Retired prosthodontist and Charles Sturt University (CSU) Associate Professor Tony Dawson has had a diverse dentistry career that encompasses military, civil private specialist practice and roles in academia.
He has been involved in providing continuing professional development courses for dentists at ADA NSW CPD in the field of his specialty, and more specifically in his special interest of risk assessment and management in implant dentistry.
Dr Dawson started his working career in the military in the Australian Royal Air Force from January 1981 through to 1997 – an invaluable experience.
He looks back on this time fondly where he worked in a range of roles including Dental Officer, Senior Dental Officer and Director of Dental Services – Air Force.
💬 “It was a great way to start in my career,” he said of the experience working as a dentist in our defence forces.
“There was lots of work for dentists in the 1980s with a high prevalence of caries among the population and
there was plenty of dental disease to treat. We aimed for optimal treatment outcomes.
“There were plenty of uniformed dental officers back then and there’s much fewer now. It was very much the
halcyon days of defence force health services.”
🟡 After his time in the defence forces, Dr Dawson started a prosthodontics practice in Canberra in the late ‘90s. He built up his practice as implants became a growing market in Canberra. He was the first prosthodontist in the nation’s capital.
🥼 Currently, he is Associate Professor in Prosthodontics and Head of Discipline (Dentistry) in the Centre for Rural Dentistry and Oral Health at CSU Orange campus.
He is the Year 5 Coordinator and is also the subject coordinator for subjects that comprise the Graduate Diploma in Dental Implantology.
🌏 Globally, he has presented lectures throughout Australasia, in North America and Europe, on topics related to complex restorative dentistry, and implant dentistry.
“I have always enjoyed teaching,” he said. “Training and mentoring were important skills for ADF leaders and this evolved for me into a passion for sharing skills and knowledge.
“You teach because you want to do it and I have done it for so long and now it’s become part of my personality.
“CSU has recently established the Centre for Rural Dentistry and Oral Health and the DNA of this place is preparing dental professionals for a practising life in a rural community.
“If you train students in rural areas you give them a taste of rural life then they are more inclined to stay in that area. CSU dental graduates are now quite commonly found at practices across regional Australia.
“Getting dentists to remote areas is still a challenge. Our outreach clinic in Brewarrina gives our students a great experience of remote Australia and an exposure to health care for some of our most disadvantaged citizens – Indigenous members of our community.
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💬 “We’re hoping to increase the number of visits to Brewarrina to improve access to oral health care in this region which has very little access otherwise. I think the Royal Flying Doctors Service can visit, but it’s not regular.”
🔵 Dr Dawson was the principal Editor and author of The SAC Classification in Implant Dentistry published in 2009 and used widely as a framework for implant dentistry education. This was recently updated, and the second edition of this work was published at the end of last year.
🟡 His work was recently recognised at the ITI Annual General Meeting (AGM) 2022 in Rome in April. The International Team for Implantology (ITI) is an international not-for-profit organisation that promotes and conducts education and research in implant dentistry and related tissue regeneration.
🔵 Dr Dawson was one of the first recipients to be presented with the new ITI Distinguished Achievement Award. This award is presented to professionals, within or outside ITI, who have made a strong and enduring contribution to either a specific milestone topic in implant dentistry or a particular ITI project. He is a Fellow of the ITI, a former Chairman of the ITI Australasian Section, and is on the Editorial Board of the ITI Online Academy.
