DTUK1610

June 14-20, 20106 GDPUK United Kingdom Edition T he General Election, the formationofanewgovern- ment and all the speeches and appointments that follo- wed this has lately kept the GD- PUK forum bubbling away. Col- leagues discussed the prospec- tuses of the contesting parties, they argued over who they would vote for and why, and when the prospect of a hung Parliament loomed, they talked about who should join to form a govern- ment and the effect of the new policies on dentistry. Early after the election, two major speeches could be extrapo- lated to make dentists and dentist- ry feel more positive about the fu- ture. Nick Clegg announced new ideas to tear up many of the laws brought in by Labour, and asked for people to tell him which ones should go. The new Home Secre- tary, Theresa May, spoke to the Police Federation and said that her predecessors had tied the Police up in red tape and undermined their professional responsibility. Now things would be different. She was not going to tell them how to do their job, any more than she would tell a surgeon how to per- form an operation or an engineer how to build a bridge. Feelings continue to run very high regarding the imposi- tion of HTM 0105 and people co- operate to protest about it. Groups coalesce to write letters to their MPs, to the new health ministers, to Norman Lamb (formerly Lib- Dem shadow Health Secretary, well briefed and sympathetic to- wards dentistry, and now chief political adviser to Nick Clegg). If the politicians are to be taken at their word, and the words they use are to be believed (am I naïve?), then there could be a better future for UK dentistry, with less inter- ference from Government-based edicts and agencies. I would also ask though, does dentistry need a further layer of costly regulation in the form of the Care Quality Commission? I urge those reading this to write to their MP and Nick Clegg, plus Norman Lamb, and encourage their practice col- leagues to do so, as well as LDCs and BDA sections, to mobilise the UK dentistry to remind the new Government what we need them to change – HTM 0105 and the CQC. As well as political topics, GD- PUK forum writers and readers have been discussing aspects of practice management, ideas from the US of having a large, multi- surgery practice with one dentist “running” from room to room and treating many patients with less downtime. The plight of snooker star Alex Higgins, who lost his teeth following radiotherapy for throat cancer and had friends helping to raise funds for him to have implant based dental resto- rations was also debated. One colleague raised the is- sue of a patient with addiction to Lucozade! What would you do? Another had a patient (who had been previously interested in tooth whitening) appearing with grey teeth. This was not from tetracycline. One writer sug- gested that she might have had treatment in a beauty salon us- ing chlorine dioxide, which can apparently have this side effect. Treatment options to help this lady were not discussed. Visit www.gdpuk.com. DT The GDPUK online community has been dominated by political topics says Tony Jacobs GDPUK round-up About the author Tony Jacobs, 52 is a GDP in the suburbs of Manchester, in prac- tice with partner Steve Lazarus at 406Den- tal (www.406dental. com). He has had roles in his LDC, lo- cal BDA and with the annual conference of LDCs, and is a local dental adviser for Dental Protection. Nowadays, he con- centrates on GDPUK, the web group for UK dentists to discuss their profes- sion online, www.gdpuk.com.

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