Dr Tom Bereznicki

The Tom Bereznicki Charitable Educational Foundation started in the summer of 2023 using Tom’s own funds. The Charity was established primarily because he noticed a gradual decline in the clinical experience of both dental students and young postgraduate dentists over the last two decades. The aim of the Charity is to inspire not only early career dental professionals but all dentists to achieve their maximum clinical potential.

To support this aim, Tom has organised a series of clinical competitions and Symposia, working in conjunction with the College of General Dentistry and other organisations, offering fully funded or reduced-cost, high-quality training to practitioners in the early career stages of their career. A webinar series is also planned.

He has also been strongly supported by other like minded members of the Dental Profession to help the Foundation, in particular giving up their time, pro bono, to lecture at the various Symposia.

Other support has come from GC and Dentsply/Sirona, and sponsorship from MDDUS, Kettenbach, Corus and Trygiene

In addition, Tom now has available on his website a unique collection of educational videos and recorded webinars which students and qualified dental professionals can access free of charge covering a wide range of topics with a focus on Restorative Dentistry.

Follow the Tom Bereznicki Charitable Educational Foundation on Instagram

The following is an interview in which Dr Tom talks to Professor Sir Nairn Wilson CBE FCGDent, President Emeritus, about his motivation to put something back into the profession.

Nairn Wilson:Tom, what motivated you to become a Founder of the College, the College’s first major benefactor, and a significant College legator?

Tom Bereznicki:In recent years, I have been increasingly anxious to find ways to put something back into the dental profession, with emphases on making good some of the deficiencies in undergraduate dental education, encouraging early career dentists to develop their skills and knowledge to better meet the ever-increasing expectations of patients, and to enhance the standing and status of dentistry, both in healthcare in general, and in the eyes of the public.

The creation of the College, intended Royal College of General Dentistry, was a bold move to give oral healthcare professionals the benefits enjoyed by all those in healthcare who have their own independent Royal College – career pathways with recognition of enhanced skills, 

standards set by the profession for the profession, and a community of practice, together with, and very importantly in the case of CGDent, a much-needed, unified voice for the whole of the profession.

Also, I share the vision of the College to elevate the importance of oral health in the eyes of other healthcare professions, politicians and the public. The College initiative was one I identified with and considered worthy of my support, both to get it started and help secure its future.

NW:What are the aims, objectives and aspirations of your Educational Foundation?

TB:My Foundation was created to support recently graduated and early career dentists and therapists to acquire knowledge and skills they were unlikely to have acquired in their undergraduate training, but which are needed to succeed in everyday practice. The focus is on aesthetic dentistry, occlusion and related aspects of periodontal health, all of which are fundamental to contemporary routine dental care.

Given my experience as a part-time clinical teacher and the interactions I have with newly qualified colleagues, I am increasingly concerned by the disconnect between undergraduate curricula and the reality of everyday clinical practice. Graduates who have not been instructed in at least the basics of aesthetic dentistry, underpinned by a detailed knowledge of tooth morphology, and have little if any idea of how to recognise and diagnose occlusal discrepancies, let alone manage them, are destined to run into all sorts of difficulties in the management of patients.

My Foundation cannot reach out to all new graduates, early career dentists and dental therapists, but it is hoped that the activities of the Foundation, specifically its competitions, will encourage much-needed personal development among those embarking on their careers in dentistry, with an emphasis on the importance of interactive, high quality, face-to-face learning. While online learning has a place, and there are many good programs, much of what new graduates and early career oral healthcare professionals access, typically on their phones, is advertorial material, often presented by self-professed experts with limited experience, either lacking an evidence-base, or frankly wrong and potentially harmful to patients. Determining what good quality online learning material is challenging, especially for colleagues transitioning to independent practice.

NW:What is the intended synergy between your Foundation and the College?

TB:The Foundation is an independent body which seeks to work in partnership with other organisations and the dental industry to realise its aims and objectives. The link with the College is intended to introduce new graduates and early career oral healthcare professionals to CGDent, and what the College does and can do for them and the profession.

It is hoped that young colleagues, especially those who benefit from the activities of the Foundation, will appreciate the benefits of membership of the College, with a view, over time, to being recognised as an accomplished practitioner – a Fellow of the College. Young colleagues need to appreciate the value and importance of being part of the forward-looking College – part of the new, increasingly powerful, unified voice for dentistry, contributing to standards set by the profession for the profession, taking advantage of a recognised career pathway, mentoring and much more.

NW:With the need to grow and further develop the College, with one of its immediate, pressing priorities being eligibility for the award of a Royal Charter, what is your message to Fellows who are not yet donors to the College?

