Peter Clark Ryan graduated B.D.Sc. (Queensland) in 1976 and then worked in the Royal Australian Air Force in Malaysia until 1979 before spending 1980 in private general practice in London. After completing his specialist qualification in Queensland in 1982, he worked as a part-time Lecturer in the Department of Social & Preventive Dentistry until 1986 before commencing full-time private Specialist Practice as a Periodontist in Brisbane and Ipswich. From 1996 he has been a Senior Visiting Periodontist at The Dental School and an Examiner of Periodontal Post-Graduate Students. A Fellowship in the special stream of Periodontics, Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons was achieved by examination in 2000. In 2002, he was appointed as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland.

Peter assisted with the formation of the Post-Graduate Implant Clinic at The University of Queensland, Dental School. He has been actively involved with implant dentistry since 1991 and became a Fellow of the ITI (International Team for Oral Implantology) in 2000 and became an opinion leader for Biomet 3i Australia in 2005. In 2008 Peter was appointed a Specialist Clinical Associate (Periodontics) Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Sydney.