http://www.dentistry.co.uk The latest news in the UK dental industry. Dentistry Online is the website for the UK's leading dental publication, Dentistry Magazine. Tue, 30 May 2006 13:49:59 +0000 Dentistry.co.uk en http://www.dentistry.co.uk/graphics/dentistry_logo.png http://www.dentistry.co.uk http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1382 http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1382 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:19:37 +0100 Dentistry Editorial Team News http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1382 A 25-year-old-supermodel has had her smile fixed by a Derby dentist as a part of a television documentary.... read more - />
/>Sophia Cahill was filmed having her teeth straightened, whitened and perfected by dentists Tony Taunk and Aneu Sood.
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/>The Sky programme, called In Pursuit of Perfection, shows celebrities changing the parts of their bodies they’re disappointed with.
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/>Sophia, a former Miss Wales, was unhappy with her teeth and decided to go to Oakwood Dental Centre for help.
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/>Miss Cahill said: ‘I've never been that comfortable with my smile and, when I was approached to do the film, that was the part that I wanted to change.
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/>‘I am so impressed with the results. It looks completely fabulous.
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/>‘As I sat in the chair over three different sessions, I was really nervous but the dentists were great and I couldn't believe it when they said they had finished.’
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/>The 25-year-old has appeared in a number of magazines, including Nuts, Maxim and FHM and got to the final of Miss World 2000 when she was only 17.
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/>Now she is leaving the glamour life and moving on to commercial modelling and advertising products.
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/>She said: ‘It is a totally different market to glamour shots and hard to break into, so hopefully my new whiter smile will open a few doors for me.’ ]]> http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1382 http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1380 http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1380 Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:56:22 +0100 Dentistry Editorial Team News http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1380 Dentists will be banned from advertising Botox treatments at their practices, the General Dental Council (GDC) has confirmed.... read more -
Dentists will be banned from advertising Botox treatments at their practices, the General Dental Council (GDC) has confirmed.
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/>The Council has ruled that botulinum toxin, fillers and other non-surgical cosmetic procedures are not part of dentistry and cannot be included in promotional material for dental surgeries.
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/>It is preparing new guidance, outlining its position.
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/>The issue of non-surgical cosmetic procedures was included in the work of the GDC’s Scope of Practice working group.
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/>This featured a public consultation in which stakeholder organisations were asked for their views on a range of issues relating to the roles of dental team members.
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/>The consultation included a question on whether dermal fillers and Botox ought to be considered legitimate additions to conventional dentistry.
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/>The GDC’s Standards Committee and the Scope of Practice working group recommended to the Council that non-surgical procedures carried out away from the face are not dentistry and should not be considered as legitimate additions to dentistry.
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/>This means that in providing these treatments, registrants should not rely on their professional standing or title and patients should be informed that the treatment is not being provided by the registrant in their capacity as a dental professional.
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/>Also, the provision of such procedures should be advertised or otherwise publicised separately from the practice of dentistry.
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/>Alternative therapies
/>The GDC felt that some alternative therapies can have a legitimate use in dental treatment, such as hypnosis used to help an anxious patient.
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/>However, in a statement it said: ‘The Council is concerned that registrants should not use their standing as a dental professional to offer alternative therapies such as acupuncture or pain relief which are not provided to a patient as part of their dental treatment, for example hypnosis for smoking cessation or acupuncture for the relief of non-dental pain. This is the case even if a registrant is trained and registered as an alternative therapist.’
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/>Again, the practice of alternative therapies must be advertised or otherwise publicised separately to a registrant’s practice of dentistry.  
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/>The GDC stressed that before carrying out such treatments, registrants must check they have appropriate indemnity cover to carry out non-surgical cosmetic treatments and alternative therapies not linked to a patient’s dental treatment.   

for further information, go to www.gdc-uk.org/Current+registrant.
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/> ]]> http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1380 http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1375 http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1375 Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:42:54 +0100 Dentistry Editorial Team News http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1375 The Dentistry\.... read more -
The Dentistry\.co\.uk Website Awards is looking to honour your eye-catching winning ways on the web...Has your presence on the web got a high profile – and possess what it takes to win accolades as a style icon?

