Back in 1977, my role as a hospital-based dentist was limited to repairing broken dentures, placing the odd temporary filling on a ward, and the occasional extraction in the operating theatres.

Now we have a fully functional dental department and participate in weekly multidisciplinary team meetings for head and neck cancer.

We screen prospective heart and lung transplant patients, work closely with our geriatric medicine unit, and provide dedicated services for the local homeless and those with mental health and drug/alcohol addiction issues.

Our emergency department has accepted our recommendation that all brain CTs, when ordered for acute delirium, are extended inferiorly beyond the level of C2 to include imaging of maxillary and mandibular teeth.