Throughout 2025, the blogs have involved a wide variety of topics. Some would say that they represent a fairly eclectic range of tastes. As the editorial team for Dental Digest is much smaller than our excellent Surgeons鈥 News, The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh allows the Dental Dean relatively free reign in relation to the Dental Dean blogs. I therefore have the liberty and privilege of writing freely. I guess this is ultimately the prerogative of the blogger. My overall aim is however to make them informative for you, our members. People are usually generous and tell me that they find the monthly blog of interest, and unless someone tells me otherwise, I will keep tapping the keyboard and sharing some of my own thoughts and views on our profession, Faculty, College and wider topics.
The journey to the College earlier this morning was unusually quiet. Momentarily I wondered what was going on and then remembered. It is the start of August and the time of year that a sizeable number of the Edinburgh population escape the city, only for it to be invaded by the good people of the arts for the next three weeks. The seven Edinburgh festivals are now in full swing. Looking out the window from the Dean鈥檚 office overlooking the magnificent gardens, the College has been taken over by the creative and the cultured with music, dance, theatre, comedy, the spoken word, along with every form of performing art. The city is awash with street performers and advertising boards are everywhere. Festivals are big business around the world and whilst I had the pleasure of visiting Adelaide as a Visiting Professor last year, I will have to return at some point to experience the Adelaide Fringe. Also on the list are South by Southwest in Austin (Texas), Las Fallas of Valencia, Festival D'Avignon, France, and Dia de los Muertos. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is however quite simply the biggest arts festival in the world, and I am fortunate that it is on my doorstep, literally.
It strikes me that as an international College, this is a time of the year when the world comes to Edinburgh and not the other way round. Sure, our Diploma Ceremonies are very international, and we welcome so many diverse cultures to the College all through the year, but during festival time, the whole city is filled with the richness of multiple languages and accents, the variety in food available everywhere, as well as the rich tapestry and diversity within the arts.
So, what鈥檚 on at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival you might ask? It has doubled in size this year to over 3,000 performances across 262 venues involving people from 60 countries. 红杏视频 becomes The Space at Surgeons鈥 Hall, venue 53, and will welcome 70,000 visitors across 7 individual performance spaces in 2025. This provides much needed revenue for the College through Surgeons Quarter the College鈥檚 commercial arm, and it is wonderful that the healthcare and arts industries can be juxtaposed.
Mental health is a big theme this year and rightly so. I counted 18 specific performances dedicated to this important subject and following on from my July blog, it is good to see the subject being part of the overall conversation at the Fringe. The show in this genre that catches my eye is 鈥淪ectioned 鈥 Schr枚dinger鈥檚 Mental Health鈥 and I can only imagine the complexities of quantum mechanics that will be under discussion and whether in the end, Schr枚dinger鈥檚 cat survives or not.
Dentistry, oral health and the mouth as ever plays its part in the Fringe this year and I thought I would give you a synopsis of the topics that relate to this aspect. The dental team will be glad to know that smiles and smiling make up an important part of the Fringe with shows such as 鈥淪mile, It Might Never Happen鈥 and 鈥淪mile. The story of Charlie Chaplin鈥 whilst Nina Conti, another comedian runs her very popular show 鈥淲hose face is it anyway鈥 again this year. This promises to be a cracker of a show and somehow, she can make everyone laugh as well as smile. And we even have a stand-up comedy show featuring DIY dentistry at Surgeons鈥 Hall this year. Apparently, the audience should 鈥渂race yourself鈥 for the show called 鈥199 jokes before lunchtime鈥. I will do my best to go to this show, after all, it is in our Prince Philip Building and as an orthodontist, I am always braced. Please note, the 鈥楧ad joke鈥 was intentional.
At a tangent, there are numerous shows about 鈥榯he mouth鈥. There is 鈥淎ll Mouth: Queer Comedy鈥, 鈥淎nja Atkinson: She Thinks She鈥檚 People鈥 who has a potty-mouth show, Miriam Margoyles with a Dickens show billed as 鈥淵ou never know what might come out of her mouth鈥, and several foul-mouthed shows; Daniel Muggleton 鈥淵ou May Be White, I May Be Crazy鈥, Funny Cluckers 鈥淏est of the Fest鈥. An interesting show is by The Provocateurs and features Dr Daphne Loads (The University of Edinburgh) who will explore the histories of words discovering some disturbing truths about the things we say. In the show she asks, is your mouth haunted? It could be interesting.
At a different tangent, the term 鈥渙ral鈥 only appears sparingly this year with an oral history comedy show about one woman鈥檚 interest in pro wrestling. It has nothing to do with the oral cavity, but I thought you might be interested, nonetheless.
Many readers will know that the Faculty of Dental Surgery has been working on the area of head and neck cancer and has been campaigning for the creation of a smokefree generation in the UK. At Surgeons鈥 Hall, there will be a classical comedy show dedicated to this topic 鈥淥n the Harmful Effects of Tobacco鈥 and proposes to be an interesting event where in delivering a lecture on the impact of smoking on health, we will discover a deeply hurt man laying bare his unhappiness and his failed dreams during the many digressions.
There are many other shows with overt links to the world of dentistry and others that are quite distant. There are performances that are funny, clever and those that belong in the gutter, but always seem to draw an audience. For the surgeons 鈥淐onfessions of a Lunatic鈥 proves to be interesting and asks 鈥榓re you ready for your brain surgery?鈥 on a serious note, the University of Glasgow Rector Ghassan Abu-Sittah who is a surgeon, tells his story of working in conflict zones in the Middle East and promises to be an interesting, but challenging performance.
I have always enjoyed the buzz around Edinburgh during August and have participated every year. Whilst I won鈥檛 get round enough of the performances as I cannot forget my clinical, academic and 红杏视频 duties, there is something for everyone. Later this month, I also travel to Kuala Lumpur for a series of engagements including our Malaysia Diploma Ceremony and the official opening of our new office in Putrajaya. August is therefore a contrast of cultures for me and while I am limited in the amount of time I can spend at the Fringe, I will be there enjoying the smorgasbord of shows.
If you would like to get in touch about anything relating to the Faculty of Dental Surgery or to let me know about an interesting show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, please get in contact dental@rcsed.ac.uk.