February 18, 2020 | News

LONDON, UK: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) influences the success of medical treatment and allows for unhindered diffusion of bacteria. Although antibiotic resistance and its effect in the human gut microbiota and the associated genes have been widely researched, there is currently little information on the resistance genes in the oral cavity, which is the first point of entry for various medications. Researchers from King’s College London have recently shed light on the issue and reported that AMR genes in the gut and the oral resistome differ greatly in abundance and diversity.

February 14, 2020 | News

LONDON, UK: In recent years, tooth whitening has become an increasingly common form of aesthetic dental treatment. Though its provision is legally limited to trained dental professionals, an investigation by the BBC has found that the number of reported illegal tooth whitening procedures in the UK rose by 26% in 2019.

February 12, 2020 | News

SHEFFIELD, UK: Earlier last year, a 15-year-old girl from Sheffield was taken to Sheffield Children’s Hospital emergency department after being involved in a horse-riding accident that split her mandible into two. The girl underwent a 5-hour orthognathic operation, during which a surgeon fitted three titanium plates to rebuild her face. Emily only lost one tooth in the process.

February 7, 2020 | News

LONDON, UK: Positive job morale may boost employee satisfaction, improve work performance and foster good workplace relationships. Since a workforce with positive job morale is better able to improve healthcare, researchers have recently sought to evaluate the job morale among physicians and dentists working in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). They found that despite heavy workloads, unsatisfactory working conditions and low pay, more than half of the physicians and dentists in the study reported positive job morale.

February 6, 2020 | News

DUBLIN, Ireland: In the lead-up to the Irish general election on 8 February, the Irish Dental Association (IDA) has voiced concerns over the incumbent government’s National Oral Health Policy which was originally released in April 2019. Under the policy, it is planned to extend free dental care to include patients under 16. The IDA said the changes were unrealistic and that it would be advising its members to speak to patients about the issues before election day.

January 31, 2020 | Interviews

As co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Adhesive Dentistry, Prof. Bart Van Meerbeek is one of the most respected authorities on the topic of dental bonding agents. Here, he discusses how they have advanced over the last three decades and what the future of adhesive dentistry might look like.

January 30, 2020 | News

LEIPZIG, Germany: As cosmetic dentistry procedures have become less invasive and generally more affordable, their popularity has risen considerably. For those patients seeking a gleaming white Hollywood smile to boost their confidence, this goal has never been more achievable. However, there remains a certain subset of patients who, though they may regularly visit dental practices, remain dissatisfied with their appearance regardless of the cosmetic work undertaken: those with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD).

January 29, 2020 | News

LONDON, UK: A recent study has identified a cost-effective, low-intensity intervention technique that could prevent dental caries in thousands of children across the UK. Informed by motivational interviewing and behaviour change techniques, the method provides an alternative to clinical prevention strategies and will help dental nurses improve oral health in children at high risk of developing dental caries.

January 27, 2020 | Education

Motivating patients to implement optimal oral hygiene at home is not an easy task. In a free Curaden webinar on Tuesday, 28 January, dental hygienist and health psychologist Mário Rui will discuss how images and intra-oral cameras are a great aid for educating patients about biofilm.

January 23, 2020 | News

LONDON, UK: As aesthetic dentistry continues to grow in popularity, cosmetic procedures such as dermal fillers and botulinum toxin injections—most commonly Botox, but also Vistabel, Dysport, Bocouture and Azzalure—have been increasingly offered by dental practices. To prevent breaches of current advertising regulations regarding these services in the UK, the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) have issued new guidance on the subject.

January 22, 2020 | News

LONDON, UK/WASHINGTON, US: Dental Protection, the world’s leading protection organisation for doctors, dentists and healthcare professionals, has recently surveyed the well-being of dentists in the UK and reported increased levels of burn-out in the profession. Since burn-out may affect the dentist’s behaviour, diminish the quality of work and affect those around him or her, Dental Protection called for dental organisations to establish a corresponding role in which a trained professional would recognise burn-out and offer the necessary support and to include well-being as one of the key performance indicators for dental practices.

January 17, 2020 | News

CARDIFF, UK: Thanks to improved healthcare and living conditions, and a range of other factors, life expectancy in the UK has been increasing steadily in recent decades. Maintaining one’s oral health into old age has thus become of greater importance. It comes as welcome news, then, that the Welsh government has announced that it will double the annual funding for an oral healthcare programme specifically for older people living in nursing and residential homes.

January 14, 2020 | News

LEEDS, UK: The UK government has recently taken action to reduce sugar intake in the country and called for industry reformulation of foods that contribute most to sugar consumption in children’s diets, such as yogurts. Subsequently, scientists from the University of Leeds examined product and nutrient information from 893 yogurts available in UK supermarkets and compared all products to a 2016 baseline survey. The findings revealed that there has been a significant decrease in total sugar content in the last two years.

January 13, 2020 | News

LONDON, UK: In the dental clinic setting, communication is key to both successful results and satisfaction. At a recent exhibition, titled “Heads up! Shining a light on innovations in oral health”, the goal was to shine a new light on the Faculty of Dentistry, Oral and Craniofacial Sciences at King’s College London in order to improve understanding from both a practitioner’s and a patient’s point of view.

January 10, 2020 | News

MANCHESTER, UK: Over a thousand dentists, including Dr Dave Cottam, chair of the General Dental Practice Committee, have recently signed a letter published in the Daily Telegraph and titled “A lack of funding and an increase in bureaucracy have left NHS dentistry in a rotten state”. The letter was drafted by Dr Tony Kilcoyne, appointed dentist member at the General Dental Council, and addresses current issues in dentistry in the UK, such as the difficulty experienced by many in finding an NHS dentist and dental patients turning to illegal providers for cosmetic work.

January 9, 2020 | Interviews

Described by its creators as the UK’s first dental video calling app, Tooth Fairy was recently recognised as “App of the Year” at the 2019 Dental Industry Awards. Dental Tribune International thus spoke with Dr Deepak Aulak, co-founder of Tooth Fairy, about the app’s benefits and future direction.

January 7, 2020 | News

LONDON, UK: In last month’s UK general election, the Conservative Party recorded a resounding victory, securing 365 seats to achieve an outright majority in Parliament. The British Dental Association (BDA) chair Dr Mick Armstrong has wasted no time in contacting the government, penning an open letter to Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock on the topic of funding for NHS dentistry.

January 7, 2020 | News

DURHAM, N.C., U.S./BIRMINGHAM, U.K.: Cancers that occur in the back of the mouth or in the upper throat are difficult to spot and, as a result, are often diagnosed only when they are advanced. In an effort to improve early cancer detection, researchers have recently used acoustofluidics, a novel, noninvasive method that analyzes saliva for the presence of human papillomavirus (HPV)-16, the pathogenic strain linked with oropharyngeal cancers (OPC). The technique proved to be successful in detecting OPC in whole saliva in almost half of the patients tested and in the majority of confirmed OPC patients.