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Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

S ome of the nation’s best- known brands and retail- ers are giving their backing to National Smile Month 2012 to help improve the nation’s oral health. A campaign to improve the UK’s oral health in 2012 is be- ing supported by some of the nation’s best-known brands and retailers. Wrigley’s Extra, Oral-B, Listerine, Steradent, Bupa, Denplan, Dencover, Lloyds Pharmacy, Aldi, Wilkin- son and SleepRight are all giv- ing their backing to National Smile Month – the UK’s biggest annual campaign to improve oral health. Despite major improve- ments in recent decades, millions of people in the UK are still affected by poor oral health. It is estimated that a third of all children starting school have tooth decay; three in every ten adults suffer from regular dental pain and over four-fifths of the population have at least one filling. More also needs to be done to improve the nation’s oral health habits. It is estimated that a quarter of adults don’t brush their teeth twice a day and around a quarter of all adults say they have not visited a dentist in the past two years. National Smile Month, which runs from 20 May to 20 June 2012, is organised by UK charity the British Dental Health Foun- dation and encourages everyone to follow three basic rules for great oral health throughout life: • Brush your teeth for two min- utes twice a day with a fluoride toothpaste • Cut down on how often you have sugary foods and drinks • Visit your dentist regularly, as often as they recommend In 2012, the campaign is also promoting a water-saving mes- sage in partnership with Save Water Save Money and 19 water companies. The British Dental Health Foundation’s Director of Cam- paigns and Fundraising, Simon Howell said: “National Smile Month is a charitable campaign that needs the support of a wide range of supporters and spon- sors to help improve the nation’s oral health. “This year, we have received incredible interest in National Smile Month and we would like to thank all of our sponsors for their educational grants and generous charitable support. Headline sponsors in 2012 in- clude Oral-B, Wrigley’s Extra and Listerine. James Fulton from Lis- terine said: “Listerine are proud to partner with the British Den- tal Health Foundation to support National Smile Month 2012. We are dedicated to improving oral hygiene in the UK and think that National Smile Month is a great way to get people thinking about the importance of a good oral hy- giene routine. We look forward to working together to deliver- ing another successful campaign this year!” Jane Kidson, Oral-B Pro- fessional Oral Health Coun- try Leader UK & Ireland, said: “Oral-B are delighted to be working with the Brit- ish Dental Health Founda- tion again in their common aim to improve dental health in the UK. Oral-B applauds the Foundation for their efforts and implores dental professionals, the media and manufacturers to all do their bit to get behind the campaign and promote better oral health.” Hamish Thomson, Wrigley UK General Manager said: “We are proud to, once again, be a Platinum Sponsor of National Smile Month in 2012. Our ‘Eat, Drink, Chew’ message is all about driving awareness of the dental benefits of chewing Extra sugarfree gum after eating and drinking. So we are very excit- ed to be involved with such an important and successful event for promoting oral health in the UK.” The symbol of this year’s campaign is the ‘Smiley’ and everyone can find out more about the campaign, and how to improve oral health at www.smi- lemonth.org.DT Major organisations get behind drive Q ueensway Dental Clinic in Billingham has offi- cially opened its new Ed- ucation Centre after substantial investment and growth from the company throughout 2011. The creation of the new Education Centre is in direct response to an increased de- mand for a regional training facility, which corresponded with Queensway’s plans to enhance its events programme, training days and postgradu- ate offerings. Housed in its own building, located close to the practice, the Centre can accommodate 30 delegates and is equipped to cater for a diverse range of courses and lectures. The practice will work closely with several industry experts, including Warwick University with whom they will deliver courses such as the General Implant Forum and Training Gift as part of the Uni- versity’s MSc in Implant Den- tistry, as well as Nobel Biocare with Dr Ian Lane from Queen- sway delivering their train- ing days in the North East. The Clinic is also certified to deliver the National Accreditation Board for Dental Nurses (NEBDN) qualifications for Dental Seda- tion Nursing, Dental Radiogra- phy and Oral Health Education, which is open to all Dental Nurs- es across the region. Numerous courses have al- ready been confirmed for the year, including the first event, which is being held to update dentists in the region of cur- rent concepts in primary care sedation. A Queensway lecture series will be launched later in the year, with a number of lectures running throughout 2012 on topics including oral sur- gery, orthodontics, endodontics and periodontics. Further train- ing events will be announced on the Clinic’s website throughout the year. The Education Centre fol- lows a year of development into the clinic, which included the investment of £100,000 for a new laboratory, as well as the introduction of new treatments including periodontics, endo- dontics, facial aesthetics and all-on-four same day dental im- plants, among other services. Paul Averley, Partner at Queensway Dental Clinic said: “We are thrilled to open the Edu- cation Centre, which marks the start of yet another exciting year following the considerable pro- gress made in 2011. Our training days have always proved popu- lar and we required more space to accommodate the growing demand, so the new centre was a logical step and natural expan- sion for the practice. We have invested £40,000 into the Cen- tre, which will ensure we can provide the latest technology, in order to be able to teach to the highest standards. Not only is the new Centre a great invest- ment and resource for the dental industry, it also reinforces our commitment to the ongoing re- generation of Billingham and the growth of the business commu- nity in the town.” Queensway Dental Clinic is an award winning practice based in Billingham, which provides comprehensive dentistry servic- es for NHS and private patients, as well as an extensive range of cosmetic dental treatments. The practice also treats referred patients from dental practices throughout the North East of- ten for complex procedures including sedation for anxious patients, specialist orthodontics and specialist oral surgery. DT Education centre gives dentists the edge T he British Dental As- sociation (BDA) has appealed to NHS Choices to consider the way that com- ments about dental practices posted on its site are moderated. The appeal has been made following feedback from a number of BDA members about the way that the site allows serious but unsub- stantiated allegations to be made about practitioners anonymously and the often- slow process for moderating in- appropriate comments. The BDA is also con- cerned that many primary care trusts appear to be retaining the editing rights for practice pro- files on the website, despite pre- vious assurances that the abil- ity to edit would be opened up to practices as the feedback functionality on the site was rolled out. Dr John Milne, Chair of the BDA’s General Dental Prac- tice Committee, said: “Dentists have very reasonable concerns about the way that malicious or even fictitious feedback can be given anonymously via the NHS Choices website. We’re ask- ing NHS Choices to take those concerns on board and act to en- sure that this facility isn’t abused and that the way the site is moderated and edited is fair and efficient. “Feedback is extremely valu- able to dental practices because it helps to drive improvements for patients and dentists there- fore welcome constructive com- ments from their patients. But malicious unattributed com- ments from individuals who may not even be patients at a practice are not only unhelpful, but could also be damaging. In seeking to achieve the very laudable aim of promoting patient choice, we must be careful not to unfairly sacrifice the reputations of clini- cians. The issues the BDA is rais- ing will help to ensure that den- tists are treated fairly.” DT Online site allows “inappropriate comments” The NHS Choices site allows serious allegations to be made about practitioners anonymously The new Education Centre at the Queen- sway Dental Clinic in Billingham February 6-12, 20124 News United Kingdom Edition