Teesside dentist, Paul Averley, has been appointed as a member of the General Dental Council (GDC) with effect from 1 February 2012.
Mr Averley is a primary care general dental practitioner based in Billingham on Teesside.
For the last 15 years, Mr Averley has been involved in establishing conscious sedation services in primary care to reduce dependency on hospital based general anaesthesia.
As a consequence of his interest in sedation Paul has been involved with drawing up national guidance on conscious sedation, working with both a Standing Dental Advisory Committee working party on Conscious Sedation and more recently a Guidance Development Group for NICE.
Since 2004, he has been a Trustee and Board Member of the Society for the Advancement of Anaesthesia in Dentistry (SAAD) and is now involved with a SAAD working group supporting a paediatric based conscious sedation PhD.
In addition Paul is a member of the SAAD editorial Board for the Journal of Conscious Sedation.
Mr Averley joins a Council of 24, which is made up of 12 lay and 12 professional members. The role of the Council is to ensure the GDC fulfills its key purpose of protecting the public through effective regulation of dental professionals in the UK.
Mr Averley was appointed following a nationwide recruitment exercise, conducted by the Appointments Commission. He fills a seat left vacant by the resignation of Alison Lockyer, in May 2011.
