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Frank came to the practice the other day to meet up and chat about dentistry and stuff.

I only met Frank a couple of weeks ago for the first time, I was speaking at the DFT conference in Leeds and he had a stand at the back.

Frank Neville was a legend in dentistry that I have been aware of for some time, but our paths never crossed.

His family had been making dental extraction instruments since 1926. They’re based in Sheffield, where stainless steel was invented.

The company was started by Franks dad, who actually properly invented the “eagle beaks” which will be known by anybody who knows anything about taking teeth out.

While I was at the front, getting my stuff ready to speak to a big room of people, the lady who was organising the conference, said “please will you go and speak to that man over there, he wants to speak to you”.

I'd realised it was Frank, I’ve heard about him for years and I have never gotten around to speaking to him.

Frank is 79 years old and has worked in the dental instruments industry for more than 60 years. He is the last in line and no one else in his family will be taking over after him! We had a laugh and we spoke about dental instruments and surgery; he had watched the first lecture that I had provided, but he couldn’t wait for the second one which was oral surgery.

I took his card and we contacted him and asked him if he could come to the practice (he still travels to see his customers), on Monday he turned up with his suitcase, it's beautiful, hundreds of thousands of miles in years of exhibiting beautiful surgical instruments, which are effectively handmade or hand shaped.

I invited Matt (our intern and final year dental student) to sit in with Frank and I and we spoke about surgery stuff.

It was like kids in a sweet shop.

I grew up using a Howarth’s, for the younger guys it’s an ENT elevator, when I thought I was clever I moved on to a Pritchard’s, this was about the time that instruments started to be made specifically for oral surgery and they were not just stolen from ENT and other specialties.

Remember that I was still in the age group who were using sterilised spoons in theatre to retract tongues (not a joke).

Oral surgery quickly moved on and combined with a consumer and it was delightful to chat to Frank about the development of the busser, which he did not know the background for. Imagine me teaching somebody that was 79.

We spoke about the designs of malleable retractors, so that you could fold them into shape in a large order started to take shapes.

The most amazing thing is that Franks dad invented the eagle beak and I had no idea about that. These are some of the most functional, most useful forceps in the world (particularly if you know how to use them properly) and we were able to talk about that.

The most important part of the meeting though and really the purpose of it over all, was to see whether Frank could custom make me some instruments that I had been thinking about for a long time, for sinus grafting.

I had to make Frank promise that he would continue to work for another 10 years and once he had done so, we arranged to send photographs and drawing of the ideas I have for sinus lift instruments that I think would be ideal, particularly for my style of operating.

So, we enter a project now, which is an utter joy.

It was wonderful to meet Frank and wonderful to speak to him and wonderful to see Matt’s face as we spoke to each other, with such enthusiasm about the tools of our trade.

I explained to Frank that my dad was a motor mechanic and that every Friday the Snap-On van would appear at the garage and all of the mechanic’s including the apprentices, would spend some of their wages on a new tool each week.

I don’t see tonnes of dentists doing that!

One of the definitions of a self-employed tradesman would be that they would buy their own tools.

It’s more than that though, it’s a love of work and therefor a love of the instruments.

I’ll remember our meeting with Frank for a long time and I hope that we can work together now to produce something which will be lasting. A legacy, something that will allow us to show other people how to use it.

I felt like a surgeon the other day, properly, honestly, more than I have perhaps for a long while.

It was a joy.

“If I were a poet, but then again no, or a man who makes potions in a travelling show” – Elton John

 I am neither of those things, but I am a surgeon, I can’t play the guitar, so my instruments are made of steel.

Blog Post Number - 2069