Jen's Portrait by Alan Coulson

For those who are not fb friends, here is the photo-realistic, oil portrait of our daughter by the artist, Alan Coulson. As with all of his work, the detail is astonishing. The artist has exhibited at The National Portrait gallery in the BP National Portrait Prize.  Zoom in the check the detail!

My huge thanks to Chris Charon RDN

Here is a huge thanks to my wife of 36 years Chris Charon RDN for so many reasons, these are the professional ones! ….

Chris qualified as a Dental Nurse at The Manchester Dental Hospital in the days of starched uniforms, belts, badges and hats!

Her experience includes included hospital and community general anaesthetic (GA) nursing,  NHS General practice in Manchester and later moving south her experiences included assisting in general dental practice with intubated GA, in the days when it was permitted, and IV sedation administered by medical anaesthetists. She took charge of the patient journey from pre-appointment discussion, to post-sedation recovery and post-visit patient liason and still does.

Chris gained her certificate as Dental Sedation Nursing in 2003 and has been the "2^nd “appropriately trained person” for me, undertaking IV sedation, to monitor and care for these patients and liase with their escorts, all the way to accompanying the recovered patient off the premises to the escort’s waiting car.

She has now had 43 years under that dental nurses belt, from starting her hospital training at the age of 16, registering with the GDC as soon as this became possible.

Chris has over 23 years taken the role of senior DN and practice manager in our boutique private practice in Newbury, Berkshire and for the time being continues these roles with the new practice owner.

In her role as a senior DN she has tutored many dental nurses from scratch through to qualification and registration with 100% success rate over many years (to date).

As a multi-tasking “4-bagger”, Chris is the practice receptionist, manager, administrator and constructs my treatment plan letters from clinical notes, radiographs and clinical images

Finally she has been a mainstay on every “RA” course we have run together since 2003, ensuring the smooth running of the day from set-up, through the practical demonstrations and patient video sessions to interacting with and participating in discussions, offering the benefit of her depth of experience, to dentists, DCPs and Dental nurses alike. 

There surely cannot be too many people in dental community to have brought such a depth of experience to the roles she has taken on.

Did I mention her journeys with me through coaching and marketing? 

3 years with Chris Barrow, one year with Simon Hocken and over two years with Mark Oborn. 

There isn’t too much she has not seen and done in the realm of general practice. She knows her KPIs from her BMWs that's for sure.

Chris is an all round star, a wonderful wife, mum and now “Nanny” too.

Thank you Chris – you are my best friend and truly the love of my life (I don’t want to get too gooey here!)