Formed officially in January 1921, the Royal Army Dental Corps has taken care of the British Army’s dental health for a century, whether in barracks or on active operations. There are, however, 260 years between the establishment of what we recognise as today’s British Army and the establishment of its dental corps. During that period, the Army, British society and the medical professions underwent significant changes.

In this talk, Colonel Quentin Anderson will look at some of these changes in relation to the Army’s dental needs and its provision for oral healthcare. He will look at some of the indicators and external pressures for change in the Army’s oral healthcare provision along with examples of resistance and delays to these changes, as well as some of their resulting military and civilian consequences.

Quentin Anderson studied Dentistry at Birmingham University. His career in the British Army included overseas postings to Germany, Hong Kong, the Gulf states (Operation Granby) and the former Yugoslavia (Operation Grapple). He was later appointed Head of Research at the Headquarters of the Defence Dental Agency, where he was promoted to colonel.

Colonel Anderson has been an honorary Senior Research Fellow of the Eastman Dental Institute, is a past president of the Section of Odontology of the Royal Society of Medicine and was, for ten years, a member of the Executive Committee of the Section of Defence Forces Dental Services of the International Dental Federation. Since retirement, he has continued his membership of various civilian professional bodies, has been a trustee of the Museum of Military Medicine and in 2015 was appointed as a Colonel Commandant RADC.

From the Teeth a Sword