John Walford McLean

{{Short description|British dentist (1925–2009)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

John Walford McLean {{post-nominals|country=GBR|OBE|RNVR|LDS|RCS|MDS}} (28 February 1925{{cite web |title=McLean, John W. |url=http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79084384.html |website=Library of Congress Name Authority File |publisher=Library of Congress |accessdate=4 July 2018}} – 29 June 2009) was a British dentist and dental historian. He was known, in the words of the British Dental Journal, for his "groundbreaking developments in high strength dental ceramics and, in particular, to the introduction of glass-ionomer cements, not to forget his seminal work on the bonding of resins to remaining tooth tissues." He was elected President of the British Society of Restorative Dentistry in 1973 and president of the British Dental Association in 1984, and received the John Tomes Prize for research and the American Prosthodontic Society's Golden Medallion.[https://www.nature.com/articles/sj.bdj.2009.729 "John Walford McLean OBE".] British Dental Journal, Vol. 207, p. 187 (22 August 2009).

McLean was born in Rhiwbina, a suburb of Cardiff, and educated at Westminster Abbey Choir School where he was the head chorister. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his contribution to dental research.{{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Nairn |last2=Gelbier |first2=Stanley |title=The Dental Press |date=2014 |publisher=Lulu Press, Inc |isbn=9781291824582 |pages=79–80 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iKdNCAAAQBAJ&pg=PT79 |accessdate=4 July 2018 |language=en}}

He received a master's in dentistry from the University of London. For two decades, he was a consulting professor at Louisiana State University's School of Dentistry.