Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

Do you have an opinion or some- thing to say on any Dental Tribune UK article? Or would you like to write your own opinion for our guest comment page? If so don’t hesitate to write to: The Editor, Dental Tribune UK Ltd, 4th Floor, Treasure House, 19-21 Hatton Garden, London, EC1 8BA Or email: lisa@dentaltribuneuk.com Editorial comment M arch 22 saw the 19th World Wa- ter Day – a UN-or- ganised event focus- ing attention on the importance of fresh- water and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. Focusing mainly on the use of water in the production of food, the campaign is aiming to raise awareness of how our food choic- es and food production methods use so much water. ‘What has this got to do with dentistry?’ I hear you ask, and on the face of it not a lot; but a dental practice uses a tremen- dous amount of water every day. According to the US-based Eco Dentistry Association a standard dental vacuum system uses 300- 500 gallons of water a day - total- ling 9bn gallons of water a year in North America alone! Talking food production the first statistic you find on the World Water Day website is that a human being needs to drink two-four li- tres of water every day. However, to produce the daily food for one person takes 2,000-5,000 litres of water. As an example, it takes about 1,500 litres of water to pro- duce 1kg of wheat, but it takes 10 times more to produce 1kg of beef; and meat consumption is on the rise - from 37 kg per person per year in 1999/2001 to 52 kg in 2050 (from 27 to 44 kg in develop- ing countries). Doing the maths, it is a fright- ening to think about how much water it takes for every human activity. Let us all be part of the solution by watching our water use and making choices to reduce our ‘water footprint’ (the total vol- ume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by an individual or a com- munity or produced by a given business) both at home and in the dental practice. DT A study published on The Cochrane Library by the Cochrane Oral Health Group, has reviewed whether efforts by dentists and other dental staff members can be successful in changing patients’ diets. The researchers of the study, One-to-one dietary in- terventions undertaken in a dental setting to change di- etary behaviour, identified five studies, two of which were concerned with diet ad- vice given concerning gen- eral health, one of which was about alcohol and one which was about fruit and vegetable consumption. The researchers report- ed that in both these studies there was a change to health- ier behaviour following the advice. The authors also identified three studies which attempted to change sugar consumption habits in order to reduce den- tal decay. However, in two out of these three studies there were also other types of advice giv- en so it was therefore impos- sible to say whether changes in diet came about because of the diet advice given or be- cause they were subtly influ- enced by the other messages. • The authors concluded that the evidence for dietary ad- vice aiming to change sugar consumption is poor. Further studies in this area should be considered. DT Interventions to change diet 3NewsMarch 26-April 1, 2012United Kingdom Edition