“Gentle” Ben Smith qualified in 2001, going on to acquire additional valuable postgraduate skills and experience through hospital and general practice training. During this time period, he developed an interest in helping people with anxieties and phobias related to their dental care, completed his core training in conscious sedation techniques and also gained his MFDS qualification at RCS Edinburgh in 2003.

Ben has worked in General practice and has become involved in research and in carrying out dental treatment on thousands of highly anxious patients using both his gentle manner and further honing his skills in conscious sedation techniques. Ben gained the Diploma in Conscious Sedation from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 2007 and has gone on to provide mentorship, teaching and training to both newly qualified dentists, general dental practitioners and also experienced dental sedationists.

Ben’s ambition has always been to provide the highest level of all-round dental care for every patient – especially those with dental fears. He finds great personal satisfaction in taking the time to enable patients to overcome the barriers to their dental care and transform them from “a quivering wreck” to a confident patient, in control of their own dental health. Having the experienced hands and skills within the team to offer any necessary treatment puts our patients at the centre of their dental care and allows us to look after them as if they were a member of our own family.

Outside of work Ben loves to spend time at home in North Yorkshire or out and about in the Lake District with his wife and two young daughters – looking after their chickens and the family’s nutty boxer dog. He has also been known to appear on stage and to sing and play the guitar – badly!