March 2010 www.dental-practice.org
barrow sat incongruously alongside London’s premier shops, as though a
magic whirlwind had deposited a character from Mary Poppins.
There was not much demand for his chestnuts but he seemed to do well
enough out of it. Then one day I saw him reach into his coat and pull out a
roll of banknotes the size of a toilet roll.
He peeled off a few hundred quid and slipped it to a bloke passing by. Ten
minutes later another bloke came up to him and gave him another huge wad
of cash.
He wasn’t a chestnut vendor at all. He was bankrolling something in the
same way that Vinnie “The Chin” Gigante would emerge from his mother’s
house in Greenwich Village, dressed in his pyjamas, to pick up cigarette butts
before shambling across the road to whisper directions to the Genovese
crime family. Not surprisingly, this behaviour earned him the title of “The
Oddfather”.
Why has the NHS failed to implement
a workable system of prevention in
dentistry despite decay and gum
disease having two causes, both of them
preventable?
I worked out what Pirate Shops and Poppers are, but I want to understand
Fireworks shops. Your GPS has worked out a short-cut through the worst part
of a strange town and over a retail unit with filthy glass and a locked door is
a massive bright pink and black sign that screams “FIREWORKS”. Never open,
no passing trade for this shop. Logically, these cannot be squibs – these must
be professional display fireworks. Small bombs, in fact. They can’t be stored
on the premises. If so, why rent a retail unit?
Everything is not what it seems and the deepest and most meaningful
secrets of life exist in no written form. Let us try a dental one. Why has the
NHS failed to implement a workable system of prevention in dentistry despite
decay and gum disease having two causes, both of them preventable?
Incompetence? Empire building? The food lobby? Answers on a postcard.
PS. Why does the dental profession persist in trying to get patients to floss?
They don’t like it. They are useless at it. It was invented in 1815 so you cannot
argue they need a bit more time to get used to it.
Ask a patient if they floss and if they are honest they will say “no”. If they
say “yes”, ask them which fingers they use and you be looking at two index
fingers. I changed the Floss entry on Wikipedia to read “a method for a ham-
fisted patient to strip off residual periodontal fibres”.
The first thing that happens when a patient starts to floss is that their oral
bacteria changes and they get a taste in their mouth like a public lavatory. If
they continue sawing away with the nylon then they cut their gums and end
up in severe pain. If they get past that point they are in danger of pollarding
their teeth at gum level. Down with floss. Up with disclosing tablets.
DENTAL PRACTICE as seen by Steve Long
READER ENQUIRY DP 101
Poor Gerald has been terribly down, since he
discovered his new gnashers were made in Istanbul...
3
10march.indd 3 23/02/2010 12:48:23
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