Wilfred Fish lecture

It is a great honour to be invited to deliver this lecture in memory of Sir Wilfred Fish, first President of the General Dental Council. I am only too well aware of my unfitness for the task: my experience of dentistry is limited to the dental chair; my knowledge of dental law is virtually nil. I trust that Sir Wilfred would not disapprove. His contribution to dentistry was enormous; his labours ensured that dentistry received both the independent recognition it merits and its own regulatory framework, freed from any sort of subservience to medicine.