Please activate JavaScript!
Please install Adobe Flash Player, click here for download

today EuroPerio8 London 3 June, 2015

The EuroPerio Congress has established itself as the world’s leading conference in periodontology and implant dentistry. EuroPerio8 will take place from 3 to 6 June 2015 at the ExCeL London international exhibition and convention centre.

science & practice8 EUROPERIO London 2015–3 June The UK is gearing up to host the largest conference in Periodontol- ogyandImplantDentistryeverheld with EuroPerio8 taking place on 3–6JuneatLondonExCel. Over100 speakerswillcontributetothemain scientificprogrammeandthereare many additional sponsor sessions. Over 1,500 abstracts have been ac- cepted. Already over 7,000 peri- odontists, implantologists, general dentists and dental hygienists from 96 different countries have con- firmed their attendance. We expect to have nearly 10,000 people at the conferenceintotal,anewrecordfor aconferenceinthisfield,anditistill not too late to register. Giventhehugepopularityofthis event, it is perhaps a perfect time to reflect on the state of periodontol- ogy in the UK. It is clear that peri- odontal disease is not going to go awayanytimesoon.Althoughthere isalackofdetailedepidemiologyof thediseaseintheUK,theAdultDen- tal Health Survey provides a useful indicatoroftrendsintheepidemiol- ogy of the disease, even if it proba- bly seriously underestimates true prevalence rates, owing to the lim- ited methodology used in this sur- vey. The good news is that there has been significant reductions in the number of people with visible plaque and calculus present, (but this is still reported as 45% of the population)andconcomitantreduc- tions in the amount of mild peri- odontal disease, consisting of gin- givitis and those with low levels of attachment loss. However, perhaps unexpectedly, this has not been as- sociated with similar reductions in moderate and severe periodontitis. Infact,thenumberofadultswithse- vere periodontitis (pocketing of 6mm+) has increased from 6% in 1998 to 9% in 2009. The reasons for this may be complex but are likely to include the fact that we have an increasingly aging population, and thatdentistsare(rightly)takingout fewer teeth even when judged to have poor long term prognoses. This disconnection between trends in plaque control to more se- vere destructive periodontitis is a common finding in a number of re- centepidemiologicalsurveysindif- ferent populations and underlines the complexity of aetiological fac- torswhichdeterminesusceptibility to destructive periodontitis. Al- thoughplaquetendstocorrelatedi- rectly with gingival disease, in the majorityofpeoplethismaynotnec- essarily result in the progression to more severe periodontitis. The ma- jorriskfactorswhichareimplicated in this process including smoking, geneticfactors,andmedicalfactors, particularly diabetes and medica- tions such as calcium channel blocker antihypertensive drugs. The impact of the well docu- mentedriseinthenumbersofolder people may be particularly impor- tantforfuturetreatmentneeds.The over 65-year olds are often fit and wellandhavehighexpectationsfor their continued health needs, even though they may also suffer from common medical conditions such astype2diabetesandhypertension andmaytakemultiplemedications. Impactofperiodontaldisease Periodontal disease has typi- cally been seen as a “silent disease” which might have few conse- quences unless resulting in tooth loss. However, there is now lots of evidence to refute this concept. Pa- tients with periodontitis consis- tently report significant impacts of theconditionontheirqualityoflife, particularly impacting on function, aesthetics,comfortandselfesteem. Furthermore, even mild disease re- sultingingingivalbleedingandper- haps halitosis impact on social ac- ceptability and remain highly legit- imate reasons for treatment need. Prevention of more severe disease is of course best achieved by pri- mary prevention and early disease control by achievement of high lev- els of plaque control together with management of modifiable risk fac- tors, particularly smoking cessa- tion. Periodontal disease has now been associated with risk of a num- ber of other systemic conditions, most notably cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, among many other conditions. It has been clearly shown that periodontal dis- ease causes a measurable systemic inflammatory response but it is not at all clear that periodontal treatment actually reduces the risk of these conditions, or whether the conditions are associated through common factors such as genetic predisposition.Nevertheless,given the importance of these systemic conditions it is recommended that periodontal health should be re- garded as part of general health. Manpower Clearlythereremainsamajor,of- ten unmet, periodontal treatment need within the UK population, which represent a significant chal- lenge for dental health profession- als. Therearecurrentlyover30,000 registered dentists and over 6,000 dental hygienists in the country. In addition, there are approximately 300 periodontists on the specialist list,whoworkmainlyinprivatespe- cialist practices or in the hospital anduniversityservices. Giventhat there are an estimated five million cases of moderate to severe peri- odontitis, and perhaps 20 to 30 mil- lion with some signs of periodontal disease, it would appear that these relative proportions of dental man- power are not currently ideally suited for the provision of primary and secondary periodontal care ac- cording to actual clinical needs. Thereareofcourseasignificantbut unknown number of general den- tists who provide a degree of peri- odontal treatments that might oth- erwise considered to be at second- ary care level. The number of specialist peri- odontists in training is small (cer- tainly less than 20 every year), which is probably insufficient to maintain the total number on the specialist list over time. There is considerable interest and some commitmenttoprovidingagroupof dentists with additional skills in specific restorative specialties in- cluding periodontology, who could potentially meet much of the treat- ment need for secondary care peri- odontal treatment, but this group does not really exist at the present time. It should also be commented that this model of periodontal care provision does remain essentially untestedonalargescaleatpresent. Overall the picture of periodon- tal care provision in the UK at pres- entismixedatbest.Inmostareasof the country, those choosing to seek their periodontal care from the pri- vate sector, are able to access spe- cialistcarefromhighlytrainedperi- odontists and their teams, who of- tenprovideawiderangeofeffective and sophisticated treatment op- tions. However, outside the dental schoolsthereislittleorverypatchy access to specialist treatment serv- ices within the NHS. Recognition of thismanpowerdeficitandamoveto address it through intermediate level training in periodontal ther- apy is an encouraging but still un- proven development. Possibly the most important health professional for the imple- mentation of primary prevention are dental hygienists. Although there is little evidence on deploy- ment of hygienists within primary care, anecdote suggests that they may spend much of their time re- moving supragingival calculus (as prescribed by their employing den- tists) without any routine attention toproperlytargetedattemptstopro- videadequatepersonalisedoralhy- gieneinstruction.Indeedthewhole issue of the routine “scale and pol- For more information call 01934 710022, email info@tepe.co.uk or visit www.tepe.co.uk Tailored products for tailored oral hygiene advice TePe, Brush, Smile! Specially developed to clean under and around implants simply and effectively, TePe make home care simple and effective, whatever the implant design. TePe Implant Care™ 2 TePe Implant Brush™ 3 TePe Interdental Brushes 4 Bridge and Implant Floss SEE US AT EUROPERIO STAND 40 3 4 2 AD A mixed national picture The current state of periodontology in the UK and why there needs a lot to be done.By Prof.Francis Hughes,London Francis Hughes is Professor of Periodontol- ogy at Kings College London and Chair of the Europerio8 conference in London. He can be contacted at francis.hughes@kcl.ac.uk. For more information call 01934710022, email info@tepe.co.uk 34

Pages Overview