Some blogs that I read, maybe you'll enjoy them too.

I just thought I would put up a list of some blogs that I read, find interesting and enjoy. You may not of seen them but I hope you will take a look and read them.


Firstly, some dental blogs, in no particular order.


The Azimuth Dental Blog
Chris Barrow's Blog 
Mark Oborn's Blog 
The Inci Dental Blog
Oliver's Dental Studio Blog
Laura Horton Consulting Blog


As a newsworthy blog, I follow the Helmand Blog written by Major Paul Smyth, he is also on Twitter at @mediaops.


Helmand Blog


Finally if you are into TV and maybe following some TV reviews, fashion and style comments I would recommend New TV critics blog, written by my lovely wife, Rebecca. She is also on twitter and you can follow her at @newtvcritic.


New TV Critics Blog 


Hope these are interesting to you.

This is a must see film!

Went to the cinema yesterday, and saw Kick-ass, it is a brilliant film.


This is a superb film, great and amazing action and one of the best "super-hero" films I've seen. It has brilliant action and fight scenes, cool characters, snappy dialogue and laugh out loud moments. A few ideas were borrowed from Leon, but a great way to spend a Friday afternoon.


This is the trailer on you tube, warning it is occasionally a bit sweary and violent!

Back to the realities of work.

Just reached the end of a pretty busy week in work. Dentistry has been enjoyable, it has been great repairing, restoring and building new smiles for my patients. I've managed to fit some high quality laboratory work and I've been pleased with the results I've achieved.


My biggest gripe is the end of year chase for UDA's. Three years ago a new contract was introduced into NHS dentistry, we agreed to provide a certain number of UDAs each year for twelve equal payments from our NHS masters. Working with this contract for three years now I can see that it is pretty much unworkable, with all the advantages being given to the government, fortunately we tend to see only children under the NHS but the impact of the contract is still significant. Unfortunately due to various factors that have occurred over the year it appears that I will fall short on my performance target again. Its not that I have done anything different in terms of treatment planning, I possibly have missed more work-time this year due to the cancellations of my operation, I think in all this has equated to 3.5 weeks. Also the turn of the year was affected by adverse weather and we probably had a higher number of cancellations and failures due to the weather. My shortfall is equivalent to just under a month of work, I wonder when our annual review occurs whether our local PCT will make any allowances for these factors. To be honest probably not.


On a more positive note, I have several interesting cases  in the pipeline, I will try to document these both in words and pictures and if the patients are willing, to display the results here.


So roll on the weekend, hopefully the weather will improve.

The weekend gone and the week ahead!

I enjoyed a restful weekend after a busy week in work. Sunday brought us a stunning day and I spent the day with Rebecca, Barney and the family on a long walk from Budleigh to Otterton Mill and back. It was the first truly spring like day of the year, the sun was out and it was pleasantly warm.We had lunch at Otterton Mill , lunch was brilliant the menu was good and the food was filling and just what we needed after a three mile walk.


By the time we walked back to the cars we had almost walked six miles, I was impressed Barney made it around the circuit, he enjoyed himself out in the sun but he knackered by the time we got home. He hasn't even woken me up the last two mornings!


For all of Barney's fans out there here is a picture of him with his Mummy and our niece.

The week back at Spicer Road has been busy, seeing my patients has been a pleasure and some patients have presented with some complex problems that need repairing. I'm looking forward to solving these problems and repairing the smiles for these patients. I also had the chance to review one of my smile makeover cases today and my patient was still overjoyed with the results that we achieved. Two years in and the result still looks great. I really enjoy this kind of dental work, I just wish I could do it more often. It is really satisfying when you can get great results like this.

Rugby and Birthdays

Last weekend I visited my family in Wales. I had an excellent drive to Cardiff, the roads were quiet and traffic reasonably light. It was the first time I'd visited my family back home in about a month.

Saturday afternoon, Dad and I settled down to watch the 6 Nations rugby. Unfortunately Wales lost to Ireland. A foolish sin binning in the first half left Wales without Lee Byrne for 10 minutes gifting Ireland the chance to open up an unassailable lead. Once again I felt the game lacked excitement, with territorial kicking dominating. This is my one great criticism of rugby this season, the amount of kicking bores me, and large passages of play pass with both teams playing aerial tennis. I don't remember rugby being like this in the past, the 6 Nations used to be a big event in my Winter Sport's calendar, it may be dropping down my list of must watch sports.

The main reason though for the trip to Wales was to celebrate my Dad's 75th birthday and my niece Zoe's forth birthday. Our family went out for a meal and they both celebrated with a joint party. We all had a wonderful evening! Many happy returns to both my Dad and Zoe!!

A weekend walk.

Another weekend gone. Anyway, yesterday I took advantage of a glorious day and went for a long walk in Topsham with Barney our puppy. The sun was out, it was beautifully clear if a little cold. So I thought I'd take a chance and publish some photos I took. It was a great chance to take some photos with my digital SLR and do a little bit of editing with aperture.


Hope you like these.

Spring has so far been beautiful if a little cold!

Newer pictures of Barney!

Took these a couple of weeks ago. Our puppy is growing up!