Volume 5 Issue 1, November 2018

The Dental Professional's Conference (DPC) 2018 brought together Dental Professionals from across all the clinical and technical disciplines. Daniel Shaw provides an overview.

Dental nurse and practice manager Priya Sharma grew up in Canada and moved to the UK in 2006. In addition to writing for BDJ Team, Priya has a varied background in pharmacy and pharmacovigilance, sits on the GDC's fitness to practise panel, and is married with two children.

Emma Hammett¹ provides an up to date guide on managing patients who have an asthma attack in the dental practice.

Hazel Coey is a Dental Tutor for Workforce Transformation Thames Valley, Health Education England. Hazel began working as a dental nurse over 30 years ago and this year is President of the British Association of Dental Nurses (BADN). Interview by Kate Quinlan

Gypsy travellers have poor health in comparison to the UK average. They may struggle to access emergency and routine dental care because of social, educational and cultural barriers. General dental practitioners can facilitate better oral health within the community by improving access, which may require some adaptation to conventional practice. This paper discusses the experiences of a practice within West Oxfordshire and highlights areas in which the authors have found small modifications to aid appointment attendance and patient motivation. Primary care dental practitioners come across a wide variety of patients from very diverse backgrounds. Following a year working in West Oxfordshire, one group of patients has particularly stood out – the travelling community. The term ‘traveller’ or ‘gypsy’ refers to ‘persons who wander or travel for the purpose of making or seeking their livelihood (not persons who move from place to place without any connection between their movements and their means of livelihood)’ and includes those who live permanently or temporarily in settled housing. There are many different socio-cultural groups within this broad definition, including Romany Gypsies, Irish Travellers, Scottish Travellers and Eastern European Roma Communities.

What level of safeguarding training does your dental team require? The Child Protection Company provides some guidance for DCPs.

Paediatric dentist Laura Gartshore, speaking at the annual BADT conference, discussed how the dental profession can give optimum care to children taking into account the needs of Generation Alpha as well as those in hard-to-reach communities.

Dr Jalpesh Patel, advanced facial aesthetic practitioner and qualified dentist, argues the dental profession should ensure there is greater accountability and transparency in the growing aesthetics sector and a register of practitioners is a good place to start.

While the case of six year-old Jack Adcock relates to a hospital medical ward, there are still learning points for the dental profession, says Stephen Henderson, a dental adviser at MDDUS

Following the article in September's BDJ Team on identifying child abuse, Jenny Harris, Chair of the expert group which produced the Child Protection and the Dental Team guidance, outlines how to identify and respond to dental neglect.

Two years ago, a very different kind of dental group was formed. Smile Together is a community interest company (CIC) delivering ‘dentistry with social impact’. Here Managing Director Paul Critchley describes how he and his team go above and beyond.

Michael Wheeler, past president of the British Society of Dental Hygienists and Therapists, outlines the controversial history of the role of the dental hygienist and describes why they have good cause to celebrate their profession in 2018.

Ben Atkins describes how he and his dental team at Revive Dental Care began reaching out to patients most in need of good dentistry.

Could you be tempted to volunteer over Christmas? In a Q&A article, Janine Doughty describes the rewards of working for Crisis at Christmas and the amazing care it delivers.

Dental technician Andrea Johnson describes the work of Den-Tech, the charity she co-founded.

The new chair of the British Association of Dental Therapists Debbie Hemington provides an overview of the 2018 conference.

The theme of the British Orthodontic Conference (BOC) in 2018 was Orthodontics 360 and a team of writers led by Sally Dye, chair of the Orthodontic National Group, give us a whirlwind tour of the two days dedicated to orthodontic therapists and nurses.

Tackling inequalities is at the core of dental public health. Through the prism of the Welsh Designed to Smile initiative, Maria Morgan, an authority on dental public health, illustrates what excellence might look like.

S. R. Porter,¹ V. Mercadente² and S. Fedele³ provide a succinct review of oral mucosal and salivary gland disorders that may arise as a consequence of systemic disease.

Despite a greater proportion of dentate adults in the UK engaging in good oral health behaviours than ever before,¹ dental caries continues to be one of the most common dental diseases in the UK.² Only one in ten UK adults meet the criteria of having excellent oral health, * with approximately a third having obvious dental caries.¹