Congratulations to Dr Alison Dougall

On International Women’s Day 2022, Dr Alison Dougall was awarded the prestigious John Tomes medal by the Royal College of Surgeons of England and she accepted the award at the brand new RCS building in Lincolns Inn Fields, accompanied by Professor Blanaid Daly Dean of Dental Science, DDUH at the first in-person ceremony since the start of the pandemic. 

‘Sir John Tomes was a Dental Pioneer born in 1815. He was first apprenticed to an apothecary before beginning his medical studies at Kings College London. A man of great academic as well as practical skills, he began his research into teeth while still a medical student and then abandoned medicine to pursue a career in dentistry which at the time required no qualifications. His earliest papers looked at the microscopic structure of human and animal teeth and compared teeth against bone. His final and most famous paper gave rise to term ‘Tomes Fibrils’ still used today to describe the fibres in the dentine connected to the pulp.In later life Tomes turned his attention to the political side of the profession and he worked hard to ensure that only qualified persons could practise and this required registration. He obtained support for an Act of Parliament which was passed in 1878 restricting the use of the word ‘dentist’ to suitably qualified persons, and elevated dentistry from a basic trade to a skilled medical profession. Not only an outstanding dentist and researcher, his mind was at the same time eminently practical and he possessed considerable mechanical ingenuity, developing the design of forceps which are still utilised to this day. The John Tomes Medal is an International Honour which is awarded Triennially, in his honour, to a person who has made a significant global contribution towards the advancement of oral health and  achieved international recognition in both oral healthcare and scientific work.

Dr Alison Dougall is Consultant for Medically Complex Patients at Dublin Dental University Hospital and is the Director of the 3 year Doctorate and Specialist Training Programme in Special Care Dentistry and also Head of the Division of Child and Dental Public Health at Trinity College Dublin. She is currently the President of the International Association for Disability and Oral Health and is a passionate advocate and activist working for better services and high quality care for people with disabilities worldwide through research, funded care pathways and crucially education and training of the workforce. 

In 2017 she was voted the HMI Health Leader of Ireland for her work in developing integrated oral health pathways for adults with complex bleeding disorders and she led an International Group of Educators producing guidelines for educating students in Special Care Dentistry (SCD) at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The SCD curricula published by Dougall et al. have since been adopted by significant number of dental schools and colleges around the world as they aim to ensure that their students graduate with a positive attitude towards diversity and disability, ready and willing to serve all members of the community in which they will practice. 

Also, achieving awards at the same ceremony,  were Prof Sarah Gilbert who was honoured for her work in developing the Astra Zeneca Vaccine and Baroness Floella Benjamin for her work in promoting inclusion and diversity and opposing the treatment of those impacted by the Windrush Deportation Order.