The winners of the 2025 Max Horsnell Travel Award and National Student Elective prize have been announced by the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry (BSPD).

The annual awards recognise vision and endeavour in the field of paediatric dentistry. These BSPD prizes are awarded each year following a judging process that is overseen by three members of BSPD’s Conference Abstract and Prize Committee (CAPC).

Zahraa Maiter from the Royal London Dental Hospital, Barts NHS Trust, was the winner of the BSPD Max Horsnell Travel Award 2025.

Zahraa’s paper entitled, ‘Evaluation of intravenous sedation service in paediatric dentistry: A London hospital experience’, explored intravenous sedation for young people having dental care. The evaluation assessed the quality and scope of a newly introduced intravenous sedation service for paediatric patients aged between 12 and 16. The paper concluded that there are areas for improvement, such as streamlining administrative processes, refining clinical record proformas, and promoting referrals to dental clinical psychology services. This evaluation also indicates that intravenous sedation could be a potential method to reduce general anaesthesia waiting lists.

The award provides a travel bursary to support members (excluding consultants and equivalent academic grades) who wish to present a poster or oral communication at scientific meetings of the European Academy of Paediatric Dentistry or the International Association of Paediatric Dentistry. A prize of £500 is given towards travel costs to relevant dentistry conferences per annum.

National Student Elective Prize

Faizaan Rafiq and his team won the BSPD National Student Elective Prize 2025.

The competition was open to BSPD student members who are intending to undertake an elective project within the year. Students submitted a summary of a maximum of 250 words, describing their proposed elective project involving the dental health of children. The winning student submits a short report on their elective project once completed. A prize of £300 is then awarded to support the student’s elective project.

Faizaan and his team (Beshaar Al-Khayat, Megan Cottrell, Jessica Mannion and Rohan McMillan), from the University of Dundee submitted their winning elective project entitled, ‘Tiktok: Encouraging “tooth-talk” in teens’. The initiative is designed to promote positive dental habits through the creation of informative TikTok videos, covering essential topics like oral hygiene routine, diet, and trauma.

Chris Vernazza, chair of the BSPD’s CAPC, said, “Yet again, the BSPD judging team were tasked with the tough decision of choosing a winner from the line-up of excellent entries to both awards this year. Zahraa’s winning ‘Evaluation of intravenous sedation service’ entry stood out as an excellent evaluation of a new area of practice for her hospital. Whilst Faizaan and team have striven to popularise knowledge by utilising current TikTok trends, combining education and entertainment.

“When judging entries, the focus for the panel is always on seeking initiatives that show vision, but that are also grounded in practical solutions that will help children receive preventative and treatment-based care. I can speak for the whole panel when I say that we were extremely impressed by the purpose and creativity of both initiatives. Congratulations to all!”

Author: