The Tom Bereznicki Charitable Educational Foundation was established in 2023 with a mission to inspire early career dental professionals to reach their maximum clinical potential. Since then, in collaboration with the College of General Dentistry and other partners, the Foundation has provided an impressive range of free and heavily discounted educational opportunities for students and early career practitioners.
Its initiatives include a programme of nation-wide clinical awards which provide successful candidates with fully funded training. It has organised a series of symposia featuring expert-led sessions on aspects of occlusion and pink aesthetics, and a new clinical skills award for Dental Therapists and Dental Hygienists, as well as a series of free CPD webinars designed to support those starting out in practice, are set to launch very soon!
To date, the Foundation has provided over 50 fully funded places on high-quality training courses to their successful award candidates. Dr Jarmima Uddin, who was a winner in the inaugural CGDent and GC Award for Foundation Trainees and the Tom Bereznicki Award for Advanced Aesthetic Dentistry, described the impact of her success: “I felt more confident applying for private practices because I had more clinical experience in providing certain types of dentistry, and that was purely down to winning these competitions… if I hadn’t had that experience, I don’t think I’d be in the position I am now so early in my career.”
Charity founder, Dr Tom Bereznicki, explained what compelled him to set up the Foundation: “I have been increasingly concerned by the disconnect between undergraduate curricula and the reality of contemporary clinical practice. I created my Foundation to give recently qualified colleagues the opportunity to attain the knowledge and skills they are unlikely to have acquired in their undergraduate training, but which are needed to succeed in everyday practice.”
The Foundation has two clinical skills competitions currently open for dentists who qualified between 2020 and 2024. The Tom Bereznicki Award for Advanced Aesthetic Dentistry, open until Monday 8 June, provides up to 23 successful candidates with fully funded training in digital dentistry. The inaugural Tom Bereznicki Award for Tooth Wear Cases, which is open until Monday 10 August, offers fully funded training in the composite injection moulding technique to up to 20 successful entrants.
In addition, the Foundation is hosting the one-day Introduction to Occlusion Symposium, in Manchester on Saturday 24 October 2026.
The symposium, which is led by six renowned speakers, was held in London and Edinburgh last year, and was described by delegates as ‘eye-opening’, ‘inspirational’ and ‘the best day course I have been on’. The Foundation still has a few free places left for students – first-come, first-served! A huge discount is offered to early career practitioners who pay just £90 for the day, and other dental professionals can take advantage of an early bird discount, which is available until 26 May.
To find out more about these opportunities and more, visit cgdent.uk/early-careers
