Richard Ibbetson graduated from Guy’s Hospital in 1974 and spent nearly two years in general practice in Devon before leaving the UK to work in Canada as a dentist for the Grenfell Association in Newfoundland and Labrador.
He returned to the UK in 1978 to take an MSc at the Eastman Dental Institute in London where he then spent 20 years on the staff as Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Consultant and was Head of the Department of Conservative Dentistry.
In 1994, he established the new Department of Continuing Education at the Eastman and was latterly a Vice-Dean. In 1999 he was appointed Professor and Director of the Postgraduate Institute at the University of Edinburgh. From 2011-14, he was Dean of the Faulty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh whilst also holding a Chair in Restorative Dentistry at QMUL in London.
He then spent a short period of time at UCLan before taking up the post of Director of Dentistry at the University of Aberdeen in 2015 from which he stepped down in late 2021. He remains an Emeritus Professor in Restorative Dentistry at Aberdeen. In December 2021, he returned to UCLan as the Interim Head of the School of Dentistry.
