by Dr Len D'Cruz
I qualified in 1989 from the Royal London Dental Hospital where I kept my head down and showed no desire to do anything other than to listen to Genesis and Dire Straits, write the occasional film review and aim to pass my exams without retakes. This I managed and after a year’s vocational training lead by Raj Rattan who was in his first year as Scheme Adviser at Whipps Cross Hospital, I went on to buy a two surgery practice. Over the years I have developed this into a successful 6 surgery practice with my wife Anne who is also a dentist.
My burgeoning interest in dento legal matters was transformed by an invitation to join Dental Protection as a dento-legal advisor in 1997 and I have been there ever since, combining clinical practice, NHS dental advisors posts, consultancies for Boots Dentistry (whatever happened to that?) and other organisations and membership of various BDA committees along the way.
I have written many articles, contributed to book chapters and published “Dento-legal aspects of General Dental Practice” [Churchill Livingstone]. My practice is heavily involved with the development of a new NHS dental contract in England and I have lectured on this subject as well as co-authored the only book on this subject on the current contract “Understanding NHS Dentistry” with my good friends Raj Rattan and Michael Watson.
The purpose of this website is to act as a resource for those interested in dento-legal matters both from an academic perspective as part of their studies, both undergraduate and postgraduate, as well as for general dental practitioners wanting to keep up with the fast moving world of healthcare law. I hope those students undertaking the MA in Dental Law and Ethics at the University of Bedfordshire in the beautiful surroundings of Putterridge Bury drop in from time to time catch up with some reading material and to keep in touch. It will also provide access for delegates at conferences and study days I have presented on. I hope you enjoy it. If you have any feedback I would always welcome it –unless it is bad and not constructive in which case keep it yourself. I have better things to worry about.
I love photography so I have illustrated the articles with some of my images- the connection between the articles and the images is somewhat tenuous in almost all the cases but please forgive my self indulgence. In this post modern world where nobody looks at those old photo albums stuck down with yellowing sticky cellophane or photo corners this is the only way that anyone ever gets to see my photos- especially my family. They wait patiently while I delay them taking the shots and they never see the fruits of my labour. Enjoy!
Dr Len D’Cruz