Defensive dentistry and the young dentist – that’s not what we signed up for

Why did I want to become a dentist? I wanted a job where I would be respected as a professional and could change the lives of others, using my hands. This, I thought, would be my ideal profession; one where I could walk into work with a smile on my face every day. Cue dental school a place where one is trained to become competent in all areas of general dentistry. As readers will appreciate, dentistry is a vast field and the question that comes to mind is how so many diverse and varied topics can be jam packed into a five-year course. There has always been a debate about what to put in, and therefore leave out. At my particular dental school, the first two years covered basic scientific theory, leaving three years to get into clinical dentistry with some ‘other’ aspects sprinkled in. Some of these aspects included general communication skills, record keeping and one or two practice visits at fancy dental practices to see how good life was as a general dental practitioner. In light of the profession’s current climate and the rise of defensive dentistry, I aim to reflect on why many young graduates from all over the country feel out of touch with the profession so early on in their careers, and why some of these ‘other’ aspects of dentistry should have been covered much more comprehensively to prepare us for the big wide world./

Why there’s no better time to be a woman in dentistry

I had always known that I wanted to be a healthcare professional as I loved the sciences and interacting with people. I initially thought that I was going to be a surgeon until I was urged to look into dentistry as people believed that I would enjoy being able to use my hands earlier during my training.

It has been a love story since my first week of work dental experience. I applied to dental school in year 13 whilst studying for my A levels and was offered a place at King’s College London.

Fast forward five years and I have now completed by BDS degree and had a very enjoyable experience. I was very surprised at how hard dental school was because not only did you have to be book smart, but you also had to be good clinically. I learnt quickly not to take feedback to heart.

Dentsply Sirona collaborates with America’s ToothFairy on “Bid for Smiles” to raise $26,000 to support dental care for children in need

Dentsply Sirona continues to partner with America’s ToothFairy to support their shared mission of increasing access to dental care for children in need.

When children have healthy smiles, they have a better chance of reaching their potential. Unfortunately, millions of kids across the United States lack access to a dental care provider, resulting in higher rates of untreated tooth decay and risk of dangerous infections. America’s ToothFairy helps improve the lives of these children by providing essential resources that help nonprofit dental organizations serve more kids each year.

Ultra-processed food consumption, cancer risk and cancer mortality: a large-scale prospective analysis within the UK Biobank

Global dietary patterns are increasingly dominated by relatively cheap, highly palatable, and ready-to-eat ultra-processed foods (UPFs). However, prospective evidence is limited on cancer development and mortality in relation to UPF consumption. This study examines associations between UPF consumption and risk of cancer and associated mortality for 34 site-specific cancers in a large cohort of British adults.

Effectiveness of oral health education programs: A systematic review

In recent years, attention has been drawn toward assessing the effectiveness of oral health education programs. This is in line with demand for evidence based research and will help to inform policy makers on how to allocate resources. (1) Collect and collate all information on oral health education programs. (2) Assess the programs based on various coding criteria. (3) Assess effectiveness of oral health education programs on oral health status and knowledge, attitude and practice. A search of all published articles in Medline was done using the keywords “oral health education, dental health education, oral health promotion”. The resulting titles and abstracts provided the basis for initial decisions and selection of articles. Out of the primary list of articles, a total number of 40 articles were selected as they fulfilled the following inclusion criteria: (1). A

Influence of background music on stress reduction and impact on performances during students’ simulation exercises

The acquisition of manual skills is essential in preclinical dental training. Background music improves the learning of many manual skills, though we found no data on the consequences of background music on preclinical manual skills training of dental students.

War, armed conflict, and fragile states: Oral health is suffering

War And Armed Conflicts Are Public Health Emergencies

War and armed conflicts are forms of political violence that lead to devastating syndemic effects involving human and animal lives, economies, and the environment.³ They are also major public health emergencies.⁴ The risk of serious injury or death from direct assaults forces people to evacuate to shelters or flee conflict zones and seek refuge in safer areas, both within and outside their home countries. More than 7.8 million people have fled Ukraine, and more than 6.5 million are estimated to

Impact On Health And Health Care

Time to take oral health seriously

Oral health has long been neglected in the global health agenda. However, in the past 3 years, increasing recognition has been placed on the global public health importance of oral diseases and the need for radical policy and system reform.

Universal health coverage cannot be universal without oral health

International Universal Health Coverage Day is a much-needed occasion for the public health community to advocate for accelerated progress towards universal health coverage (UHC). Despite global progress, substantial differences in coverage persist between countries and within populations, in particular for oral health.

Lack of funding for dental health research despite growing impact on Australians

Investment crucial to address health inequalities

An examination of Australian research funding of oral health sciences compared to other major diseases has found investment in the area is underfunded, and not keeping up with the burden of disease in the country.

With research key to ensuring more equitable, accessible and effective dental care for all Australians, experts from multiple universities are calling on governments to re-examine how research funding is allocated in coming years.

The study investigated major government funding schemes, which included the Australian Research Council (ARC), the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), and Medical Research Future Funds (MRFF)grants.

The analysis found oral health sciences to have the lowest and most inequitable level of support, when compared with other research fields on burden of disease.

Burden of disease is the impact of living with illness and injury and dying prematurely, and also measures the years of healthy life lost.

Dental health issues are already on the rise in Australia, with approximately 70,000 preventable hospitalisations due to dental health issues each year, with 25 precent being preventable.

Socially disadvantaged groups are most affected by poor oral health. Researchers say it is vital there is more investment into prevention-focused public oral health programs or health inequalities will only worsen.

In the USA, the National Institute of Health provided $485 million to fund oral health research, representing 1.1 percent of total research funding. In comparison, in Australia, total NHMRC funding for dental disorders between 2017 to 2021 was $15 million, which is 0.23 percent of total NHMRC funding for the top 75 diseases with the highest burden of disease. Australian Dental Journal

Oral Health Research Funding in Relation to Disease Burden in Australia

https://doi.org/10.1111/adj.12949

… more in the attached media release and when you access the Open Access paper here.