Dental services and teaching at the renowned Glasgow Dental Hospital and School have been given a major boost thanks to the completion of a £2.5 million refurbishment programme.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) have invested almost £2million on a significant project to modernise the hospital’s restorative dental clinics and expand the central instrument decontamination unit.

To complete the package of enhancements at the hospital The University of Glasgow have also invested £500,000 in transforming a traditional biochemistry laboratory into a state-of-the-art multi-media teaching facility.

The new teaching suite is to be named the Dorothy Geddes Multi-media Facility in memory of the late Professor Geddes, who was a pioneering dental surgeon and oral biologist and the first woman to hold a professorship in dentistry at a UK university.

At a special event to officially open the new facilities NHSGGC Chairman Andrew Robertson said:  “The importance of oral heath cannot be overestimated and I am delighted that these investments have further enhanced our ability to deliver high quality dental services to our patients.

“The benefit of these investments will reach many thousands of dental patients treated each year. The newly refurbished and expanded decontamination unit will serve not only the dental hospital but also 17 community dental clinics in and around Glasgow offering the very highest standard of instrument decontamination available.

“It is also very pleasing to see that the aim of refurbishing and consolidating restorative dentistry clinics from three floors to two has been achieved and to such a high standard.”

Professor Jeremy Bagg, University of Glasgow, said: “The primary function of the Dental School is to provide highly trained and skilful dental practitioners to deliver oral health care for members of the public. The investment that has been made in the Dental Hospital and School will make a real difference to the quality of the teaching we deliver for our students and help us to maintain our current position in the Complete University Guide as the top Dental School in the United Kingdom”.

“The new multi-media suite is also a wonderful tribute to Professor Dorothy Geddes who did so much to advance the field of dental surgery during her life, and we are extremely happy to honour her contribution to Glasgow through this new facility.”

The newly expanded central decontamination unit will offer the very highest standards of instrument decontamination. Some community dental services cannot be easily adapted to meet new standards for decontamination of dental instruments onsite and therefore the new central decontamination unit will provide this service.  By sending their instruments into the newly expanded central unit, community dentists are not only being provide with the very highest standards of decontamination but they are also able to use the valuable space within their own clinics for offering other services to their patients. 

The restorative dentistry clinics, where patients have hygiene treatment, fillings, crown and denture work has been refurbished to a very high standard. Moving the clinics from three floors onto two floors offers a more holistic and better service for patients and also a better working environment for staff.

The opening of the new Dorothy Geddes Multi-media Facility represents the final stage of a five year programme to upgrade all of the academic teaching spaces within the Dental Hospital and School. It is equipped with the very latest technology including a full 3D projection system - the first time such a system has been used by the University of Glasgow - and a virtual microscopy suite in which students use tablet computers instead of traditional microscopes.

A specialist in Periodontology and Oral Biology, Professor Geddes broke new ground for women in dentistry. She was the first woman to be awarded the fellowship in Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1963 and the first female Dean of a Faculty of Dental Surgery of any Royal Surgical College in the UK. She was awarded an OBE in 1995 a few years before her death in 1998.

 

First published: 12 November 2012

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