2020 is the 80^thanniversary of the founding of the British Association of Dental Nurses (BADN) – originally called the British Dental Nurses’ and Assistants’ Society, and later the Association of British Dental Surgery Assistants – the UK’s professional association for dental nurses. 

Closer Still Media (CSM) and BADN are therefore delighted to announce that the 2020 National Dental Nursing Conference will be held as part of the British Dental Conference and Dentistry Show (BDCDS), at the NEC Birmingham on 15 and 16 May 2020. BADN will once again chair the Dental Nurses’ Forum at the Show, offering eleven different speakers over the two days (more than 8 hours of CPD) on a wide range of subjects relevant to dental nursing. Entry to the Forum is open to all dental nurses.

In addition, BADN members will be able to relax in the BADN lounge, adjoining the BADN stand at L95, where coffee and cake will be available each day at 11am. Entry to the Lounge will require proof of current BADN membership.

Alex Harden, Show Director, the British Dental Conference and Dentistry Show, said “We are delighted to be working with BADN once again. Our goal is to provide first-class education for each member of the dental team every year, and our collocation with BADN for 2020 will help to ensure that we deliver this for dental nurses. The show also offers a platform for dental nurses to network and enjoy time with friends and colleagues, making it an enjoyable yet productive learning experience for all.”  

Jacqui Elsden, BADN President-elect, said “BADN welcomes the opportunity to support, once again, the British Dental Conference and Dentistry Show and, in particular, the Dental Nurse Forum in May 2020. We have an interesting programme and, as President during this momentous year, I am looking forward to chairing the Forum. In addition, BADN are preparing some additional celebratory opportunities for members at the event, and throughout 2020. The British Dental Conference and Dentistry Show underpins part of BADN’s vision, which is to encourage dental nurses to progress their lifelong learning opportunities, and it will be a good opportunity to do just that. 2020 is a special year for BADN, so why not visit us on stand to discuss how we can make a positive difference for dental nurses during the next 80 years. I look forward to meeting you all next May.”

BADN will also be holding an Anniversary Afternoon Tea at the NEC Hilton on Saturday 16 May 2020.  Full details will be available on the BADN website shortly.

The British Dental Conference and Dentistry Show is an annual two-day event designed to deliver educational and networking opportunities for the entire dental team. There will be lecture programmes tailored to different fields, including the BDA Theatre, BACD Aesthetic & Digital Dentist Theatre, and many more, with hours of enhanced CPD available for all. The extensive trade floor will host more than 450 manufacturers, suppliers and training providers, enabling delegates to discover the latest products, technologies, materials and courses on the market. Further still, this is the perfect chance for delegates to catch up with friends and meet new people, both during the day and at the prestigious Dental Awards run by Purple Media Solutions on Friday night. Completely free for all delegates to attend, the British Dental Conference and Dentistry Show 2020 will be held on 15^thand 16^thMay at the NEC in Birmingham.

Membership of BADN is open to all dental nurses, working in all areas of dentistry, including education and management.  Full Membership (£50 – special rates for part time/maternity) is open to all Registered Dental Nurses, and offers RDNs dental-nurse specific individual indemnity cover at the special BADN member rate.  Student Associate e-Membership is open to all student dental nurses on an accredited course leading to a registerable qualification for just £10pa.  Associate Membership is also available for retired, former and overseas dental nurses.   Benefits of membership include access to the quarterly digital “British Dental Nurses’ Journal” with verifiable ECPD, free legal helpline, free counselling/support helpline, members’ area of the BADN website www.badn.org.uk, and BADN Rewards – a wide range of special offers and discounts on home/car/travel/life insurance, travel, holidays, family days out, eating out, cinema visits, shopping, energy supplies, gyms and much more.  To join BADN, go to www.badn.org.uk

To register your interest for The British Dental Conference and Dentistry Show, or for more about the Dental Nurse Forum, go to:https://www.thedentistryshow.co.uk/badntheatre

Designed with both patient and practitioner comfort in mind, the A-dec 500 supplied by Clark Dental features a double-articulating headrest and an ultra-thin backrest for easy access to the oral cavity.

It also combines a hydraulic lift with a virtual pivot system that is synchronised to the natural movement of the patient, eliminating the need for readjustment when the unit is raised or lowered.

With its multi-position armrests for streamlined entry and exit from the dental unit, the A-dec 500 is bound to keep patients coming back to your practice for a more comfortable treatment experience.

Call Clark Dental to arrange a showroom visit.  

For more information, call Clark Dental on 01268 733 146, email info@clarkdental.co.uk or visit www.clarkdental.co.uk

Dr Sunday Samuel from Courtyard Dental Practice explains why he loves using the CS R4+ practice management software from Carestream Dental.

