Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

PUBLISHED IN LONDON A t a recent debate on dentistry, the ‘new’ new contract and regulation within the dental sector, Care Quality Commission (CQC) director of operations Aman- da Sherlock announced her commitment to reopen dia- logue with the dental profession to ‘move regulation to a place where it is proportionate and workable’. Acknowledging the difficult start to the profession’s relation- ship with the CQC, Ms Sherlock was very frank and honest about the problems that the regulator has had in getting to grips with registering more than 9,000 dental practices across England, and how there is a high level of mistrust and a low level of con- fidence within the profession for the CQC. Calling on all members of the profession to engage with the CQC, Ms Sherlock said: “What I want to do is start a con- versation. “[The CQC] needs to engage with the profession so that we can develop our services to a place where we want to be. There needs to be a meaningful rela- tionship between ourselves as the regulator and the dental profes- sion as the regulated.” Discussing the expecta- tions that all stakeholders in the process have, she discussed the current situation from three viewpoints: the regulator; the customer (meaning patient, Ms Sherlock commented that she preferred the term customer as it gave more of a connotation that she was involved in treat- ment decisions); and a member of the public. She stated that since taking up her post at the CQC in April this year she has become aware of an ‘over-focus’ in regulation. This, she said, is something she wants to address, again making reference to ‘pro- portionate, simplified and sensi- ble regulation’. Announcing a wide-scale review of CQC’s processes throughout its systems, Ms Sherlock added: “To further de- velop, the CQC and the profes- sion needs to establish a real partnership so that there can be understanding about what is necessary to ensure good prac- tice and to stamp out any exam- ples of bad practice.” DT Dental Tribune is looking to speak with Ms Sherlock about registration and regulation of dentistry, and would like to put your views and queries to her. Email lisa@dentaltribuneuk. com using the subject line of CQC questions with any questions or comments you may have for the regulator, and we will endeav- our to get as many as we can answered. July 11-17, 2011 VOL. 5 NO. 16 Playing dentist During an interview to pro- mote her next film Horrible Bosses, where she plays a dentist, Jennifer Aniston re- vealed how her dentist plays the guitar to her whilst she sits in the dentist chair. Jen- nifer explained that she has been going to the dentist for 15 years and a few years ago her dentist learned to play the guitar; since then her dentist has played the guitar to her and his other patients, espe- cially when she’s sitting hav- ing moulds done. In the in- terview she said: “My dentist plays the guitar for me when I have moulds in my mouth. It’s odd but it’s the truth…. And you can’t get out of the chair so you’re sort of stuck listening to it. Not that it’s not good or anything by the way.” A breathing space This week’s announcement that 2012-13 entrants will see their year five fees fully covered by the bursary is a good short-term solution that provides breathing space for a longer-term solution to be agreed. The British Dental Association (BDA), has been lobbying for what looked like a huge gap in student finance that could have seen next year’s intake of dental students applying for courses this year without knowing the size of the financial com- mitment they were making. Other representative bodies have been lobbying for a res- olution of the situation which appeared to run against the Government’s own policy on ensuring free access to the professions for young people. But it is clear that the solution is a stopgap measure for a sin- gle year’s cohort of entrants to dental and medical de- grees, leaving a longer-term solution still to be negotiated. Sex doll inspired robot Researchers in Japan have developed a dental training robot that can sneeze, shake its head, cough, gag, and even close its mouth when feeling a jaw ache. The robot was created by researchers at Japan’s Showa University, with help from the coun- try’s top sex doll manufac- turer Orient Industry to make it as life like as possible. The robot, called Showa Hanako 2, features voice rec- ognition and once a check-up is over, the robot will store and analyse each student’s performance, providing feed- back which can be accessed online. The Showa Hanako robot was first developed 10 years ago, but this revised sec- ond version is more realistic. www.dental-tribune.co.uk Discard your mind-set Rita Zamora discusses market- ing mistakes Venus Diamond Heinrich Middelmann presents a case report Implementing change Mhari Coxon discuss career elements News in Brief Cosmetic Tribune DCPsSocial MediaNews Nose smells cancer Could new research hold the key? page 4 pages 9-10 pages 14-18 page 27 CQC: “Let’s start talking again” Care Quality Commission Director makes commitment to re- engage with the dental profession