Dr John M Sheahan
BDSc(Melb) MDSc(Melb) GradDipHlthAdmin(La Trobe) AFCHSM
FRACDS(Paed) FICD FPFA
John is passionate about Paediatric Dentistry. Patients are nurtured in his specialist dental practice, and he derives enormous satisfaction and motivation from turning children who are anxious about accepting dental care into relaxed adults who are self-motivated to maintain their oral health. He attributes his success to his excellent training, his years of experience as a general practitioner and as a specialist, working in both the public and private sectors, and most importantly to the team he has built around him in his specialist private practice, where each patient is treated as an important individual entrusted to the team’s care.
John is an active Member of Australian and New Zealand Society of Paediatric Dentistry (ANZSPD), Australasian Academy of Paediatric Dentistry (AAPD), International Association of Paediatric Dentistry (IAPD), Australian Dental Association (ADA) and Australian Society of Endodontology (ASE), and a Fellow in Specialist Dental Practice of Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons (RACDS) in the discipline of Paediatric Dentistry.
John has served on many state, national and international dental committees and he continues to spend much of his free time advocating vociferously for the oral health of infants, children and adolescents in Australia, New Zealand and, more recently, at a global level through his involvement in IAPD.
John is one of the longest serving Past Federal Presidents of ANZSPD (2012-2015). He has been Chair of ANZSPD’s Constitution Committee since 2015, an Honorary Member of ANZSPD’s Victorian Branch for many years, and he was Chair of ANZSPD’s Committee which bid to host IAPD’s Congress in Melbourne in 2027. John represented ANZSPD on the Council of IAPD (2009-2017) and served on IAPD’s Membership Committee (2017-2021). He has developed widespread international recognition as evidenced by eighteen National Member Societies of IAPD supporting his nomination as a Representative of the Nations on the 2021-2023 Board of IAPD.
Since 2002, John has been the dental profession’s “squeaky wheel” who has advocated most often and loudest for the right of dental patients to access oral health care in the relative safety of an operating theatre in an accredited hospital or day procedure centre when they require treatment under general anaesthesia. Also, in about 2010, he recognised that the wording of the Policy Statement relating to procedural sedation for medical, dental and surgical practice which was published by Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) and endorsed by RACDS was a potential landmine for patients and the profession. After that, he lobbied strenuously for it to be rewritten. That lobbying saw his appointment in 2019 as RACDS’s representative on ANZCA’s Document Development Group to revise it. He is now pleased with ANZCA PG09(G) (2023) and its background paper and is extremely proud to have achieved his goal.
Employed for many years to teach at The University of Melbourne, John still contributes periodically to the education and assessment of students undertaking specialist training in Paediatric Dentistry. He also he teaches for RACDS and is a Clinical Assessor for Australian Dental Council (ADC), the organisation which accredits Australia’s dental schools.