TB:The College has achieved a great deal from, in effect, a standing start three years ago, and still has a lot to do to achieve its potential,

let alone operate on a level playing field with the long-established Royal Colleges, which history tells us, benefited from huge support during their development. There is no “something for nothing”. Dentistry must help itself to justify Royal recognition of its own independent college.

NW:With the need to grow and further develop the College, with one of its immediate, pressing priorities being eligibility for the award of a Royal Charter, what is your message to Fellows who are not yet donors to the College?

TB:The College has achieved a great deal from, in effect, a standing start three years ago, and still has a lot to do to achieve its potential,

let alone operate on a level playing field with the long-established Royal Colleges, which history tells us, benefited from huge support during their development. There is no “something for nothing”. Dentistry must help itself to justify Royal recognition of its own independent college.

Rather than apply a development levy to subscriptions, it is better and more powerful to grow by means of voluntary donations. Yes, these are challenging times for colleagues, but it is also a challenging time for our profession, which needs parity with other mainstream healthcare professions, new UK-wide leadership and direction and recognition in general healthcare and in the eyes of the public – all the things the CGDent aims to deliver. This surely is worthy of support, specifically by those the College has recognised as leaders in the field.

NW:Tom, thank you for your views and comments, which I very much hope will be read and taken to heart by both all members of the College and colleagues yet to join CGDent. Thank you also for your tremendous ongoing support of the College, which would not be where it is today without your contribution, nor without the support provided by all existing donors.

For information about future events, please check the Charitable Trust Instagram page.

With the funding available, the foundation cannot provide free education for every early career dentist, but it does aim to promote and deliver education at an affordable price for those with the desire to develop their skills.

Tom was aware that many postgraduate courses are extremely expensive, with fees often reaching the high hundreds if not four figures, making them rarely affordable for newly qualified dentists. So even if they can identify where they need additional education, it is not necessarily accessible to them. This was something Tom wanted the foundation to help counter.

One topic that is rarely touched upon in depth at undergraduate level is Occlusion, and yet the success of any type of restoration is reliant on occlusal harmony for long term success. However, courses on Occlusion are difficult to find, so Tom has set about filling the void. He has convened a panel of eminent dentists with a special interest in this field, who are prepared to donate their time to the foundation and speak at a taster symposium on the subject.

The first Occlusion symposium was held at Kensington Town Hall in London on Saturday 5 April 2025. There was an impressive speaker line-up, including Paul Tipton, Ken Harris, Tif Qureshi, Shiraz Khan, Koray Feran and, of course, Tom himself. Unlike most courses, the registration fee was deliberately set low at £75 to ensure it was affordable. Registration priority was given to early career dentists who qualified between 2019 and 2023.

If the event proves successful, it will be held annually. The foundation is also considering plans to hold the symposium in the north of the country as well as London and to arrange symposiums on other topics at equally low prices.

The symposium is just one initiative organised by the foundation. Its first, run in association with GC and the College of General Dentistry, was an aesthetic restorative case competition for those entering dental foundation training in 2023/24. Fifteen winners each received a fully funded place on a two-day composite layering course at GC’s Education Campus in Belgium. The prize even included international travel, hotel accommodation and meals.

The winners travelled in July this year and found the course to be an invaluable addition to their education, equipping them with a deeper understanding of restorative techniques and other skills. Even entrants who were not successful in the competition told Tom that they had learnt important skills from the application process alone.

Following the success of the inaugural College of General Dentistry-GC award for foundation dentists, the competition is set to be re-launched in early autumn. This time it will expand to include dental therapists as well as dentists who graduated in 2024 or who are enrolled on dental foundation training or dental vocational training in 2024/25.

The competition will also be open to new graduates in the Republic of Ireland as well as the UK. Eighteen winners will travel to Belgium in July 2025. If you want to find out more or enter the 2024/25 award, visit cgdent.uk/cgdent-gc-award/.

Also in the pipeline, with the support of Dentsply Sirona and the College of General Dentistry, the foundation is currently adding the finishing touches to an advanced aesthetic case competition open to dentists who graduated in the UK and the Republic of Ireland between 2020 and 2023, which will allow around 30 winners to attend a two-day course, the details of which are still being finalised. It will hopefully be ready to launch later in the autumn.

In the meantime, to better reflect its target audience, the foundation’s board of trustees has decided to expand and has brought on board four younger dentists. It has welcomed Chris Leech, Karina Kowlaski, Balraj Sohal and Ronan Lee on The Board. They will be working on other projects that are currently in the gestation period.

The foundation warmly welcomes all those in the profession willing to offer their support to its various projects, with a view to expanding its activities in future.

As the foundation gains momentum, it is hoped that it can grow further and extend its reach to ensure more of the dentists of tomorrow are fully equipped with the knowledge and practical skills they need to truly excel in the profession.