Following the sponsorship success of 2017, Simplyhealth Professionals has announced today its continuation of support for Boundaries for Life at this year’s cricket season.

Founded in 2010 by Dr Chet Trivedy, a dual-qualified dentist and doctor with an interest in emergency medicine and dental emergencies, Boundaries for Life offers free health checks at major cricket fixtures throughout the UK, and is supported by the European Health Stadia Network.

Currently the only free comprehensive health check initiative that includes an assessment for mouth cancer, Boundaries for Life aims to promote health awareness through high-profile cricket events. The health checks include blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar (diabetes), dental (mouth cancer), obesity and dementia advice.

Henry Clover, Chief Dental Officer at Simplyhealth Professionals, said: “We’re delighted to support Boundaries for Life once again and help to promote the messages of good oral health and general health to thousands of spectators across the UK this summer – and potentially save lives. Our commitment to the programme has been further strengthened by the support of our member dentists, several of whom have volunteered to carry out mouth cancer checks as part of the Boundaries for Life team, as well as raising awareness of good dental health and the links to general health.”

With a health professionals team comprising of dentists, doctors, nurses, and medical students, the health checks take no more than 15 minutes and are offered to spectators and ground staff. Since its launch, Boundaries for Life has carried out over 3,500 free health checks and diagnosed several cases of suspected mouth cancer, or pre-cancer, and many other health concerns, and given thousands of cricket fans specialist advice on how to improve oral and general health.

Boundaries for Life is also an award-nominated initiative, and has received recognition after being shortlisted for Best National Smile Month Event at The Dental Awards 2018, taking place this May.

Dr Chet Trivedy said: “We’re looking forward to another cricket season and utilising the sport to reach as many people as possible. Cricket is an ideal vehicle to discuss health, particularly as our key demographic for health checks are men aged 45 years and over, and those who might not be regularly visiting a dentist or GP. This target audience are thought to be increasingly vulnerable to a range of health conditions, and our health checks offer the opportunity to identify people who might be at risk of future health problems at an early stage. The health checks are easily accessible and provide instant feedback to guide people on any next steps that they should take regarding their oral or general health.”

Have you ever wondered how up to date you and your colleagues are regarding infection control and water lines in your practice?

CleanCert, which specialises in developing innovative dental infection control and water purification products, is providing you with the perfect opportunity to test your infection control knowledge via a thought-provoking survey.

To be launched at this year’s Dentistry Show in Birmingham, held on 18 and 19 May, this simple survey will help dental professionals understand what is required of them to achieve ‘best practice’, as well as enabling CleanCert to tailor a programme to support customers going forward.

Commenting on this exciting new project, Simon Davies, Managing Director, said: ‘Those of us working in dentistry know that there’s more to infection control that meets the eye, and there is more to CleanCert, too. Whilst our products meet all of the practice’s health and safety needs, all the while achieving ‘best practice’ safely, easily and cost-effectively, we know there’s more to be done.

That is why we created this survey, in an effort to gain a greater understanding of the realities of infection control and water lines in dental practice for those working at the “coal face”. Once we have collected and analysed the data, we at CleanCert will be able to offer our customers a greater level of service than ever before, because we will have a better understanding of the limitations and challenges facing the dental team in their pursuit of “best practice”.’

To take part, simply pop by stand H100 – where you can be sure of a warm welcome – or complete the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/DL23GKK before the end of June 2018.

What’s more, anyone who completes the survey before the cut-off date will be entered into a prize draw to win a luxury spa day for two at a Mercure Hotel.

For further details, visit cleancert.co.uk, email sales@cleancert.co.uk or call 08443 511115.

Dental professionals have an important role in the well-being of patients’ who suffer from dementia, according to the Dental Defence Union (DDU), who release the latest edition of the DDU journal today. 

According to the World Health Organisation, the number of dementia cases is expected to rise dramatically over the next 30 years, from 50 million to 152 million by 2050. In the UK, there are currently around 850,000 people living with dementia but this figure is expected to rise to two million by 2051, according to the Alzheimer’s Society. As a result, dental professionals are increasingly likely to need to support dementia patients’ with their oral health.

As Christine Osborne, General Dental Practitioner and Clinical Dental Adviser, explains:

“There is no getting away from the fact that the patient’s dental health will often go downhill as dementia progresses. Patients are more likely to forget to brush their teeth and dry mouth is a common side effect of many of the drugs prescribed to the elderly, increasing the risk of decay and infection. However, good dental care can make a huge difference to these patients’ wellbeing.”

