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The third and last day of the BDA Conference, Saturday May 1, will continue on the theme 'The Business of Dentistry'. There will be three parallel sessions in the morning and two in the afternoon.

The Business of clinical update

This session will be chaired by Geoffrey Craig, Chairman of the BDA Health and Science Policy Group. It will begin with an endodontics update by Chris Stock, who will consider the choice of instruments and filling techniques relevant for general practice and explain what dentists should be doing to provide good, effective endodontics for their patients. Callum Youngson will then demonstrate how understanding the properties of modern materials influences choice of the most appropriate material for a given clinical situation.

A periodontics update will follow from Bernie Kieser, who will argue for a back to basics approach in which practitioners should focus on the cause of the disease and in overcoming barriers to patients achieving the requisite levels of personal plaque control.

Martin Addy will conclude the session with a comprehensive review of oral hygiene products. He will highlight the introduction of objective scientific criteria for the evaluation of oral hygiene products and good clinical practice guidelines for the conduct of clinical research.

Big business

Following on from last year's lively and packed debate, this session will look at the continuing growth and impact of corporate dental bodies and what this may mean for the future provision of dental care. It will be sponsored by Whitecross Dental Care and chaired by Peter Swiss, chairman of the BDA Ethics Committee.

Andrew Barratt will look at the continuing attractiveness of dentistry as an investment opportunity for the capital investor while Paul Mendlesohn from Whitecross Dental Care will consider the entrepreneur's viewpoint. Geoffrey Garnett will then discuss the factors which encouraged him to sell his own practice to a large dental corporate body.

After coffee, Jonathan Wood of Dencare will discuss how the quality of clinical care provided by corporate dental practitioners is maintained and encouraged. David Hudaly of Integrated Dental Holdings will then consider how affordable dentistry can be offered and maintained. The final speaker will be Stephen Gates from Denplan. He will discuss the issue of high street brands and their future.

The business of postgraduate education

Patients expect their dentists to keep up-to-date with the latest developments in techniques and materials. A commitment to continuing education and professional development has long been implicit in the annual renewal of registration with the GDC. Jim Rennie will explain the Council's proposals for a more formal process of reaccreditation and recertification.

Many will seek alternatives to the traditional postgraduate courses to fulfil their quest for self-directed learning and Mike Grace will extol the merits of the printed word in the form of the BDJ. Electronic forms of distributing information (CAL and the Internet) will be explored by Damien Walmsley before the session ends with Mike Lees who will advocate the forum for interactive debate. The session will be chaired by Professor Jim Ralph.

Letters from America

Anthony Pogrel moved from Britain to California in 1983. He is now professor and chairman of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco. In this session he will discuss postgraduate education in the USA — especially the type of training provided in comparison with the UK.

Emphasis will be placed on the structured nature of American training programmes and their resemblance to a continuation of dental school training. Many UK graduates are interested in continuing at least part of their specialist training in the USA and so the actual requirements and mechanisms of applying to American programmes will be considered.

The President's debate

One of the two parallel sessions of the afternoon this will be chaired by the then BDA President Stuart Robson. The title of the debate is This house believes that capitation promotes under-treatment. The four main speakers have been carefully chosen, representing very different backgrounds in dentistry.

Laurence Lando, a private practitioner from Surrey and Barry McGonigle, a Northern Ireland practitioner working mainly in the NHS, will propose the motion. John Tiernan, a dental journalist and Norman McKenzie MBE, a GDP in Scotland, will oppose the motion. There will be plenty of time for audience contributions before a vote is taken. As this topic engenders fiercely opposing sentiments, a heated discussion is anticipated!

The business of colour

This will be the second parallel session of the afternoon and will be chaired by Professor Robin Basker of the Leeds Dental Institute. Its aim is first, to put the judgement and production of colour on a firm foundation of science and, second, to build on this foundation by relating science to clinical dentistry.

Steven Burkinshaw will show how we perceive, define and describe colour and talk about important attributes which affect our ability to match, measure and communicate colour. Brian Nattress will then tackle the clinical implications and highlight the problem areas as well as offering ways to achieve improved results.

John Hubbard will end the session by discussing laboratory implications and the vital aspect of communication. He will bring together science, skill and art when describing how to construct high quality restorations using metal-ceramic and metal-free ceramic systems.