British dental journal
-
The coronavirus (COVID-19) has challenged health professions and systems and has evoked different speeds of reaction and types of response around the world. The role of dental professionals in preventing the transmission of COVID-19 is critically important. While all routine dental care has been suspended in countries experiencing COVID-19 disease during the period of pandemic, the need for organised urgent care delivered by teams provided with appropriate personal protective equipment takes priority. ⋯ Major and rapid reorganisation of both clinical and support services is not straightforward. Dental professionals felt a moral duty to reduce routine care for fear of spreading COVID-19 among their patients and beyond, but were understandably concerned about the financial consequences. Amidst the explosion of information available online and through social media, it is difficult to identify reliable research evidence and guidance, but moral decisions must be made.
-
British dental journal · Oct 2019
A call to action: advocating for the integration of oral health promotion and public health via sugar sweetened beverage taxation.
We call on dental health professionals to advocate for the integration of oral health promotion into public health, and argue that a campaign for revenue from SSB taxation to be used for oral health promotion is a good place to start. The impact of sugar on health centres on obesity, diabetes and dental caries; these also have a disproportionate impact upon low income communities. Sugar sweetened beverages (SSB) are recognised as a universal major source of sugar, and it has been recommended that the amount and frequency of intake of SSBs should be limited. ⋯ SSB taxes can also generate revenues which can be reinvested in healthcare to further health improvement. Despite the self-evident benefits for integration, few countries have made a concentrated effort to integrate. We argue that revenues must also be invested to promote OH through an integrated public health and dental public health approach.
-
Mentoring is finally coming into its own. The signs are good: the General Dental Council thinks it's important; the British Dental Association thinks it's important; and the royal colleges, Health Education England and local dental committees have all stated that they support mentoring and mentors as beneficial and important. ⋯ In this piece I would like to encourage all dental professionals not to view mentoring as something that needs to be an 'add on' or something extra but something that is intrinsic to what and who we are. If we can move away from 'doing' mentoring to 'being' mentors, we will all gain and all aspects of our professional life can be enriched.
-
British dental journal · Feb 2019
Environmentally sustainable dentistry: a brief introduction to sustainable concepts within the dental practice.
This paper introduces clinicians to sustainability as it relates to dentistry. There are seven papers in the series. These include this introduction, followed by papers on energy, procurement, travel, waste, biodiversity and engagement and embedding sustainability into current dental practice. ⋯ The carbon footprint is one proxy of sustainability and is closely related to expenditure. In 2014-2015, the carbon footprint of dentistry was calculated to be 675 kilotonnes carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) with 64.5% related to travel, 15.3% from energy and 19% from procurement. The GDC should consider incorporating sustainability education into the undergraduate framework in line with student demands and similar moves by the General Medical Council.
-
British dental journal · Jan 2019
How to create local safety standards for invasive procedures (LocSSIPs) by engaging the team in patient safety.
National safety standards for invasive procedures (NatSSIPs), published by NHS England in 2015, recommend the creation and implementation of local safety standards for all invasive procedures. This includes procedures undertaken outside a hospital environment, such as surgical procedures undertaken by dentists. In order to implement a local safety standard for invasive procedures (LocSSIP) for oral surgery procedures at a large London teaching hospital, a clean sheet redesign of our service was carried out based on a bottom up model of transformation, using a 'diagnose, design and implement' strategy. ⋯ An observational audit of compliance with the new safety standards was carried out showing good initial compliance, with a reduction in compliance around six months after implementation. Further training, reminders to staff and further rounds of observational audit were undertaken to address this. Involvement of staff in service improvement is key to successful implementation of change.