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Dental Tribune United Kingdom

PUBLISHED IN LONDON F ollowing an advertise- ment placed recently on Groupon by Star- smile, a company who are of- fering whitening treatments that are performed by non- dental professionals, the question of patient safety has once again been brought into the limelight. On their site Starsmile claim they “offer the same professional service and treatment as a dentist but at a fraction of the cost;” they also claim to provide a health check of the patients teeth and provide aftercare; however, they are neither dentists nor dental professionals. During the treat- ment video that is displayed on the Starsmile website, the ‘tech- nicians’ are constantly in con- tact with the teeth and mouth; however, although stated as part of their procedure, there was no ‘health check’ either before or af- ter treatment. In addition to this, Star- smile also claimed how one of the ‘highlights’ of the treatment was that the procedure and the technology were recom- mended by the British Dental As- sociation. Further problems begin to emerge as Starsmile make it clear in the FAQ section of its website that tooth whitening is not provided by GDC registrants, saying: “We are not dentists, our teeth whitening procedure is a cosmetic treatment carried out by fully-trained Starsmile techni- cians.” In light of the advertisement the BDA wrote to the General Dental Council (GDC) to ask them to take action to ensure pa- tient safety is upheld. Stuart Johnson, Chair of the BDA’s Representative Body said: “This advert is very concerning in that it encourages the public to get tooth whitening done by non- dental professionals. The GDC’s recent campaign sought to warn the public against tooth whiten- ing being conducted illegally by unregulated persons, and high- lighted the fact that the proce- dure should only be undertaken by a dentist. “The BDA wants patients to feel completely safe and know that they are being treated by a registered professional who is fully trained to undertake this procedure. We’ve called on the GDC to take action on this mat- ter.” The law currently states that under the Dentists Act 1984 it is an offence for non-registrants to practise or be prepared to practise dentistry. However, it has been noted by the GDC that several companies which produce tooth whitening prod- ucts maintain that: since tooth whitening products are cov- ered by the European Council Directive on Cosmetic Prod- ucts 76/68.EEC, their agents are carrying out a cosmetic proce- dure and not practising dentistry. A statement from the GDC on non-registrants who carry out tooth whitening stated: The Coun- cil is aware and concerned that tooth whitening is being carried out in a growing number of salons, clinics and shopping centres by non GDC registrants and indeed is being offered to people in their own homes. It is also aware that the standard of treatment being offered is far below that which is required by its registrants. For some time the Council has been exploring different approaches to tackling this problem with a view to ensuring that such pro- cedures are only carried out by regulated individuals and in suit- able locations. Given the legal complexities involved, however, this has been a lengthy process. Dental Tribune was unable to contact Starsmile for their take on the issue. DT ‘We are not dentists, our teeth whitening procedure is a cosmetic treatment carried out by fully-trained Starsmile technicians’ August 1-7, 2011 VOL. 5 NO. 18 Patience is a virtue New research has shown that men’s patience is more likely to snap quicker than women’s. When asked how long they would wait before walking off in a strop, five out of ten men would wait up to a minute, but only one in ten women said they would leave this quickly; however, the re- search also showed that men tend to believe they are more patient than women. On aver- age, Brits’ patience lasts just two and a half minutes before they snap. A third of the peo- ple surveyed said they often found themselves complain- ing to complete strangers. Some of the things that made people lose their cool were being put on hold, waiting for people who are late, de- layed trains, trying to get an appointment with a dentist or GP, and children repeatedly asking the same question. Menopausal tooth loss New research forecasts that over one in four post-meno- pausal women are likely to suffer from tooth loss over a five-year period. A study of more than 1,000 post-men- opausal women indicates that around one in four are likely to suffer tooth loss over a five year period, and the risk increases to nearly 90 per cent if other risk factors are present, especially dia- betes and if they smoke. The American based study found that 293 post-menopausal women out of 1,021 (28.7 per cent) had suffered from tooth loss over the five year study period. Previous studies have potentially linked the menopause to tooth loss be- cause of factors such as bone loss and oestrogen deficien- cy. The research was pub- lished in Community Den- tistry and Oral Epidemiology. Tweeting dental pain Researchers from the Univer- sity of California San Fran- cisco (UCSF), Preventive and Restorative Dental Sciences have shown that Twitter can be used to communicate health concerns. The authors of the study, Natalie Heaivilin, Barbara Gerbert, Jens Page and Jennifer Gibbs, found that many Twitter users use their account to share their experiences and many seek advice from fellow Tweeters on health concerns. Accord- ing to a report, the authors of the study studied a random set of 1,000 tweets; the report stated that 83 per cent were tweets tweeting about dental pain; 44 per cent reported seeing a dentist and 14 per cent actively sought advice from the Twitter community. www.dental-tribune.co.uk Value for money? Jacqui Goss discusses treatment plans The dentist’s role Neil Kothari on patient’s snoring Dental hypnosis Mohan Lal Photay discusses hypnosis in dentistry News in Brief Clinical FeatureImplant TribuneNews Dental deterioration? Survey lanches admist fears of failure page 4 pages 11-12 pages 25-26 page 30 It’s not all white!Whitening salon offer raises registrant issue and patient safety