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SOUNDBITE TO BE RELAUNCHED AS
INSIGHT – DENTAL THIS will be the last issue of MDDUS’ twice-yearly SoundBite magazine. In May 2020 we will launch a quarterly INSIGHT – Dental via the premium digital magazine platform Foleon. This move is part of a larger strategy to reduce our print/postage costs to members and reduce our environmental impact. We will also be publishing two additional quarterly titles aimed at primary
care and secondary care (replacing our current suite of magazines). These publications will cover all the topic areas found in our existing titles and more – with targeted content appealing to a wider range of members. All the Insight titles will be distributed via an email link, but those
existing members who previously opted for print will still receive a hard copy in the post.
EARLY PREVENTION BEST OPTION IN CHILD
TOOTH DECAY A MAJOR three-year dental study of children has found no evidence to suggest that any one of three accepted treatment strategies was better than another in stopping pain and infection from ongoing decay in primary teeth. Dentists involved in the study recruited over 1,140 UK children with visible tooth decay between the ages of three and seven. One of three treatment approaches was then chosen randomly: conventional fillings, sealing decay into teeth, and using prevention techniques alone, such as reducing sugar intake, twice-daily brushing and application of fluoride varnish. The children were then followed for up to three years. No evidence was found to suggest that any one of the
DENTAL FACULTY
GUIDANCE GOES ONLINE KEY guidance for dentists and their teams has been made available for free online. The Faculty of General Dental
Practice UK (FGDP(UK)) has published Standards in Dentistry, its comprehensive collection of standards and guidelines for primary care dentistry. Acting as a guide to personal
or practice-based quality assessment, it sets out specific basic and aspirational standards. Areas covered include:
emergency dental care, examination and record-keeping, infection prevention and control, medical emergencies, medications management, oral health,
pathology, patient information, practice management, prevention, radiography, restorative dentistry, risk management and communication, sedation, special care dentistry and staff training. Access the guidance at:
www.fgdp.org.uk/guidance- standards
treatment strategies was better than another in terms of making a difference in children’s ongoing experience of pain or infection, quality of life or dental anxiety between groups. Professor Nicola Innes, Chair of Paediatric Dentistry at the
University of Dundee and lead author on the paper published in the Journal of Dental Research, said: “Our study shows that… children who get tooth decay at a young age have a high chance of experiencing toothache and abscesses regardless of the way the dentist manages the decay.” She added that prevention remained the best way to manage tooth decay.
SNOMED CT REMINDER
FOR DENTAL PRACTICES ALL electronic systems used in the provision of NHS services are expected to employ the terminology SNOMED CT as of 1 April 2020 – and this includes dental practices. SNOMED CT is a structured clinical vocabulary used in
electronic health records and is an international standard. The Health and Social Care Act 2012 mandates that systems
involved in the care of individuals in dentistry in England must use SNOMED CT for patient record keeping, electronic communications and data capture. This includes all practices that hold an NHS contract and any
provider that does or may interact with the NHS for the provision of a course of treatment.
TOOLKIT FOR SAFEGUARDING
CHILDREN WHO MISS APPOINTMENTS A NEW toolkit has been launched to support the safeguarding of children and young people who miss dental appointments. The approach marks a move away from the “did not
attend” pathway towards one that recognises children often have no control over whether they attend appointments. The “was not brought” pathway – WNB-CYP – was published in the British Dental Journal and is available for all dentists and their teams to use via the BDA website. The toolkit provides a step-by-step guide to managing
the pathway in dental practices. It offers a flowchart for action and downloadable template letters to help the team follow a standardised approach which will keep young patients safe. It will help practices to identify at each stage of the process, which other healthcare professionals they need to communicate and share information with if they
are worried about patients facing dental neglect. Charlotte Waite, Chair of
the BDA’s England Community Dental Services Committee, said: “For many health professionals treating [children] the term “did not attend” has never been applicable. This ‘was not brought’ toolkit is designed to help the whole dental team, and provide practical help on making this important distinction.” The framework is designed to support any healthcare
professional treating children and young people, Access at:
www.bda.org/safeguarding
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