A Warm Welcome to 2026 from the BSP President…
On behalf of BSP Council, I welcome you to 2026 and thank you for taking the time to read my first newsletter as President.
Having now received the chain of office, it reinforces the honour I feel being asked to take up the mantle. To see my name amongst former Presidents, people who have inspired, educated, lead and supported me through my 30-year journey in Periodontology, is quite surreal.
In 1996, as a directionless and rather disillusioned young dentist, I applied for an MSc in Perio for no better reason than I didn’t like doing fillings. Professors Frank Ashley and Richard Palmer gave me the opportunity and I’d like to think that I haven’t let them down.
2025 was an incredible year for the BSP and we, as a Society, achieved so much under the Presidency of Professor Nicola West. I would like to thank Nicola for her example and leadership, as well as the support and encouragement she has given me in the past.
As we head into 2026, we already have a significant number of periodontal irons in the fire. Ulpee Darbar and Shazad Saleem continue to put together our educational webinar programme covering a wide range of clinical topics. We have lots penciled in for 2026 to keep your perio CPD up to date. In addition, we will be hosting webinars to explain the results of the Society’s consensus meeting on the management of dentine hypersensitivity. This will certainly more than cover the cost of your annual subscription!
It is also a particular pleasure for me to see that my longstanding friend, Boota Ubhi, is running an ECG Masterclass this year. It doesn’t matter what stage you are at, Boota will be able to teach you something that will improve both your clinical skills and case management.
The BSP continues to produce and contribute to a wealth of clinical information and guideline documentation, and if you haven’t visited the Publications section of the website, it is worth a visit.
The new edition of the Good Practitioner’s Guide is in its final stages, and our members will get access to it when it is finished. I would like to thank the team at the Charles Clifford Dental Hospital for their hard work on the BSP Implant Information for General Dental Practitioners section, which you can read more about in this newsletter.
One of my main tasks as President, is to organise this year’s BSP Conference. Taking place from 7-9 October, the event is being held at The Milner Hotel in York. The Conference itself is clinically biased, reflecting my life as a plaque-splattered periodontist, whose daily practice is very much at the root-face. I have tried to find key clinical questions that I feel could benefit from clarification and find speakers who could try to do that. We have experts in the management of periimplantitis, non-surgical periodontal therapy, medical management and soft tissue grafting, all asked to speak on topics with direct clinical significance.
Rather than a key-note speaker, we will start the first session with an “any-questions panel” so I encourage you to start thinking of possible questions that you would like to pose to the experts. These can be clinical, academic, practical or perio-management. Any aspect of the art or science that is periodontology and implant dentistry that you can think of. The panel includes Dr Leo Briggs, Deputy Head of the DDU, and long-term member of the BSP; Professor Nikos Mardas from QMUL Institute of Dentistry, Ms Sarah Balian, Programme Director for Dental Hygiene and Therapy at UCLH; and Dr Shazad Saleem from the BSP Education Advisory Committee. A group of people with incredible insight into many aspects of Periodontology and the provision of periodontal care within the UK. We will inform you how to submit questions in the coming months.
As always, I would like to thank Paula Dunn and Jo Brown for the support that they have already given me in my President Elect role. Their reassurance and attention to detail gives me the confidence that I can successfully fulfil my role as the 77th President of the Society. I would also like to personally thank our Partner Sponsors, who all contribute to the Society.
Best wishes
Dr Paul Baker
January 2026