Lecturer Details: BSPD Lecture: Autism and Paediatric Dentistry

Lecturer nameMr Andy Smith
Lecturer profileAndy is the creative director and founder of Spectrum Gaming, a charity for autistic children and young people. He is an autistic adult and advocate.

Andy was very academic in school but struggled with other aspects of school life. Despite getting excellent GCSE results, he really struggled at university and ultimately didn’t complete his course. Later in the same year he received an autism diagnosis and all of his difficulties made sense.

Since then, he has realised the only way to be happy and thrive is to stop trying to fit in and accept himself as he is. He wants as many autistic children and young people as possible to realise this too so they can live the happiest lives they can. In order to achieve this, he created Spectrum Gaming, an online community for autistic young people.

“We are a community that enables autistic young people to develop meaningful friendships and develop a more positive perspective of autism. But we have also created a movement that aims to have a positive influence on society through advocacy and enabling strategic change to ensure the needs of autistic young people are met across the UK. This doesn't just impact on our society, but helps young people to better advocate for themselves moving forward.”
Lecturer nameDr Sarah-Jane Snape : BDS Manchester 2001, MFDS 2003, MPaedDent 2020
Lecturer profileSarah-Jane is a Specialist in Paediatric Dentistry working within the Specialist Dental Services in Lancashire and South Cumbria Foundation Trust. She undertook her Undergraduate and Specialist training in Manchester and spent many years working in the Community Dental Services in the North West of England.
Sarah-Jane is an experienced Paediatric Dentist, particularly within Community Dentistry, and has given lectures and talks on many topics related to the field of Paediatric Dentistry for a range of undergraduate and postgraduate audiences.