Jacob Joseph Messing, known as Jack, was a reader in dental surgery at the dental school of University College Hospital, London. He was born on 30 July 1923 in Newcastle upon Tyne, the son of Hyman Messing and Hilda Messing née Cohen and was educated at the city’s grammar school. He studied dentistry at Durham University and qualified with a BDS in 1946. He gained his fellowship of the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1951. In 1952 he went to London, where he worked at the Eastman Dental Hospital. Two years later he was appointed to a teaching post at the dental school at University College Hospital. He continued to teach there for the next 29 years, retiring as a reader in dental surgery. He lectured in the UK and abroad, including Cyprus, Spain, Italy and France, and taught as a visiting lecturer at the dental school on Malta for seven years. He wrote numerous publications and designed dental equipment, including the Messing gun, used to place retrograde apical seals. He also pioneered the use of CCTV as a teaching aid. His hobbies included golf, music and photography. Messing died on 28 January 2007 at the age of 83. He was survived by his wife Maureen, whom he had married in 1949, their son Adam and daughter Julie and four grandchildren.