Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

T he Centre for Health Protection has been informed by the Uni- versity of Hong Kong Health Service’s Dental Unit that it treated hundreds of patients with improperly sterilised in- struments last week. More than 254 people, including staff and students, are re- ported to have received dental treatment under these condi- tions between 30 October and 2 November. Meanwhile, the university has issued an apology and called in affected patients for blood tests to rule out in- fection with bacteria or vi- ruses such as Hepatitis B and C and HIV. In addition, follow- up tests will be conducted six months after the incident, it said. The kind of dental instru- ments used for the procedures and the reasons for the neg- ligence were not disclosed; however, university officials said that the possibility of in- fection is likely to be low since the instruments had passed through some steps of the sterilisation protocol. They have set up a task force to look into the incident and re- view the unit’s procedures on infection control. The blunder came to light last Friday after a nurse en- rolled in the unit found that instruments were not marked as having completed the full sterilisation protocol. More than 38,000 treat- ments are performed annu- ally at the clinic, a university spokesperson told Dental Trib- une Asia Pacific. DT Patients mass tested after blunder The unit was using improperly sterilised instruments D r Jim Lafferty, a gener- al dental practitioner in Sheffield, has been elected as the inaugural Chair of the British Dental Asso- ciation’s (BDA’s) new English Council. The English Council exists to advise the BDA Prin- cipal Executive Committee (PEC) on all matters relating to policy in England, and to li- aise with BDA’s branches and sections. Dr Lafferty brings exten- sive experience of represent- ing the profession, both local- ly in Yorkshire and at national level, to the role. He is a for- mer member of the General Dental Council and both the BDA’s General Dental Practice Committee and the Represent- ative Body, and chaired the Annual Conference of Local Dental Committees in 2012. Dr Lafferty said: “The BDA, and the profession it repre- sents, face a challenging peri- od in England. A new contract for general practice is being tested, new commissioning structures are imminent and regulation is in the spotlight. Against this backdrop of up- heaval the BDA is also chang- ing, with new representative structures coming into being and the way that members are served being reviewed. “In joining the BDA Coun- cils for Northern Ireland, Scot- land and Wales, the new Eng- lish Council has a vital role to play in ensuring that the members it represents have a loud and effective voice. I am honoured to have been elect- ed to Chair the Council and will do my utmost to deliver that voice.” Dr Lafferty will be assisted by Dr Nilesh Patel, who has been elected to serve as Depu- ty Chair. Dr Patel is a general dental practitioner in Buck- inghamshire and a former member of the BDA’s Execu- tive Board, the body that was superseded by the new PEC earlier this year. DT Sheffield GDP wins chair of new BDA English Council Dr Jim Lafferty D ental Fusion Organisa- tion (DFO), a new asso- ciation with the mission to support and represent dental professionals working in pri- mary dental care, improve oral health and provide social and clinical training for members, was launched on 9th November. The association has no gov- erning body as DFO members vote directly on every major issue through Web and postal voting. If the members approve, one of the first campaigns will be to reverse the demise of the small independent family prac- tice. “In addition to dental health and business success, training and assistance with compli- ance will be a major theme of the new association”, says Chief Executive Derek Watson, (pic- tured) “This will be delivered mainly through a series of we- binars which enable dentists to learn at any web-enabled PC, tablet or smartphone.” So far 15 lunchtime We- binars have been organised, including Management Mon- day, Financial Friday and a course on improving your IT skills. These are open to all, but DFO members are entitled to priority registration and verifi- able CPD. DT New dental association launched R esearch from the Journal of Orthodontics shows that being bullied is signifi- cantly associated with orthodontic treatment need, with 13 per cent of adolescents aged 10-14 exam- ined for orthodontic treatment re- port being bullied. In light of this, Inline Ortho- dontics, a specialist orthodontic practice in Stevenage, is conduct- ing an anti-bullying campaign during Anti Bullying Week be- tween 19 and 23 November 2012. To help coordinate the cam- paign a meeting was held to dis- cuss ways in which profession- als in Stevenage can help young people who are being bullied. Key members of the local community, including local dental profession- als, were invited to contribute. Young people were also asked to contribute to the debate by de- scribing their experiences of bul- lying whilst their parents will be asked how this affected their chil- dren. Jonathan Alexander-Abt, Prin- cipal Orthodontist at Inline Or- thodontics commented: “Bullying for whatever reason is deplorable and should never be tolerated. This research shows that a signifi- cant number of children are be- ing bullied because of the position and appearance of their teeth. As a Specialist Orthodontist I feel that it is important to raise awareness of this and reassure young people that there is something we can do to help them”. For more information about Inline Orthodontics’ Anti Bullying Campaign visit www.inlineortho. co.uk. DT Anti bullying campaign by ortho practice 13 per cent of 10-14-year-olds report bullying November 19-25, 20126 News United Kingdom Edition