This issue features articles on mental wellbeing and stress, traumatic dental injuries and minimally invasive endodontics.

Cover image: The measure of a system is its adequacy in the face of adversity. Holding on to knowledge, ethical principles and technical skills, the dentist shoulders the weight in balancing healthcare standards. (Graphite and digital media.)

This issue features articles on thalassaemia, silver diamine fluoride and responding to domestic violence.

Cover image: The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) swarms, penetrates and infects the body's defence cells. New copies of the virus burst from the cell, severely compromising the immune system. Painful oral lesions associated with HIV were considered unfamiliar to dentists in the early 1990s. Their classification supported an educational initiative across the profession. Images that communicate scientific information in an engaging way have enhanced and facilitated that ever since. (Digital media and watercolour.)

This issue features articles on child dental neglect, furcation-involved molars and necrotising periodontal diseases.

Cover image: Art of the 1980s was not defined by a time period or concept but sought to use the past to create ‘new’ work each time, by selecting elements that would remain signifiers of fundamentals when planning something new. Therefore, even a repeated pattern still had room for variation. Perhaps variation represents diversification, and this diversification represents the dentist as a person. (Digital media.)

This themed issue features articles on early detection and prevention of head and neck cancers, management pathways, and the rehabilitation of speech, swallowing, voice and trismus.

Cover image: The repetition of a task changes the character of the dentist and fuels a loss of consciousness, resulting in a mechanistic approach to the dental recall. Man, when reduced to the level of a machine, risks losing touch with the personal side of healthcare. (Digital media and graphite.)

This issue features articles on IANB complications, management of patients with sensory impairments, and the impact of COVID on antibiotic prescriptions.

Cover image: Material science is represented here after organising theory into a coherent mental representation of what is described in text. The process of discovering and recording this material's dynamic adhesion through the act of painting fosters the illumination that comes with the grasp of concepts. (Oil on canvas.)

This issue features articles on temporomandibular disorders, monkeypox, and the inclusivity of dental journal teams.

Cover image: Society weaned on colour television saw the 1970s influence the production of scientific images for commercial use. Science and the aesthetic offered public engagement opportunities. Inspired by a cross section of tooth tissue, this illustration captures the tooth’s inner organic terrain, made visible through polarised light. Young children consume water but only some gain resistance to tooth decay. (Coloured pencils and ink.)

This issue features articles on alveolar ridge preservation, mobile dental units, and the voice of the child in dental care

Cover image: As healthcare professionals, we cannot fully remedy what we do not recognise as existing. To be successful in treating our patients, the dentist must know about the person, not purely the name of a disease and science that explains it. Here we discover the individual and power of being, through studying a simple group of personal belongings. A portrait without likeness, one might say. (Watercolour painting.)

This issue features articles on smile makeover treatments, hospital dentistry litigation, and decolonisation of the curricula.

Cover image: A burst of clinical activity disrupts the steadily growing biofilm, sending pathogenic bacteria rushing through the dental waterlines. Cultured microorganisms are at the centre of this investigation. (Mixed media on paper.)

This Eco Focus Issue features articles on attitudes towards sustainable dentistry, planetary health effects of COVID-19, and the environmental impact of community caries prevention schemes

Cover image: Inspired by art in the service of science and advertising of the 1940s. This graphite powder drawing shows the morphological intricacies of molar teeth reported to be more susceptible to caries. The possibility that fluoride held structural strengthening and protective benefits, but that fluoride was not the panacea.

This issue feature articles on adrenal crisis, water fluoridation in Scotland, and botox and gingival display.

Cover image: In the style of a wartime recruitment poster, we gain a sense of the dental profession’s need for collaboration. Posters like this were an essential component of communication, in mobilising morale, engaging us in the collective feeling of teamwork and igniting our professional spirit. (Watercolour and graphite on paper.)

This issue includes articles on gluten-free foods, matrix transfer techniques and digital readiness in dentistry.

Cover image: The illustration makes historical reference to the time period. Quill and ink mark the signing of the Dentists’ Act. Guy’s character echoes within the parliamentary setting, giving a sense of professional pride. His emphasis on the need to work together reminds us that attitude will in part determine our profession’s success altitude. (Graphite and watercolour on paper.)

This issue features articles on dental fomite detection, endodontic complexity, and denture cleanliness and hygiene.

Cover image: This special cover series marks 150 years of the BDJ through visual storytelling. The illustrations ahead hope to encourage people to read the original papers, learn from our past and reflect on what we know now. Here the style, line, gesture and symbolism sets the scene for dental intervention within the Victorian classroom (graphite drawing).