“I’ve been using the CS R4 system for over ten years and it’s really simple to operate. The team at Carestream Dental are very helpful and are always able to help me sort out any problems immediately.

“The X-ray system of the software is very good, my patients are very impressed at seeing the images appear in front of them – I would give the CS R4+ 10/10!”

To find out more, please contact Carestream Dental.

For more information, contact Carestream Dental on 0800 169 9692 or

visit www.carestreamdental.co.uk

For the latest news and updates, follow us on Twitter @CarestreamDentl

and Facebook

For consistently excellent outcomes in restorative dentistry, it’s important to combine proven techniques with quality products. This is precisely the concept behind the Bioclear Method, which was developed to improve the longevity, shine retention and strength of composite restorations compared to traditional techniques.

Dr Claire Burgess comments on her experience of using restorative materials from 3M Oral Care with the Bioclear Method.

“The handling of both Filtek One Bulk Fill restorative and Filtek Supreme XTE Universal restorative from 3M is excellent. In addition, the aesthetics of Filtek Supreme XTE Universal restorative from 3M are superb. Despite only using a single shade, restorations look natural when placed with the Bioclear Method – especially in gingival areas where the material affords sufficient translucency in thin sections to allow the natural shade of the underlying tooth to show through. Incisally, the material produces a bright and strong appearance that patients generally prefer over translucency/characterisation detail.

“Filtek One Bulk Fill restorative from 3M also offers a better appearance in posterior restoratives over some alternative composites due to its lower translucency. The blend of Filtek One Bulk Fill restorative and Filtek Supreme XTE Universal restorative from 3M makes composite restorations virtually invisible.

“Having used other materials with the Bioclear Method, I feel that Filtek Supreme XTE Universal restorative and Filtek One Bulk Fill restorative from 3M are superior for several reasons:

• The consistency of the materials when heated is flowable and smooth. This allows for improved injection moulding, better adaption to small areas (such as restoring black triangle spaces), and the development of less voids within the material. Ultimately, this makes injection moulding a much easier and more predictable process for the clinician.
• The narrower compule tips improve control over the direction of the injecting composite.
• The increased length of the compule tip allows better access – both anteriorly and posteriorly – into cavities or matrices when injection moulding.

“Further still, I have always found the team from 3M Oral Care to be very friendly and enthusiastic. The support from the all team has been consistently of a high standard.”

For further details about the Bioclear concept and products, visit www.bioclearmatrix.com

https://dominic-hassall-training.co.uk/bioclear-courses/

For more information about products from 3M Oral Care, call 0800 626 578 or visit www.3M.co.uk/Dental

Your practice is busy and thriving; you have the odd bad day of course,
but mostly it is a happy place to be. You have built a dental team of talented professionals, who are all proud of their reputation for delivering patient care of the highest standard. Then­ – boom – you get a bad online review, affecting your team’s morale.

A negative review may be the result of a misunderstanding that wasn’t resolved at the time, or entirely unjustified – but regardless of how it came to be, it must be addressed. We live in a digital age and when it comes to making a complaint, people often prefer to vent from behind a screen. Finding the right email address to complain to isn’t always easy, but posting a comment online is. From review forums like Google, to social media platforms such as Facebook, there are plenty of places to give instant feedback on a business or service provider. The reach of the biggest sites is staggering – as of January 2019, there were 40 million Facebook users in the UK.[i]Most dental practices now have their own social media pages and that’s the tip of the iceberg when it comes to where patients can read about what you do and how you do it, from people just like them. According to statistics, nearly 90 per cent of consumers trust an online review as much as they trust a personal recommendation.[ii]

The impact of a bad review on the dental team might be harder to quantify, but can still cause distress and anxiety. The key to a successful dental practice – and its biggest asset – is the people who work there. In order to grow and survive, a practice must go on attracting andretaining the best of the best too.

So what happens when an unhappy patient has used a huge online platform, with a captive audience, to undermine what you do? The first step is to determine the best way of responding. An emotional reply is rarely the best way forward, even if the team is upset. If someone is being personally named, supporting them is fundamental – creating and nurturing a supportive atmosphere shows great leadership. Practice life is often stressful enough; negative online reviews are an additional source of stress that you can manage.

Let’s take the common scenario of a dentist running late, so several appointments need to be rescheduled. If a patient didn’t get the message and turns up only to be told they now can’t be seen at that time, they will be upset and angry. They may then post an online review, personally attacking the receptionist who now represents (to them) your poor service.

But the story behind this situation might be different. If three appointments needed to be cancelled, the unhappy patient may have been the only whom the receptionist was unable to contact. Maybe this event exposed a genuine flaw that you can now fix, putting protocols in place so that a patient who was un-contactable through no fault of their own can be offered an alternative that morning, with a different practitioner. Or maybe the unhappy patient simply didn’t know that the dentist was running late and this was why they couldn’t be seen. In either case, a prompt, professional reply can be given to their negative review, hopefully resolving the situation and with a promise to do things differently next time.

