Who are we

Situated in the tranquil village of Magheralin, the Northern Ireland Dental Implant Centre was established under the auspices of the University of Warwick Medical School as one of a number of related UK centres to provide both treatment for patients and training for local practitioners in the field of dental implantology.

A healthy and attractive smile is an invaluable asset to any individual.

Unfortunately however many people suffer from loose dentures, advanced gum disease crowns that repeatedly fall out or bridgework that is doomed to failure. Dental implants offer a potential solution to this plethora of problems.

Northern Ireland dentist Dr Ken Nicholson, well known for his cosmetic dentistry, saw a need for a local implant centre as a result of spending many hours travelling to and from London to work with some the UK’s leading experts in implant dentistry. He opened the purpose designed Northern Ireland Dental Implant Centre in October 2003.

Dr Nicholson graduated from Queen’s University Belfast in 1982 winning the Ash prize in restorative dentistry. On graduating he worked as a GDP on the Malone road in Belfast before moving to work abroad. While working in Berlin, where he worked in both Hospital and Practice environments, Dr Nicholson had the opportunity to interface with many American colleagues, an experience he found invaluable. On returning to N. Ireland in 1988 he set up practice in Moira where he worked for ten years before handing over the helm of the practice to one of his associates to allow him to focus solely on implant dentistry.

So passionate is he about his subject that he introduced the first implant year course for practitioners in N. Ireland in 2002 and continues to teach in his role as Associate Fellow and Honorary Senior Lecturer, Postgraduate Dental Education Unit, Warwick Medical School. In 2005 he founded the British Society of Oral Implantology of which he is presently Chairman.

At present in Ireland four dental Practitioners hold a Masters degree in Implant dentistry from the University of Warwick – Dr Nicholson is one of them and he taught the other three.

He is Academic Lead in Surgical-Based Dentistry and Blended Learning in the Institute for Postgraduate Dental Education at the University of Central Lancashire, a Fellow of the International Congress of Oral Implantologists, a member of the Faculty of Examiners for the diploma in Implant Dentistry at the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh and an editorial board member of the European Journal of Oral Implantology, International Journal of Oral Implantology and Clinical Research, Implant Dentistry Today and the Irish Dentist.