Raman Bedi

Professor Raman Bedi was the Chief Dental Officer of England from 1 October 2002 to 1 October 2005, after which he returned to his professorship at King's College London. BDS (Bristol), MSc (Manchester), DDS and DSc (Bristol), FDSRCS (Edinburgh and England), MFGDP(UK), FPHM

He has recently been asked to establish the Global Child Dental Health Taskforce. The mission of the taskforce is to support governments on how they can improve children’s oral health. In 2006 it was working in 9 countries and by 2008 will expand this to 30. Each year it will influence the message to children and parents within national oral health programmes that will reach out to 500 million children and parents. In April 2006 Colgate Palmolive announced to the New York Stock Exchange that their 200th Anniversary gift to children worldwide was the global taskforce

Professor Bedi is based at King's College London and also holds an honorary chair at University College London where he is a co-director of a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre (1998-present). He has held honorary professorships with a number of overseas universities and has examined and lectured in over 40 countries.

He is the past President of the British Society for Disability and Oral Health (2002), President of the Education Research Group of the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) (2002-2004) and chair of the IADR Regional Development Programme Committee (2002-2004). He has published over 170 scientific papers and 4 books.

As Chief Dental Officer he led a team which helped support the passage of three major pieces of legislation; Health and Social Care Act (dental clauses) 2004, Water Act (Fluoridation) 2004 and the Section 60 (2005) order reforming the General Dental Council. In addition he was a member of the DH/NHS Top Team and Founding member of the National Health and Social Care leadership network.

He chaired the English Dental Workforce review (2004) and completed its implementation targets in October 2005, namely increasing the primary care workforce by 5% net and a 25% increase in dental undergraduates. He led the reform process of the prison dental service and chaired the strategic group which reformed the Salaried Dental Service. For 3 years he led the reform of NHS primary dental care and was the Department of Health sponsor for the Dental Practice Board and Dental Vocational Training Authority.

Professor Bedi has extensive experience in the voluntary sector, being the trustee/council member of several charities. He was an elected member of the General Synod of the Church of England (1995-2005) and chaired the Archbishop’s Council (Church of England) Urban and Community Affairs Committee (1996-2001). He is a Board member of the Higher Education Leadership Foundation, Member of the HE National mentoring scheme for senior staff and a Member of the HEFCE Strategic Committee for Wider Participation. In 2003 he was given the Asian Guild award and the Asian Jewel award. In 2005 he placed on the front cover of the Asian Power 100 and awarded the USA Public Health service medal.

He is married with 3 children.