Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

PUBLISHED IN LONDON N ew guidance aimed at ensuring that adver- tising by dental pro- fessionals is clear and never misleads the public, has been issued by the General Dental Council (GDC). The guidance covers all forms of promotion of ser- vices by dental professionals in print and on the internet, stating that any advertising by dental professionals should be a ‘source of information’ to patients. Advertising by dental professionals can be a source of information to help patients make informed choices about their dental care. However, according to the GDC, adver- tising that is false, mislead- ing or has the potential to mislead patients is unprofes- sional, may lead to referral to fitness to practise proceed- ings and can be a criminal of- fence. It also guides dental pro- fessionals on appropriate use of specialist titles and ex- plains that only dentists who are on one of the 13 special- ist lists held by the GDC may describe themselves as being a specialist (eg orthodontists) or describe themselves as a ‘specialist in….’. The new guidance also spe- cifically states that dental care professionals (DCPs) must not imply they have specialist sta- tus by giving themselves a ti- tle with ‘specialist’ in it, such as ‘Smile specialist’ or ‘Den- ture specialist’. Instead, reg- istrants are permitted to say, for example, that they have a ‘special interest in…’ or are ‘experienced in…’ Under the guidance, den- tal professionals will be re- quired to feature their GDC registration number in ad- vertising their services. Web- sites must contain details of a dental practice’s complaints procedure and information of who patients may contact if they are not satisfied with the response, eg the rel- evant NHS body for NHS treatment and the Dental Complaints Service for private treatment. The guidance also makes clear that every dental profes- sional has a responsibility to ensure that any promotional information containing their name, in print or online, is current and accurate. Much of the guidance is in line with European guidance. Chair of the GDC, Kevin O’Brien said: “The duty of all dental professionals is to put their patients’ interests first. Related to advertising, this means never making claims which could mislead pa- tients. This new guidance will help to ensure that patients’ basic right to clear, accu- rate information is protected and that dental professionals have helpful guidance to as- sist them with ethical adver- tising.” The new ethical advertis- ing guidance, which is effec- tive from 1 March 2012, aims to ensure that patients and the public are not misled; it also sets out to provide more clar- ity to the dental profession on what should and should not be included in any promotional material. The guidance covers ad- vertising services, websites and the use of specialist titles as well as honorary degrees and memberships. Full details can be found on the GDC’s website www.gdc-uk.org. DT Terms and conditions: Quote code must be placed in comments box at time of order. This offer is intended for the end user and therefore is not available to re-sellers. Offer valid 01/02/12 - 29/02/12. Prices exclude VAT. Free samples available on request. Don’t miss out call now to start saving £££’s on 01634 878787 or visit www.kentexpress.co.uk today quoting Pastel Tips DT8P Plus order during February, quoting Pastel Tips DT8P and we will guarantee to give you this fantastic low price everytime you purchase Pastel Tips for the next 6 months. • Pastel Tips x 1000 • Disposable Air/Water syringe tips - 5 colours (white, violet, green, yellow, pink) • No adaptor required • Replaces metal tips • 4 channels •• For use on the original fitting. • Single patient use. Then look no further than Pastel Tips, the latest addition to our extensive range of Kent Brand products Looking to save £££’s on your disposable 3 in 1 tips? Now only £78.00 less than 8 pence each February 6-12, 2012 VOL. 6 NO. 3 Fixing teeth between games According to a recent report, Irish football fans are plan- ning to get their teeth fixed in Poland in between watch- ing Euro 2012 games. There has already been a reported rise in enquiries from Irish fans regarding their teeth and as a result dentists in Eastern Europe are expect- ing a business boom when they arrive in June. Accord- ing to the report, treatment in Poland is about five times cheaper than Ireland. The report stated that a porce- lain veneer costs less than €300 in Poland while a root canal treatment costs no more than €100. Dental im- plants are also half the cost in Ireland at around €700. Jorgen Petersen, who runs Medica Travel, said custom- ers also travelled to Poland for breast augmentation, facelifts and tummy tucks. HIV test passes the grade According to a new study in Lancet Infectious Dis- eases a saliva self-test used to diagnose human immu- nodeficiency virus (HIV) is comparable in accuracy to the traditional blood test. Researchers from McGill University said that the me- ta-analysis showed that the saliva HIV test, OraQuick HIV1/2 (OraSure Technolo- gies), had the same ac- curacy as the blood test for high-risk populations. However, according to a re- port, the test sensitivity was slightly reduced for low-risk populations. After analysing data from five worldwide databases the researchers found that their findings showed that the saliva test is 99 per cent accurate for HIV in high-risk popula- tions and about 97 per cent in low-risk populations. Membership consultation Stakeholders and the public are being asked to contrib- ute to the development of the Healthwatch England membership regulations. Healthwatch England will be a national consumer champion that enables the collective views of the peo- ple who use health and social care services to in- fluence national policy, ad- vice and guidance. Such a consultation will help en- sure that the public have a strong national presence to represent their views and help drive up improvements across the NHS.The dead- line for comments is Friday 2 March. Visit www.dh.gov. uk/en/Publicationsandsta- tistics/ for more information www.dental-tribune.co.uk Managing like a Mongol Dental Tribune reviews a most unusual book In safe hands Neil Sanderson on data management Effects of stress Glenys Bridges looks at quality of service News in Brief Practice Management ClinicalBook ReviewNews Stamp out illegal dentistry New BACDT site goes live page 4 page 9 pages 16-17 page 24 GDC - ‘Be legal, decent, honest and truthful’ GDC issues advertising guidance for dental professionals