Your practice can have its online presence officially rewarded by entering the Dentistry.co.uk Website Awards – now in its second year and once again sponsored by Dental Focus Web Design.
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/>Producing and developing a quality and stylish practice website has never been more important in the current economic climate and in today’s dental industry.
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/>A website can go a long way towards marketing a surgery and, if used effectively, can prove to be a highly successful tool in boosting your practice profile and attracting new patients.
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/>Krishan Joshi, Project Manager at Dental Focus Web Design, said, ‘It's really exciting to be part of the Dentistry.co.uk Website Awards again.
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/>‘This year's awards is so important because the best websites need to be recognised by both the profession and public in order to help raise the standard for the next year.
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/>‘The web is moving so fast and I'm sure all the entries will be of amazing quality this year. It's fantastic to have the Website Awards as part of the main Dentistry Awards too as this finally acknowledges the fact that web marketing needs to be at the forefront of a dental practice's marketing strategy!’
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/>Patient expectations are higher than ever before. Content must be truly informative, in terms of both quality and quantity, while the design needs to be user-friendly and strike a chord with the appropriate target audience.
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/>Patient cases can help build the credibility of the site, and they should be represented with high-quality before-and-after images, smile galleries and testimonials, while the surgery must be presented in a professional and approachable manner.
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/>Profile-raising needs to be exploited fully through search engine optimisation (SEO) – a slick, professional site that can be found on the first page of Google is what you should be aiming for.
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/>Essentially, patients need to be impressed enough by a practice website that they are spurred to make an appointment or recommend it to family, friends and colleagues.
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/>And the marketing doesn't stop there. The website can be highlighted on all practice stationery, signage and reminders, and used to show past cases or testimonials even before starting treatment.
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/>The internet has also provided the public with a shrewd tool to compare the respective merits of dentists without having to physically visit the practice or pick up the phone to talk to staff.
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/>Therefore, standing out from competitors online is important for any dentist, particularly in the private sector. In order to stand out, you need to stand for something, and what many dental websites are now doing is targeting a specific patient profile.
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/>Every practice has unique patient demographics depending on location, modernity and selection of treatments, and tailoring the website to those requirements is crucial.

