ORTHODONTIC TECHNICIANS ASSOCIATION - Key Persons
Bill qualified in Liverpool and worked in general practice before moving into the hospital service. After posts in Merseyside and the West Midlands, he ended up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne where he has been a Consultant at the Dental Hospital for over a decade.
He has been involved with the training of dental students, postgraduate specialists, orthodontic therapists, laboratory technicians and has been the programme director for the orthodontic nursing course. In 2018 he was awarded Membership of the Faculty of Dental Trainers. He is an examiner for Newcastle University and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
Bill has also served on committees to promote the profession with roles including the Vice-chair of the BDA Central Committee for Hospital Dental Services, Chair of the Northern BDA Hospital Group, South Birmingham BDA Branch Chairman, Chair of the Training Grades Group of the BOS, Treasurer of the BOS University Teachers Group and now, for the OTA.
Realising that his life revolved too much around work, Bill recently decided to go part-time. And ended up with more work in specialist practice! Fortunately, he still has time to enjoy Argentine Tango and to prepare for the yearly Great North Run.
Job Titles:
- Member of the OTA
- OTA Secretary
James is a maxillofacial and dental laboratory manager at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust, Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust and the North Thames Cleft Centre, a supra-regional service for patients based in north London, Essex and south and west Hertfordshire.
He trained as a dental technician at Barts and the London, Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry in association with Lambeth College and qualified in 2001. Following a vocational training year at the Royal London Hospital, he spent the following two years at the Eastman Dental Hospital, part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Trust, before joining Great Ormond Street in 2004.
James has written or co-written articles for journals including the Annals of Plastic Surgery, the Angle Orthodontist, the British Dental Journal and the Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal and is an invited speaker both nationally and internationally. He was also a lecturer at Lambeth College, where he taught the orthodontic units for the Higher National Certificate (HNC) Dental Technology course.
James has been a member of the OTA council since 2006, where he served as treasurer between 2007 and 2016. Last year he returned to the executive committee when he was elected secretary.
Jennifer qualified as a dental technician in 2011 from Edinburgh's Telford college and subsequently earned her advanced qualification in orthodontics. She started her career working as an orthodontic /prosthodontic technician in Leca Dental Laboratory, one of the largest dental labs in the UK. In February 2016 she moved to the Oral Facial Laboratory in Crosshouse University Hospital, Kilmarnock where she worked as a Specialist Orthodontic/Restorative prosthodontic technician. In April 2020 she was awarded an MSc in Dental Technology at Cardiff Metropolitan University then in July 2020 she moved to the Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert where she now works as a Highly Specialist Chief Orthodontic Technician and is the Laboratory Manager.
Jennifer Dunnett runs her own business JD Denta Care in Edinburgh.
She qualified from Edinburgh's Telford college with an advanced certificate in orthodontics and since qualifying has worked and volunteered in a variety of different commercial laboratories along with working full-time in one of Edinburgh's leading orthodontic practices.
As an independent commercial technician, she feels she can bring a realistic outlook to the council without prejudice.
Job Titles:
- Treasurer
- Member of the OTA
Kerry Lancaster has been a member of the OTA for many years and served in various roles on the committee including secretary and newsletter editor. Kerry trained at Brooklands College in Surrey and qualified as an Orthodontic Technician in 1991. She has worked in both commercial laboratories and the NHS sectors. She has taught part-time at Lambeth college and has worked at the Eastman Dental Institute, UCL in London since 1995 as Chief Instructor.
Job Titles:
- Principal
- OTA Membership Secretary
Kirsty is a principal maxillofacial prosthetist/deputy manager based in the Oral Facial Laboratory, University Hospital Crosshouse, Kilmarnock, Scotland. Kirsty qualified as a Dental Technician in 2002 from Glasgow's Langside College.
Len Bradshaw became the first chairman and Bert Aldridge the first secretary. Other committee members included P. Chittenden, H. Close, J. Ford, J. Griffin and H. Haringman.