Dental practice established
16th June 1935
Miss Jean Suttie set up the original practice in the home of her parents at 1425 Pollokshaws Road, a detached cottage opposite Shawlands station. Her father was a french polisher, based in Kilmarnock Road. Operating from the ground floor back room, one of the front rooms functioning as a waiting room, the family lived in the rest of the house. She kept a few cats, who milled around the practice while she worked, often in the surgery.
First Labour government
5th July 1945
The first majority Labour government came to power in an electoral landslide victory; promising full employment, a cradle-to-grave welfare state and above all – a National Health Service.
The birth of the National Health Service
5th July 1948
The NHS was established in 1948 and from the outset, dental treatment, like medical care, was free of charge to all patients. Until then dental treatment for most people was largely for pain relief and this would almost invariably mean extractions, often by general anaesthetic.
The MacDonald and Davidson Era
30th December 1979
Incumbent associates Ian MacDonald and Brian Davidson bought the practice from George Morton.
Level one accreditation
28th May 2004
In May 2004 we were proud to announce that we were one of the first practices to be awarded level one accreditation for the standard of care offered at Shawlands Dental Practice. The Extra reported: “THESE staff members at Shawlands Dental Practice were celebrating after being awarded the inaugural Quality in Dental Practice award. Shawlands was one of just two dental care centres to achieve the recent accolade, established last year by Greater Glasgow Primary Care NHS Trust.”
First Website Launch
28th June 2004
Gerard Boyle takes a keen interest in technological advances and sets about registering the domain name shawlandsdentalpractice.com and building the website himself. Patients would often say to him, ‘I like your website!’ – ‘Really? I did it myself’, would be the proud response. Like they’d never guessed!
Investors in People
6th December 2004
In December 2004 we rounded off a busy year for the Practice by achieving the Investors in People standard.
ChildSmile
20th March 2007
Shawlands Dental Practice was selected for the national pilot of ChildSmile in 2006. Pauline and Shona both completed the Royal Society for Promotion of Health Foundation Certificate in Oral Health in 2007 and were instrumental in establishing ChildSmile oral health promotion sessions in the practice, for parents with young children.