Dentistry.co.uk has seen how practices throughout the UK have made vast improvements in their online services/marketing, particularly over the last year.
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/>With this in mind, we feel it's time those efforts were rewarded. The Dentistry.co.uk Website Awards 2008, sponsored by Dental Focus Web Design, are a significant step forward in establishing the importance of an effective practice website and the time and expertise that goes into developing them.
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/>Format
/>Practices can enter the awards by visiting www.dentistry.co.uk/webawards. The deadline for entries is 17 October and on 20 November all award-winners apart from the Best Practice award which will be announced at the Dentistry Awards ceremony on 12 December. There are three awards – Best Website, Most Improved Site and Best New Website – available in each of the four categories: NHS, Private, Mixed, and Specialist.
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/>Criteria
/>When selecting the finalists and winners, the judging panel will be looking for qualities such as the following:
/>• Look and feel of the site
/>• Quality of informative content
/>• User-friendly features
/>• Whether it makes a good impression
/>• How it appeals to the right audience
/>• Real patient cases – relevant pictures and testimonials
/>• Surgery presentation
/>• Search engine optimisation
/>• Technical/video/animation expertise.
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/>Your opportunity
/>Don't miss your chance to win an award in this growing area of the dental profession. Online expertise is becoming an increasingly creative and effective force, and it's high time that talent was acknowledged. The Dentistry.co.uk Website Awards 2008, sponsored by Dental Focus Web Design, give your practice its chance to shine. Visit www.dentistry.co.uk/webawards to enter.
/> ]]> http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1375 http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1373 http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1373 Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:01:04 +0100 Dentistry Editorial Team News http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1373 Could sacrificing a tooth enable some infertile men to father children?... read more - />
/>That's the goal of researchers in Brazil, who suggest that stem cells from human teeth can be coaxed into becoming sperm by injecting them into the testes of mice.
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/>The report is published at www.newscientist.com.
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/>Researcher Irina Kerkis of the Butantan Institute, São Paulo, and her colleagues injected stem cells from the dental pulp of human teeth into the testes of live mice.
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/>The cells seemed to migrate to the tubules where sperm usually mature and differentiate into cells resembling human sperm.
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/>However, the process was inefficient and some of the human cells fused with mouse cells – a problem that would have to be solved before the technique could be used therapeutically.
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/>The cells were also taken from baby teeth, so it is unclear if the approach would work with teeth from adult men.
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/>‘I think we are on the right track, but we need to understand more about the mechanism,’ says Kerkis, whose team presented the results at the meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Barcelona, Spain, on 9 July.
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/>Other researchers are sceptical. It takes human sperm several weeks to develop, yet the Brazilian team's cells seemed to have matured within nine days.
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/>Given that human sperm stem cells have previously failed to mature in mouse testes, it seems unlikely that dental cells would fare better, adds Robin Lovell-Badge of the National Institute for Medical Research in London. ]]> http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1373 http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1370 http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1370 Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:59:06 +0100 Dentistry Editorial Team News http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1370 BBC television is looking for the most bizarre, unusual and extraordinary dental cases to feature in a medical documentary series, Bizarre ER.... read more - />
/>The production team is looking to speak to dental professionals willing to share the most remarkable accidents, injuries or other cases they may have encountered in recent years, with the proviso that the patients concerned made a substantial recovery afterwards.
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/> They are specifically interested in:
/>• A story with a very unusual wound, fracture, other injury or symptoms
/>• A bizarre accident – either in terms of its impact on the body, or the details of the accident itself
/>• Something that calls for a curious form of treatment or operation
/>• Or a fairly commonplace injury that was sustained in improbable or amusing circumstances
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/>The series is fundamentally respectful of both the medical profession and those patients who consent to take part.
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/>The programme-makers abide by strict BBC guidelines that ensure that everyone is portrayed fairly.
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/>As Maverick Television is an experienced producer of several medical series and undertake not to undermine or discredit the strict rules of patient confidentiality, they are, at this stage only asking dental nurses to contact them with examples and not with the patients' details.
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/>If there’s anything you think might be appropriate for the programme, please contact Samantha Williams at Maverick’s London offices on +44 20 7874 6675 or email s.williams@mavericktv.co.uk. ]]> http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1370 http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1368 http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1368 Tue, 08 Jul 2008 13:56:44 +0100 Dentistry Editorial Team News http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1368 Dental supplier 1st Dental Laboratories warned its interim results would be behind directors expectations.... read more -
Dental supplier 1st Dental Laboratories warned its interim results would be behind directors expectations.
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/>But as reported on www.yorkshirepost.co.uk, they said recovery plans were in place for the second half of the year.
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/>The Harrogate-based group said its revenues had dropped by 12% and the problem was "beyond the control of the directors and management".
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/>Chairman Andrew Garner said he could not go into more detail about the problem, but added: "This disruption is believed to be a one-off and appears not to be getting worse, with some recovery expected in the second half of the year.
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/>"Our new main board directors, Nigel Spring, operations director, and Roger Smallwood, finance director, are making real progress and focusing on improving performance."
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/>The company supplies bridges and crowns and offers an online service – eteeth – that aims to offer products at competitive prices.
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/>For the year ended 30 November 2007, the company reported underlying pre-tax profits of £615,000.
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/>The group will announce its interim results on 27 August, when Mr Garner said he would go into more detail about the issues involved. ]]> http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1368 http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1366 http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1366 Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:54:45 +0100 Dentistry Editorial Team News http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1366 The NHS dental contract is 'extremely unpopular' with dentists and has failed to improve services for patients, a committee of MPs said last week.... read more -
The NHS dental contract is 'extremely unpopular' with dentists and has failed to improve services for patients, a committee of MPs said last week.

The Commons Health Select Committee, in a damning report into the 2006 reforms, said the Government's goal of improving patient access had 'not been realised' by the new contract.

