Malcolm Neville Naylor, known as Tony, was head of the department of periodontology and preventive dentistry at Guy’s Hospital Medical School. He was born on 30 January 1926 in Walsall, Staffordshire, the son of Roland B Naylor and Mabel L Naylor née Neville. He attended Queen Mary’s School, Walsall and during the Second World War served on HMS *Suffolk*. He then studied physiology and dentistry at Birmingham, where he was a Nuffield scholar from 1949 to 1951. He gained a BSc in 1951 and his BDS in 1955. As a student he was a part-time demonstrator in physiology. From 1955 to 1959 he held junior hospital appointments in Birmingham and Dundee. In 1959 he became a research fellow at Guy’s Hospital Dental School and stayed at Guy’s for the rest of his career, as a senior lecturer in preventive dentistry (from 1962 to 1966), a reader (from 1966 to 1970), an honorary consultant dental surgeon at Guy’s Hospital (from 1966 to 1991) and finally as head of the department (from 1980 to 1991). He wrote a history of Guy’s Dental School – *One hundred years of dental education at Guy’s* (London, United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy’s and St Thomas’, 1989). He was also a civilian consultant dental surgeon to the Royal Navy from 1974 to 1991 and the Queen’s honorary dental surgeon. Following his retirement, he was an honorary senior research fellow at the Eastman. As a clinician he specialised in periodontology, but most of his research was associated with effects of fluoride on tooth decay and its metabolic pathways. He was president of the section of odontology of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1984 and 1985, president of the British division of the International Association for Dental, Oral and Craniofacial Research from 1990 to 1992 and of the British Society for Dental Research from 1990 to 1992. For more than 30 years he was the scientific adviser and scientific editor of the *British Dental Journal* and, in 1987, was awarded the prestigious Tomes Medal of the British Dental Association. Following his retirement, he was a trustee and treasurer of the Oral and Dental Research Trust. He became a fellow of the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1958 and of the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow in 1992. He was a freeman of the City of London and a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Bakers, and a governor or trustee of several schools and colleges in and around London. He maintained his connections with the Navy, as a council member of the Sea Cadets, and enjoyed spending time on his boat. He also enjoyed music, golf and watercolour painting. He had a firm religious faith and, from 1974, was a lay reader of the Church of England. In 1956 he married Doreen Mary Jackson, known as Mary. They had a son, Andrew, a general practitioner. Predeceased by his wife in 2006, Naylor died on 15 April 2008. He was 82.