February 5, 2021 | News

LONDON, UK: The UK government has recently imposed a new system of targets that is planned to increase dental activity in the country and to help address the backlog of COVID-19 patients. However, many dental professionals fear that the targets are unattainable and that the only way to comply with the new conditions is by prioritising non-urgent care over urgent cases. Now, a new report has shown that sales of at-home dental care kits in the UK are increasing, and the British Dental Association (BDA) believes that this surge in sales is a consequence of the recent policies adopted by the government.

February 4, 2021 | News

LONDON, UK: One of the greatest challenges for the dental profession in returning to normal business is the inherent risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission via emitted sprays, associated with commonly performed dental procedures. A recent study by researchers at Imperial College London, King’s College London, and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust found that controlling certain parameters could help during the current crisis to alter the key properties of sprays.

January 28, 2021 | News

HARLOW, UK: Now that many questions regarding COVID-19, including its symptoms, risks and recovery time, have been answered, researchers are faced with a new dilemma: SARS-CoV-2 reinfection and immunity. Although unusual, it is evident that reinfections do occur, and in a recent study, researchers explored whether individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 are protected from future infection. The findings suggested that past infection may provide natural immunity and that the said immunity is effective for approximately half a year after the initial infection.

January 25, 2021 | News

BIRMINGHAM, UK: Previous studies have confirmed a connection between periodontitis and chronic kidney disease (CKD), as they showed that patients with severe inflammation of the gingivae also had poorer kidney function. A new study led by researchers from the University of Birmingham has found, for the first time, that a biological imbalance causes the correlation between these two diseases.

January 22, 2021 | News

LONDON, UK: Dentists in England currently receive their former National Health Service (NHS) contract value provided they spend the same amount of time working on providing NHS care as they did before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, slowing down or completely halting all business operations. However, the new system of targets imposed by the UK government states that dentists who are unable to deliver 45% of their pre-pandemic dental activity will face financial penalties plus potential breach of contract consequences. Naturally, dental professionals have opposed the new contractual arrangement, claiming that it threatens the viability of many practices and undermines patient care.

January 19, 2021 | News

LONDON, UK: The British Dental Association (BDA) warned in early January that hundreds of dental practices would be put out of business if the government did not abandon NHS targets for patient volumes during the national lockdown. New polling has since revealed the extent to which UK residents are cancelling or avoiding dental treatment altogether, and Dr Dave Cottam, the BDA’s chair of the General Dental Practice Committee, says that when the facts change, so must the policies.

January 18, 2021 | News

BIRMINGHAM, UK: The advantages of hands-on training and in-person learning are innumerable, especially in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, as the UK is currently navigating through the third national lockdown, CloserStill Media has decided to postpone the British Dental Conference and Dentistry Show (BDCDS), one of the UK’s largest dental events, to June 2021. The event organisers hope that the postponement will allow a safe and enjoyable experience for dental professionals who seek to advance their industry expertise.

January 14, 2021 | News

COVID-19 has had a significant impact on our professional life, yet the aftermath of the pandemic and its consequences for our future are still unclear. Since dental practitioners and their teams are directly exposed to the virus, there have been numerous challenges to providing dental care during the pandemic. Up to now, we have only been able to base our practice management decisions on recently gathered statistics and on the early stages of research. This has led to various mistakes being committed in clinical practice and to unexpected discoveries as well as to increasing uncertainty about the future of dentistry.

January 5, 2021 | News

LONDON, UK: A new report commissioned by the General Dental Council (GDC) has found that UK dental professionals are pessimistic about being able to meet expected demand for dental treatment in 2021. The majority of respondents to an online survey expected that the pandemic would continue to limit treatment capacities and that drops in income experienced in 2020 would continue throughout the new year.

January 1, 2021 | News

LONDON, UK: Dental procedures were flagged early on in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic as posing a high risk for the spread of the virus. The strict infection control measures in place at dental clinics have helped to prevent the spread of the virus in dental settings; however, researchers from Imperial College London and King’s College London have found that careful selection and operation of dental drills could lower the risk of transmission even further.

December 30, 2020 | Business

HONG KONG/HARROGATE, UK: CareCapital, an equity investor focused on the dental and oral care industry, has announced an agreement to acquire global dental implant company Neoss. In conjunction with the transaction, Dr Robert Gottlander has been appointed President and CEO of Neoss.

December 24, 2020 | News

SILVER SPRING, Md., U.S./LONDON, U.K.: BioMin Technologies has announced that its BioMin Restore Plus toothpaste has received 510(k) clearance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for relief of dentine hypersensitivity. The toothpaste is available only on prescription from registered U.S. dental clinicians and is based on BioMin F, a patented bioactive glass complex developed in the laboratories of Queen Mary University of London in the U.K. Dr.Collins, the U.S. license holder, anticipates that the product will become available in the country in spring 2021.

December 17, 2020 | Advertorial

An award-winning clinician, researcher and director at the Brånemark Centre in Perth in Australia, Dr Graham Carmichael is a consultant prosthodontist and an adjunct clinical senior lecturer at the University of Western Australia. He has trained dentists and specialists in implant dentistry since 2006. In this interview, he discusses what he most appreciates about the Xeal abutment surface and the TiUltra implant surface and offers his opinion about their long-term potential.

December 11, 2020 | News

LONDON, UK: Though practices in the UK remain open as the country goes through its second lockdown of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, dentists appear to be facing increasing barriers to the delivery of oral healthcare. An October survey conducted by the British Dental Association (BDA) found that 35% of UK clinics cited limited access to personal protective equipment (PPE) as having a significant impact on their ability to see patients. Now, a 5% increase in NHS dental charges will come into effect next Monday, rankling some of the industry’s leading professional bodies.

December 7, 2020 | News

LEIPZIG, Germany: It is hard to overstate the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on dental trade fairs in 2020. From March onwards, essentially all dental events were shifted online, postponed or outright cancelled, effectively devastating an important and profitable sector of the industry. Though the number of new COVID-19 cases continues to climb by hundreds of thousands with each passing day, there are a number of bright spots on the horizon, leading us to ask what dental events will look like in 2021 and beyond.

December 2, 2020 | News

LONDON, UK: The UK has become the first country in the world to approve a clinically tested COVID-19 vaccine after the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) authorised the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for emergency use. The vaccine is set to be rolled out from next week onwards, and elderly people and NHS staff are to be prioritised—although details on how dental professionals, for example, fit into this plan are yet to be finalised.

December 1, 2020 | News

EDINBURGH, UK: The chief executive of the UK’s Oral Health Foundation (OHF) told the media in November that HIV could be transmitted through the sharing of toothbrushes. His comment was later corrected, but not before it had been published on the OHF’s website and on Dentistry.co.uk. As the international community prepared to mark World Aids Day 2020, Chief Executive of HIV Scotland Nathan Sparling said that misinformation about HIV remains deep-rooted.

November 27, 2020 | Advertorial

LONDON, UK: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Align Technology worked with a number of key opinion leaders with a view to exploring best practice strategies for returning to dental practice, helping dental professionals thrive in a new environment and turning unprecedented challenges into potential opportunities. A key enabler was found to be the adoption of a digital dental solution.