Leo Briggs, deputy head of the DDU said:

“As dementia becomes more prevalent within society, the DDU recommends that dental professionals improve their understanding of the condition and the dento-legal concerns that may arise. Understanding how to assess a patient’s capacity to make decisions, when to involve others and the need to adapt your communication style will help. The DDU’s dento-legal advisers, who are all registered dentists, are also on hand to advise members with specific concerns. ”

The DDU suggests considering the following actions:

• Work with carers and support staff if it is in the patient’s best interest. However, if a patient has capacity you must seek their consent before sharing personal information with others. Remember that a patient’s ability to consent may change over time and can also depend on the complexity of the decision
• Understand the process for assessing patients’ legal capacity and best interests as set out in the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and its accompanying Code or the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000
• Obtain the details of any individual who has legal responsibility for the patient’s welfare (e.g. someone with lasting power of attorney)
• Ensure communication and body language is appropriate. For example, always introduce yourself and keep questions simple
• Provide written treatment plans, using simple, non-technical language
• Make sure you understand your legal duties under the Equality Act 2010 and its statutory Code of Practice and be aware of relevant guidance such as the Faculty of General Dental Practice (FGDP)’s recent Dementia – Friendly Dentistry: Good Practice Guidelines
• Utilise sources of advice including charities such as the Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer’s Society and Alzheimer’s Research UK

Read the DDU Journal at: https://ddujournal.theddu.com/

A recent experiment has revealed that having sugary drinks emblazoned with graphic imagery is enough to prevent young people from drinking them, in a similar technique to that in the cigarette industry.

The team from Australia’s Deakin University conducted an online experiment to examine the drink choices of young Australians aged 18-35.

Tooth decay, obesity and type 2 diabetes being depicted on a can of their favourite pop proved too much for the young adults to stomach as 36 per cent say they wouldn’t purchase these drinks if this idea was reality.

Participants were split into groups and asked to imagine they were entering a shop, café, or approaching a vending machine. With the choice of 15 drinks, one group was shown drinks with regular labels while others were shown labels containing health warnings in the form of an image, text, highlighted sugar information or a health star rating. They were also given the option to select ‘no drink’ after viewing these.

Participants proved far less likely to purchase a sugary drink when the graphic label was displayed, irrespective of education, age and socioeconomic background. The labels depicting a graphic image of decaying teeth turned out to be the most impactful.

Professor Anna Peeters told Huffington Post: “Our findings highlight the potential of front-of-pack health labels, particularly graphic images and health star ratings, to change consumer behaviour, reduce purchases of sugar-sweetened drinks, and help people to make healthier choices,” Professor Anna Peeters said.

“The question now is what kind of impact these labels could have on the obesity epidemic. While no single measure will reverse the obesity crisis, given that the largest source of added sugars in our diet comes from sugar-sweetened drinks, there is a compelling case for the introduction of front-of-pack labels on sugary drinks worldwide.”

BACK in 2016 I gave you an insight into the diary of a second-year student. I was very much a ‘pre-clinical student’ then and life consisted of lectures with a few clinical simulation sessions. But a lot has changed since then, so I thought I would provide an insight into my diary this year to see how it compares to two years ago!

This year has been the hardest yet. It feels as though we’ve had exams every other week. Having the stress of meeting clinical requirements, managing our patient books and preparing for clinics on top of revision is pretty tough going. However, we have just finished our OSCE, which marks the end of our exams… until next year!

What my week looks like

Our weeks are pretty busy. Mondays tend to be 9am – 5pm lectures, which is our only day of being taught theory. Tuesdays and Fridays we have ‘clinical practice’. This is essentially meant to be similar to working as a GDP – having regular patients for check-ups, scales, restorative work, prosthetics etc. This is where we gain most of our clinical experience and requirements for entering into finals. We have an afternoon session on these days that consist of two one-and-a-half-hour slots. We can double these up if we have a long treatment, such as a root canal treatment. These sessions allow us to learn how to work well with our nurse and receptionists so we are ready for the big wide world in practice.

We then have our speciality teaching; last year was prosthetics, periodontology and oral surgery and this year we have oral medicine, oral surgery, orthodontics, endodontics and paediatrics. These sessions are highly valuable and ensure we get experience in all aspects of dentistry that we will encounter. We get one session every two weeks for each speciality; I actually feel that this isn’t enough, however I appreciate there is limited time. In our speciality teaching we encounter the most complex elements as many of the patients we see have been referred from their GDP. This enhances our experience and we learn an awful lot that hopefully ensures we are able to manage these more difficult cases in practice.

‘Heroic’ dentistry

I have just begun my outreach sessions, too, which I feel are the most valuable sessions we have. At the dental hospital, I would say we do a lot of ‘heroic’ dentistry. Much of what we do we probably wouldn’t have the time or resources for in practice. I feel that working in the community has given us a real insight into the kind of treatment we will be doing day-to-day and the true treatment options we can provide on the NHS. Not only has it been a reality check when it comes down to treatment, it has also made me realise that I seriously need to speed up. An hour and a half for one appointment is a real luxury at the dental hospital, although we still get more time than we would have in practice, and this is giving us the opportunity to speed up and prepare for our DFT year.

I have my elective period at the end of this term, which is an opportunity for us to travel and research anything we want; it doesn’t have to be dentistry-related. We can learn knew skills or enhance the skills we already have and we also get a bit of a break before the final year starts.

All in all, life as a fourth-year dental student is hard going and tiring but with graduation getting ever closer, I hope I will soon realise it was all worth it. I have no idea whether the way we are taught now has changed over the years and it would be interesting to hear how dentistry was taught in the past.