Dennis Leveson Wedgwood was a consultant oral and maxillofacial surgeon at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. He was born in Blurton, Staffordshire, on 14 September 1936, the son of Stanley Leveson Wedgwood, a pharmacist, and Hilda Wedgwood née Millington. His grandfather was a dental surgeon in Tunstall. Wedgwood attended Bury Grammar School and went on to read dentistry at Guy’s Hospital, London, beginning his studies in 1955 and qualifying in 1959. He then carried out his National Service, choosing to join the Colonial Service. He was posted to the Falkland Islands and South Georgia whaling stations for two and a half years. In August 1962 he returned to Staffordshire and joined his grandfather’s surgery. Encouraged by Brian Hales, the consultant maxillofacial surgeon at North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary, he moved to London, first as a senior house officer at the Middlesex Hospital and then, from 1963, at Westminster Hospital, where he studied medicine. After graduating, he became a registrar at the Westminster, where he worked for Rupert Sutton-Taylor and Norman Rowe. He went on to Mount Vernon and University College hospitals, as a senior registrar under Paul Toller, Gordon Fordyce and Raymond O’Neil. In 1974 he emigrated to Canada, becoming chairman and professor for the division of oral surgery of the University of Manitoba. Here he established a successful, accredited oral and maxillofacial residency training programme. In 1980, he returned to the UK, as a consultant at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, where he remained until his retirement. He was an inspirational teacher, pioneered implantology and, with his orthodontist colleague, John Chadwick, developed a multidisciplinary cleft service for Shropshire. Outside his professional work, he had a life-long interest in engineering and renovated a steam lorry and steam car. In 1966 he married Jean Oliver, a hygienist in Ruper Sutton-Taylor’s unit. Wedgwood died at home on 28 August 2005 at the age of 68 and was survived by his wife and two daughters, Elizabeth and Rosalind.