23 years of Monty Alan Montgomery of Dentsply reviews his 23 years in the trade

Well, when I was asked to write about my 23 years in dentistry, how things have changed and some of the highlights, I thought how can you put it into words!

Although 23 years sounds a long time in the trade, I know many others who have done at least 40 years and more, so the longevity of being in the dental industry can't be a bad thing.

I joined dentistry after 20 years in the rag trade ("I am a Qualified Corsetiere, you know", has always been used as one of my best chat up lines, as witnessed by some of you!). Anyway in August 1984, I started with Dentsply at the Weybridge offices. Now here's a thing, the M25 hadn't even been opened. How did we manage? Well we just sat in traffic all the time (no change there then!).

One of the first people I was introduced to was a very young Peter Rees, the current BDTA President. Peter had joined in the April and was very soon to become my boss and has been ever since. I would like to think it has been a good partnership as we have seen Dentsply, as a company, grow to where we are now - the leading manufacturer in the industry. It does seem that Dentsply has trained a great many of the people who have become influential within the trade today and I have had the pleasure to work with some of them. I must make reference here to two people who helped me at the start of my dental career, both of whom are now retired. Stan Scott and Wilf Saltzer gave me the best training I could have had. Stan on products and Wilf on drinking! Cheers guys. It was around this time I met another person who would be a big influence on my life; Tony Anderson of (in those far off days) Killiner McCourt in Belfast.

I had worked in Northern Ireland in my rag trade days so knew it well, also my family are from Northern Ireland. Hard to believe that some people would not go over to Belfast because of the troubles (so called). Well, I went and although we didn't hit it off for the first hour we soon got the measure of each other and this is a friendship that I have enjoyed with many a bottle of Rioja. Tony was the best man at my wedding to Dil in 1996, and we still speak every day. Speaking of which, can you believe when I started in the industry there were no mobile phones. Well it did have some advantages; you didn't have to call the wife every night when you were away!

So just to put this in some order, when I joined as a Sales Rep I moved from Lincolnshire to the south coast, where I worked with some great characters - you know who you are. I was then promoted to Regional Manager and was able to move back to Lincolnshire where I have lived very happily for most of my life since moving from Scotland in 1971.

It was 1986/7 that Peter and I set up the Key Accounts role (I think the first in the industry at that time) which I still hold at the time of writing. The role is however, soon to be passed to Matt Turner as I head off to South West France to start a new phase of my life.

I have also been very lucky to have been involved in Dentsply's Russian business. In 1990 Ian Watt, the Director for Russia, needed an alcoholic to help him with his new venture. Well, who better than 'Yours Truly'. I was the only guy Ian knew who could drink a bottle of Vodka and still speak. Most of you reading this will have become bored at one time or another at the sound of my reminiscent stories of trips to Russia and some of my experiences in Siberia in particular. It has been a fun time but on the way we also built a great business, envied by many companies working out there and this is all down to one man who started it all. I am pleased to call him a very good friend, thanks 'Yan Vatt'. (For more information ask the President about his trip to the Ukraine!)

I mentioned that I have met some influential people along the way, and no one fits the bill more than a guy I met in September 1984 in a garage in Billericay. It was my first ever dealer call and I had called to introduce Bio-Gloss to the owner. I have to say (another well used expression of mine) I had no idea what the hell I was talking about. He asked me to wait a minute for his son who had just joined the business. So I waited, and guess who arrived? Yes, Martin Mills. Now he's done OK! Not bad from a garage in Billericay to Witham. We have been sparring ever since.

One highlight of the past 23 years was winning the Solila Nova Trophy (twice, I may add!) at the BDTA golf day. The first was at Peeble's, where I had the privilege of being the first Dentsply person to have their name on the trophy, the second time was at Cambridge. Dentsply had presented the trophy to the trade in 1924.