It’s about being proactive and positive and listening to the patient who has taken the time to post a review, then offering them a swift explanation and solution. At the same time you are also publically supporting any member
of the team who has been upset by the negative feedback directed at them.

Managing negative reviews correctly may sound difficult to achieve, but it is easily done with the right tools. EasyReview, a review management system from Dental Design, will do all the hard work for you. It will alert you to a negative review, then help you make an appropriate response. Because it enables you to see what unhappy patients are saying, EasyReview can help you make any necessary improvements to your service. This means that even negative reviews will ultimately work for you, not against you.

Practices need a system in place to manage online reviews, even when they are bad. Team morale can be knocked by negative feedback and and morale is something that must be protected. The dental team is your biggest asset – when they feel happy and supported, they will want to go the extra mile for you and your patients, helping your practice to deliver dentistry of the highest quality.

To find out more about Dental Design’s services,
visit: https://dental-design-products.co.uk/
email: enquiries@dental-design.co.ukor tel: 01202 677277

[i]Statistica: The Statistics Portal. Leading countries based on number of Facebook users as of January 2019 (in millions). Link: https://www.statista.com/statistics/268136/top-15-countries-based-on-number-of-facebook-users/(accessed April 2019).

^[ii]Invesp Blog. The Importance Of Online Customer Reviews. Link: https://www.invespcro.com/blog/the-importance-of-online-customer-reviews-infographic/

Every patient should be able to benefit from essential dental care. W&H is the first manufacturer to offer a piezo scaler that can be used safely and effectively on patients with pacemakers, as confirmed by experts from Graz University of Technology.

The Proxeo Ultra is available in three versions – each boasting the patented Q-Link connection system to facilitate quick changing of tips. It is designed with a rotary dial for easy selection of power settings and features an ergonomic handpiece with an LED ring.

For ultimate ease-of-use, the PB-530 model also offers a wireless foot control to ensure more flexible working.

To find out more about the full range of products from W&H, visit www.wh.com/en_uk, call 01727 874990 or email office.uk@wh.com

Formulating a treatment plan that provides your patient with the most effective, convenient and accessible care for them is important. But why do some patients still say no?

Treatment acceptance is a necessary step towards helping patients receive the care they require, but they don’t always understand this. As such, it’s a good idea to explore why some patients may be resilient to your advice and make changes so that they are more likely to accept first time.

A feeling of trust

It is thought that roughly 85% of case acceptance comes from patients trusting their dentist and their ability to relate to them, as opposed to the 15% inspired by technical proficiency.[i]As such, it’s clear to see that building trust is imperative if you want your patients to accept your treatment plans.

A good way to do this is to ensure that you take an active interest in your patients’ lives. Do you chat with them during their appointments? Do you know what they do for work or whether they have any exciting plans coming up? Just communicating with patients on this level quickly helps to build a bond of trust. It’s also a good idea to explore their feelings regarding their oral health. Do they have any questions? Are there any improvements they want to make to their smiles? Make the time to talk and you will quickly see that trust, in most cases, is easily gained.

Education and misinformation 

Another reason that patients may be apprehensive about agreeing to treatment plans is because of their knowledge surrounding dentistry and whatever treatment you suggest. These people fall into two camps – the underinformed and the misinformed.

Some people may not be able to grasp why a particular treatment is beneficial for them, and in turn will reject your proposal as they believe they will be fine without it. To tackle this stance, you need to make sure that you are giving your patients as much information as possible about the treatment, as well as taking the time to state not only how it will help improve their lifestyle (in terms of aesthetics, function etc.) but also the risks they take by rejecting treatment, such as the eventual need for a dental implant, for example.

On the other hand, those who are misinformed have likely gathered information about their oral health online or have set ideas about the treatment they want supported by their own opinions. There is a lot of bad information out there, and it can be difficult to make the correct treatment seem like the best option. For example, if a patient is set on getting veneers, they may be resilient to simply straightening and bleaching their dentition, even if this is a more suitable and conservative option. In these cases, you need to do your best to banish any misinformation while alerting these individuals to the real benefits your treatment plan can bring.

Break down those barriers

Another huge barrier to treatment acceptance is that people may simply not understand your treatment plans. It’s easy to forget that your usual patient may not comprehend some of the more technical terms in dentistry, but this can be a huge discouragement if they feel like you’ve been too technical and therefore can’t understand what treatment will involve. No one likes to feel stupid.

Language or communication barriers may also exist if your patient speaks English as a second language or has learning difficulties or any other impediment. Therefore, one of the best ways to ensure that patients do understand your plans is to present the information in a different way.

