Still stumbling around after two weeks of Christmas merriment and New Year cheer? Then maintaining a calm, peaceful atmosphere in your practice is bound to be very welcome this month. Nobody wants anxious, stressed out patients, and that includes little ones. In her cover feature in this issue of BDJ Team, Zoe Marshman says that dental anxiety affects people of all ages and tends to develop in childhood and adolescence. Zoe writes about the new self-help CBT guide she helped develop, aimed at reducing dental anxiety in children. A child who is happy to come into the practice for their treatment should continue to return as they grow into adults - which can only be good news for oral health.

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We are also pleased to feature dental hygienist Jocelyn Harding's guide for the dental care of cancer patients before, during and after their treatment - including a look at what treatment these patients might receive and the side effects it can have on the oral cavity.

Rosalyn Davies takes us on her journey from being a trainee dental nurse in the early 80s to making history as the first DCP President of the British Society of Gerodontology this year. This is strong evidence that dental nurses have the potential to do so much with their careers, despite one lady who commented on our Facebook page last year that she left the profession to become an HGV driver... While probing further into this individual's career path is not in our remit (although I am sure it would make a great story!) we do include her view among many others as we reflect on the dental nurse salary features we included in 2016.

Perhaps climbing the career ladder in dentistry isn't really your thing and instead you have an idea for an innovation that will do for dentistry what Sir James Dyson did for the vacuum. If so, make sure you read Ben Underwood's tips; Ben himself invented the award-winning Brush DJ app, which has been approved by the NHS and downloaded in 188 countries.

When you've read this issue, make sure you pop along to our CPD hub to complete your first hour of verifiable CPD for this year http://bit.ly/2e3G0sv.