The MPs noted assertions from the chief dental officer, Barry Cockcroft, that the situation had stabilised and improvements would soon be seen.

But they cast doubt on his conviction that the new arrangements would work if PCTs and dentists used common sense and goodwill, saying: 'The committee saw little evidence that this will happen. The MPs said it was 'extraordinary that the remuneration system for dentists, based on an annual income in return for an agreed amount of work measured by units of dental activity (UDAs), was not piloted or tested before it was introduced.'

Their report said the UDA system had proved 'extremely unpopular with dentists', adding: 'Too many PCTs seem to have set unrealistic activity targets and have applied UDAs too rigidly.'

The committee made a series of recommendations, including increasing the number of UDA bands, allocating funding on the basis of a local needs assessment rather than following the historic pattern of services in various areas, and rewarding dentists who improved the oral health of their patients.

The report also called for the reinstatement of patient registration to improve the dentists-patient relationship.

The Department was urged to 'monitor closely' the career plans of NHS dentists to prevent an exodus of practitioners in 2009 when guaranteed income ends.

Evidence presented to the Commons Health Select Committee found that the number of tooth extractions has risen since the new contract was introduced, while the volume of more complex work like crowns, bridges and dentures has fallen by 57%.

MPs were also told how the number of patients being referred to dental hospitals and community dentists increased following the introduction of the new contract.

Dentists now had no financial incentive to treat complex cases and patients were being pushed unnecessarily into the hospital system, the MPs heard.

Figures released last month showed that almost a million fewer people are now seeing an NHS dentist than before the Government's reforms.

More than 800,000 fewer people saw a dentist in the two years to December 2007 than in the two years to April 2006, data from the Information Centre for health and social care revealed.

Committee chairman and Labour MP Kevin Barron said: 'It is disappointing that so far the new dental contract has failed to improve the patient's experience of dental services.

'While we readily accept that in some areas of the country provision of NHS dentistry is good, overall provision is patchy.

'Fewer patients are visiting an NHS dentist than before the contracts were introduced in April 2006, we heard little evidence that preventative care has increased, and patients seem less likely to receive complex treatments they may require within the NHS.'

He added: 'The Department did not test through a pilot the new remuneration system and we were astonished that in such a crucial area of reform the Department chose not to undertake rigorous testing prior to its introduction.'

Shadow Health Minister Mike Penning said: 'The Government has consistently refused to acknowledge the shambolic current state of NHS dentistry. This report gives a scathing assessment of the true scale of the problems.

'Labour must take responsibility for the failure of their dental contract. It has vastly reduced the number of people able to gain access to an NHS dentist.

'The situation is simply unacceptable, as the Select Committee has now made clear. In line with Conservative proposals, the report calls for a return to a registration system and an increase in the range of UDA banding.

'This will help to shift the focus back to preventative treatment and to secure better outcomes for patients.'

Mr Penning added: 'The Select Committee's findings are compelling evidence of the reasons why dentists are leaving the NHS in droves. We believe that this failed experiment with the UDA-based contract must be scrapped.'

The Department of Health said the Government would 'carefully consider' the Committee's recommendations before publishing a formal response to its report.

A DoH spokeswoman said more than £200million had been invested in in NHS dentistry this year, over and above increases in the last three years.

She said: 'The focus and funding is already starting to show results - patients are starting to see the benefits with new NHS practices opening all over the country, and we are working with the NHS to ensure that, as the committee recommends, the quality of dental commissioning by PCTs improves.

