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The British Dental Association (BDA) Training Essentials is an exciting portfolio of courses to help improve the provision of CPD for the whole dental team. Take advantage of training opportunities in a wide range of topics, not only to help meet your continuing professional development (CPD) requirements but to enhance your all-round skills, both professionally and personally.

One-day courses

One-day courses will cover the all-important core and recommended CPD areas including law and ethics, infection control, complaint handling, radiography and radiation protection and management of medical emergencies. But there is also the opportunity to improve your business and management skills too with courses covering topics such as: business planning and financial management; leading the dental team; setting up in practice; staff management and appraisal training; reception and telephone skills; time management; online marketing and social networking.

Courses are mainly held at the BDA in London, and our most popular courses also take place at regional locations such as Bristol, Leeds and Manchester with the majority starting at 10 am and finishing at 4 pm to ensure the courses are as accessible as possible.

Oral cancer

One of our most popular courses is 'Oral cancer: the dental team's responsibility' which helps define the dental team's duty of care, offering information and advice on how to manage oral cancer effectively and sensitively.

Saman Warnakulasuriya, Professor of Oral Medicine at King's College London Dental Institute, leads the day and highlights the epidemiology and risk factors for oral cancer, what to look for and how to look for suspicious lesions, programmes and campaigns to promote mouth cancer awareness, and the important role of the whole dental team in prevention of oral cancer.

Professor Warnakulasuriya has published over 180 scientific peer reviewed articles and lectures extensively on the subject of oral cancer and precancer from the levels of basic science to the management. He is an authority on global aspects on risk factors and screening for oral cancer, having conducted several field surveys in different population groups. He is the director of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Oral Cancer and Precancer in the United Kingdom and is on the editorial boards of Oral Oncology, the Journal of Oral Pathology and Medicine, the International Journal of Clinical Dentistry and Head and Neck Oncology. He was the principal investigator of an epidemiological study on oral cancer in young people, the largest reported so far from Europe.

Over the next decade around 60,000 people in the UK will be diagnosed with mouth cancer. Without early detection an estimated 30,000 people will die. Worldwide, over 460,000 people are expected to die from the disease each year by 2030 (data from the British Dental Health Foundation).

The course is a must-attend event and as is so often the case with cancer, raising awareness among the public and health care professionals is key to early diagnosis. Being alert to symptoms, encouraging patients to 'if in doubt, get checked out' and targeting high risk groups such as middle aged smokers and drinkers are essential to combating this deadly disease. Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that a growing number of patients are accusing their dentist of missing the signs and taking legal action.

Date for the diary

Oral cancer: the dental team's responsibility takes place on Friday 6 June 2014 in London and is designed for the whole dental team offering 5 core CPD hours. For further information or to book call the BDA Events Team on 020 7563 4590 or email events@bda.org.

Places for non-dentist members of the team are available for £135.

A full course listing of all Training Essentials courses with dates, location, programme outline and speaker details can be found at www.bda.org/training.

You can also follow us on Twitter @BDAevents; check this out for the latest news and insight into all things Training Essentials.