Academy Author Profile

Stephen Barter BDS MSurgDent RCS Specialist in Oral Surgery

Stephen has enjoyed a long and varied career in the dental profession spanning over 38 years since qualifying from Guys in 1985 and including clinical practice, practice ownership, education and lecturing both nationally and internationally, published research, authoring of book chapters and ITI Treatment Guide 9, and remains an editor for the TG series from TG11 onwards. He has experience in the fields of systems and process design, regulation and compliance, risk management, and in the commercial operational realm, having helped steer Bupa through the Covid pandemic.

After postgraduate training in both oral surgery and orthodontics, he became involved in implants with Straumann in 1993, immediately becoming an ITI Member. He was elected as an ITI Fellow in 2002. He was one of the first to gain the MSurgDent (now MOralSurg) and enter the Specialist List in Oral Surgery in 2000.

After a period working as a Specialist in a general practice in which he was a partner, Stephen opened Perlan Multidisciplinary Specialist Centre in 2007, one of the first truly referral-only based multidisciplinary teams in the UK. With a team of other specialists in prosthodontics, periodontics, endodontics, and admitting rights at a nearby private hospital he spent what he feels are the best 15 years of his clinical career working with some of the best clinicians and support staff in the UK on implant cases of all levels of complexity.

Stephen has also spent ten years as Lecturer and Specialist in the Department of Periodontology at the Eastman Dental Institute and then another seven as Hon. Senior Lecturer and Consultant, Centre for Oral Immunobiology & Regenerative Medicine and Centre for Oral Clinical Research, Barts & The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL).

He continues to be a Unit Lead and internal examiner for Bristol University on the MSc in Dental Implantology.

His long association with the ITI has included sitting as UK and Ireland Section Chairman from 2005-2009, serving on ITI Centre Committees in Basel, sitting on scientific panels and Consensus Conferences, writing Online Academy modules, and developing the ITI Study Club, with total commitment to the ITI philosophy.

He has for some time been a Senior ITI Fellow and attributes a long and successful career in implant surgery in large part to the education, support, research, and guidance of the ITI both in the early days of his career and indeed throughout his clinical life.

Stephen was until recently Head of Clinical Operations for Bupa Dental Care for four years, giving him experience and insight into operating a dental organisation of over 450 practices and laboratories with more than 5000 staff, and of working in the health insurance field.

He is currently Head of Professional Standards for Bupa Dental Care, enjoying working with many professional stakeholders, regulators, indemnifiers and longstanding colleagues.

When he does manage to take time out, his passion is in racing sailplanes (gliders) and he enjoys photography, woodworking, and cycling.