BES Presidential Review 2025/26 – Phil Tomson

 

Which aspects have you enjoyed most about your Presidency?

It’s been a great honour to be BES President this year andrepresent the members, work with council and to be able to guide/support the work of the society to promote the discipline. In particular, I have enjoyed working with council with regard to various pieces of work. There is a huge amount that goes on behind the scenes and it has been great to eithercontribute or help guide many pieces of work that are or will be coming to fruition. There have been challenging times, butit has been great to work with some super individuals who have a common goal (because we all love endodontics!) and are committed to advancing the society and championing our specialty.

 

What would you consider your key achievements from the past year?

It has been a great year and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. As a council we work collectively and my job as President has been to support the work of others by guiding, encouragingand doing my best to remove obstacles. There have been unforeseen challenges that could not have been predicted but I would hope that I have managed these and guided the BES to grow, achieve it’s objectives and leave it in a stronger position for the next President to pick up the baton for their year.

It has been a busy year with lots of night-time online meetings but it has been great to see some pieces of work come to fruition in addition to the normal work of the BES which includes: publication of the BES Guide to Traumatic Dental Injuries, Non-Surgical Retreatment hands-on course, members discount to Kiroku (AI-powered note-taking and documentation), VPT hands-on courses the Dentistry Show /ECG and also a DFT lecture series which is a hugely valuable resource for new graduates.

I was delighted that the Spring and Autumn meetings were well attended, successful and made good financial reserves for the society, it’s a worry for any President to make sure these meetings go well during their Presidential year.

There is lots of other work in the pipeline which includes a Pulpotomy Campaign, a series of patient information leaflets, development of a set of Standards for Teaching Endodontics in the UK, a review of the BES articles of association and an update of the Guide to Good Endodontic Practice, amongst others! A big thank you goes to ALL involved (too many names to mention) in these pieces of work, completed or ongoing. They are hugely important and it is only through the dedication of these individuals that make them happen to have a positive impact for the society, discipline and profession.

 

Which BES projects or events have been highlights for you this year?

The Spring and Autumn meetings are always going to be a highlight for any President as one gets an opportunity to put one’s own stamp on the meetings. For both of them I was delighted to invite speakers who I hugely respect and many of whom are good friends. It was also great to have the Autumn meeting at the Belfry which I have a very close link to having worked there for many years when I was a student. As it wasnot in a city centre location lots of the delegates stayed at the hotel and attended the Peaky Blinders themed dinner where everyone went for it and got heavily involved, it was brilliant fun and a great event! 

 

What will be your ongoing involvement with the BES following your Presidency? 

In my new role I will of course offer my full support to Philip as incoming President and continue my duties as a representative for the BES on various committees. I am pleased to continue various pieces of work which are close to my heart which firstly includes a Pulpotomy Campaign to spread the word about carrying out vital pulp therapy and how successful it can be even in cases of Irreversible Pulpitis. This could have a massive impact on how we carry outEndodontics with a far more conservative / simpler approach. We have several stakeholders involved and it will be very exciting the potential impact it could have. Also I am delighted that all the previous authors wish to be involved in an updated version of the Guide to Good Endodontic Practice – so lots on!

 

What are your hopes for the future of the society? 

I hope the society continues to flourish and those involved inspire future generations to become passionate about our discipline. I hope our solid financial position is maintained and we can support teaching and research to advance the speciality for patient benefit for decades to come.

 

What do you feel are the greatest challenges within endodontics currently? What would you like to see more of in the future in terms of techniques and teaching?

I feel one of the biggest challenges we have is educating the next generation of dentists to treat pulp and periradicular diseases at undergraduate level and as new graduates. These are commons diseases and we must ensure that we equip primary care dentists with the skills to treat them. We are at a vulnerable stage in managing our workforce as we are in a position where some new graduates are graduating with very limited experience of carrying out Endodontic procedures.  If they do not turn this around during their DFT year they may move into their independent career with a limited level of skill to be able to treat endodontic disease. The worry is, these individuals are the trainers of the future and if they are not comfortable carrying out endodontic treatment there is a risk their trainees will not either and this precipitates and downward spiral. Stakeholders in workforce development need to be well aware of this to prevent this downward spiral. The BES is working hard to contribute by supporting undergraduate teaching by developing a set of standards for teaching Endodontic in the UK and supporting DFT trainingwith an excellent series of online lectures. It is important that all stakeholders in workforce development are aware of these issues and we work together to prevent further deterioration. 

 

Anything else to add, any special mentions? 

During this review of the year it is important to remember the recently announced success of the BES’s journal, the International Endodontic Journal as it now has a tremendousimpact factor of 7.1 – far beyond anyone’s expectations and is 3rd out of 162 journals in the Dentistry, Oral Surgery & Medicine category. As a society we should be tremendously proud of our journal.

I have not mentioned individual people to thank as there are so many but I wish to express huge gratitude and appreciationthose doing all the work on council and all involved with council who have provided support and inspiration for the work we do / have done in pushing our specialty forward.Thank you!