it.
The 2026 Top 50 spans clinical practice, leadership, academia, research, charities and representative organisations, including principal and private dentists, presidents of professional bodies, academics, chief executives of major dental groups, oral health campaigners, and leading figures in cosmetic and restorative dentistry.
The 19 new entrants are the clearest sign of how much the profession has evolved in the past twelve months. Alongside the many established figures retained from previous years, the incoming names suggest a profession that is not short of people pushing it forward, whether through clinical innovation, campaigning, business leadership or education.
Stay tuned, the Dentistry Top 50 2026, delivered in partnership with Denplan, will be revealed very soon.
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