Visual information is easier to understand for a lot of people, and it can help to bypass language barriers and remove the confusion that technical jargon can create. The CS R4+ practice management software from Carestream Dental is a particularly good choice if you’re looking to boost treatment acceptance. This software has special Communicator Patient Software which is preloaded with over 200 treatment topics. This software walks patients through the proposed treatment in simple terms, accompanied by easy-to-follow animations and pictures to ensure they fully understand what will happen if they accept.

Change no to yes

When it comes to boosting treatment acceptance it really comes down to exploring why a patient may say no in the first place. By building trust, giving them the correct information and ensuring they understand the next steps, you’re likely to see that more patients agree with your proposed plans.

For more information, contact Carestream Dental on 0800 169 9692 or

visitwww.carestreamdental.co.uk

For the latest news and updates, follow us on Twitter @CarestreamDentl

and Facebook

[i]Dentistry IQ. Communicating Trust – The Key To Dental Case Acceptance. Link: https://www.dentistryiq.com/practice-management/patient-relationships/article/16350433/communicating-trust-the-key-to-dental-case-acceptance[Last accessed June 19].

When it comes to running a dental practice, trust is everything. Most importantly, patients must trust the dental team in order to follow the oral health advice provided. The principal also needs to trust members of staff to do their jobs to the best of their ability. Staff need to trust that their working environment with be maintained. The whole team trusts suppliers and selected service providers to deliver the products required.

When it comes to selling a practice, trust is once again key. But this time, it is more directed towards the potential buyer and the broker. The initial stages of a transaction often involve checking that an interested buyer is serious, whether they have access to sufficient funds and what their intentions for the business are in the future. Once a vendor believes all these elements are in place and trusts the buyer to see the transaction to the end, the sale can proceed.

But how do you know which broker to trust? Seeking the reviews and recommendations from other professionals who have been in similar positions can be a huge help. That way, you know what the service provided is really like and decide who would be a best match for your individual situation.

At Dental Elite, we are committed to offering the highest standard of services to support a variety of different practice sales and encourage their success. We help professionals optimise their businesses ready for sale and then our expert team will guide you through the transaction from start to finish. Our aim is to make everything as simple as possible, with one main point of contact managing the entire process.

However, we don’t just want you to take our word for it. So, we asked Mr Gerrit Snyman about his experience of working with Dental Elite during the sale of his dental practice.

Which consultant in Dental Elite did you work with? 

I worked with Luke Moore, who was in regular contact with me and kept me up-to-date with proceedings at all times.

What was your biggest fear prior to marketing the practice for sale? 

I was most concerned about finding a suitable buyer and an agent I could trust. I overcame both of these with Dental Elite.

What made you choose the offer you accepted? 

The discussion I had with Luke about the offers I received ultimately led to my decision to accept, which I did within a few days of receiving it.

Have you stayed on in the practice and was this your choice? 

Yes I have remained at the practice as I wished to – the sale has enabled me to re-focus on my patients and the dentistry I provide, without the distractions of running the business.

How did you find the due diligence process? 

This was challenging due to some planning issues that we faced.

When did you tell the staff?

I told the staff nearly straight away, as I do not like lying to them and so this meant that everyone was prepared. Everyone was kept in the loop throughout the transaction and given the chance to ask questions at any time.

On reflection, what was the most challenging time in your sale? 

The most challenging time was discussing indemnities regarding fire safety issues – Luke was extremely helpful in this matter.

How did you find the agent buffer between solicitors, buyer and seller? 

The agent buffer was exceptional. I would therefore recommend Dental Elite to any other dentists looking to sell their practices.

Finding the right expert support can make a big difference to the efficiency and success of a dental practice sale. With so many aspects involved, it’s crucial that you work with people you trust to get the job done and get it done right. If you’re considering the sale of your practice, give the friendly team at Dental Elite a call to see how we could help.

For more information on Dental Elite visit www.dentalelite.co.uk, email info@dentalelite.co.ukor call 01788 545 900

Your restorative material needs to be adaptable to the way you work as well as usable in a wide array of indications. With Filtek Universal Restorative from 3M Oral Care, achieving this is easy.

Not only does Filtek Universal Restorative from 3M have only eight shades that cover the whole spectrum of VITA classical and bleach shades, but each of these shades also has a universal opacity that meets the needs of the majority of clinical indications.

There is also an innovative Filtek Universal Restorative Pink Opaquer shade from 3M that has been designed to mask metallic defects and stained dentition, helping you to achieve optimal aesthetics.[i]

Start your journey to simple restorations today by contacting 3M Oral Care.

For more information, call 0800 626 578 or visit www.3M.co.uk/Dental

 END

3M and Filtek are trademarks of the 3M Company.

[i] 3M Oral Care Internal Data. Masking with Pink Opaquer. Claim 7393.