'It takes time for the extra services now being commissioned to feed through into the access figures that currently do not provide an up to date picture. More and more patients are benefiting from increases in services and we are confident that this will start to show through in the figures later this year.' ]]> http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1366 http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1365 http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1365 Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:21:13 +0100 Dentistry Editorial Team News http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1365 Metal earrings and dental fillings could be the cause of chronic back pain.... read more -
Metal earrings and dental fillings could be the cause of chronic back pain.
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/>Pieces of metal that pierce or even just touch the skin could be setting off a massive chain reaction in the body, sending hundreds of muscles out of alignment , according to a story on www.mailonsunday.co.uk.
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/>And even the smallest bits of metal – such as tooth fillings – could be the cause of major agony in muscles far away.
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/>Experts say the nervous system automatically tries to move body parts away from metal objects because they are uncomfortable to the skin that surrounds them.
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/>The muscles used in that movement will then place strain on other, larger muscles as they constantly try to maintain a distance.
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/>The result, according to a growing school of thought, is whole body stresses that cannot be cured by any amount of rest, exercise or nutrition.
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/>However, experts say the good news is that something as simple as removing jewellery or having a metal filling replaced with an acrylic one could be all that is needed to end years of agony.
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/>Chiropractor Simon King is one of around 250 professionals who are telling patients that the answer to their chronic back pain could be very straight-forward indeed.
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/>"I've always been fascinated and confused that some people with massive injuries made a quick recovery while others with minor strains took forever to get better," he said.
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/>"Then I made a remarkable discovery. Most patients who struggled to recover from pain or injury had metal touching or piercing their skin."
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/>Mr King says earrings are a common cause of back and neck pain, dentistry and jewellery such as necklaces and watches can cause pain and arthritis.
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/>Mr King said metal jewellery or dental work can irritate nerve endings which leads to the body altering the way muscles work, leaving people open to injury and recurring pain that does not go away.
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/>He said the body's reflexes react to the environment - for example even relatively simple animals will withdraw quickly when they touch something extremely hot or cold. ]]> http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1365 http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1363 http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1363 Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:23:09 +0100 Dentistry Editorial Team News http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1363 Levels of vitamin D in pregnant women may affect the dental health of their infants, new research has revealed.... read more -
Levels of vitamin D in pregnant women may affect the dental health of their infants, new research has revealed.
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/>Researchers at the University of Manitoba analysed the vitamin D levels of 206 women in their second trimester of pregnancy and found only 21 (10.5%) of the women had adequate vitamin D levels.
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/>High levels of vitamin D were related to the frequency of milk consumption and prenatal vitamin use. Yet, expectant mothers with low levels of vitamin D may be putting their infants at an increased risk of childhood tooth decay.
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/>The researchers also examined 135 infants and found that 21.6% of them had enamel defects and 33.6% had early childhood tooth decay. Mothers of infants with enamel defects had lower, but not significantly different, mean vitamin D concentrations during pregnancy than mothers of infants without enamel defects.
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/>Mothers of infants with early childhood tooth decay had significantly lower vitamin D levels than mothers of cavity-free infants.

Infants with enamel defects were significantly more likely to have early childhood tooth decay, the researchers said. ]]> http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1363 http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1358 http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1358 Mon, 07 Jul 2008 10:39:11 +0100 Dentistry Editorial Team News http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1358 Dentists in Essex may soon be providing school screening for primary school children.... read more - />
/>General dental practitioners (GDPs) in Essex may be contracted to provide the dental service following the success of initiatives introduced to mark the 60th anniversary of the NHS, according to Kathy Flegg, dental lead for North East Essex Primary Care Trust.
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/>As part of a programme of activities, dentists and dental nurses from 15 practices in Essex have been visiting nursery and primary schools to carry out dental checks on children aged 2–11.
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/>About 20% of children were found to be in need of follow-up and were given appointments with the practices carrying out the checks.
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/>‘It's been so popular that we may continue the service until the end of the year and I am thinking of commissioning it from practices,'’ said Ms Flegg.
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/>‘Access in this part of the country is quite good but we are always looking for ways of improving it,' she added.
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/>Problems recruiting to community dentistry had made it difficult for that service to carry out school checks, she said.
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/>As part of the NHS anniversary celebrations, the PCT also organised 'street dentist' initiatives, with dentists standing in Colchester town centre approaching adults with children under 11 and offering them check-ups.
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/>• At the time the NHS was launched, a shortage of dentists meant free treatment was not immediately available for all and children and nursing mothers were prioritised. But in October 1948, health minister Aneurin Bevan, architect of the NHS, announced that more than 80% of dentists were taking part in the new service – 8,039 out of a possible 10,000, and that one million people had sought treatment (BDJ, October 15 1948). ]]> http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1358