Dentist Alastair Hetherington returned home to Marlborough this week – to fill in the gap at the Savernake Forest Dental Practice caused by the retirement last month of 66-year-old Tony Russell after 43 years as a dentist, 23 of them in the town.
Alastair, who is 26, grew up in Ogbourne Maizey and went to St Mary’s, St Peter’s and St John’s schools before training to become a dentist, like Tony, at Bristol University, and is also bearded like him.
He was one of only five people in his year to gain BDS Honours for achieving merit and distinction marks in all his exams and was also awarded the Densply Prize for Oral Medicine.
And his return to work at Savernake, which has some 8,000 patients since the state of the art practice was launched by Jonathan Taylor and Judith Denning in 2011, coincided with the announcement of major research at King’s College, London, likely to change dental techniques in years to come.
This is the discovery of ways of using electricity to encourage teeth to repair themselves by stimulating calcium and phosphate ions and, eventually, dramatically reduce the need for drills, injections and fillings.
“This could really make a difference,” Alastair told Marlborough News Online. “But it will take a few years to become mainstream. So we will still need patients to have regular check ups.”
Meanwhile, Alastair is delighted to be back on home territory. “I made – and still have – many of my best friends in Marlborough, including my fiancée, Francesca,” he said.
“I am enjoying returning to such a lovely part of the world after having a few years away in the busy cities of Bristol and Bath. It is great to see so many familiar faces. And to meet new faces also.
“I am very lucky to have inherited from Tony Russell the largest list of patients who regard their dentist as their friend. I am looking forward to many happy years to come at Savernake.”
Alastair’s experience has included working in the oral surgery department at Bath’s Royal United Hospital on procedures for removing difficult teeth and impacted wisdom teeth, which gained him membership of the joint dental faculties of the Royal College of Surgeons.
“I have also recently been to Tanzania with the charity Bridge2Aid, where I spent 10 days training rural clinical officers in how to diagnose dental problems and remove teeth safely,” he explained.
He enjoys sports in his spare time, among them skiing and mountain biking, and last year ran in the Paris marathon, an event he hopes to take part in again.
“I am really looking forward to working as part of the Savernake team and getting to know my patients,” Alastair added.
