Dental Tribune UK Edition, September 13-19, 2010, Vol. 4 No. 21

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The General Dental Council is holding a consultation on draft guidance on ethical advertising, One of the suggestions in the document is that dentists should not use the courtesy title ‘Dr’. They should also not refer to themselves as ‘orthodontist’, un- less they are on the specialist list, according to the guidance. The General Dental Council (GDC) wants to ensure that all information or publicity materi- al such as flyers or adverts about dental services are legal, decent, honest and truthful. The GDC wants to pro- vide dental professionals with more detailed information on whatisexpectedofthemregarding advertising and is asking for views on the proposed guidance. GDC chair Alison Lockyer said: ‘‘This issue affects so many of our registrants. We often get queries from members of the public concerned or confused about the information they’ve seen.’’ ‘‘We plan to ask patients what they think, but we also need to know the views of those we regu- late. We hope that dental profes- sionals and other people linked to dentistry will take the time to tell us what they think.’’ The consultation looks at a number of issues including us- ing specialist titles, advertising the provision of dental appli- ances and information which should be on dental profession- als’ websites. The consultation, which is open to everyone, can be found at www.gdc-uk.org and runs until 1 October 2010. DT Strategies for deprived chil- dren should start from birth T he NHS needs to put in place oral health strate- gies for children from deprived areas - from birth, ac- cording to a recent study. The large-scale study of the dental health of three-year olds published in the British Dental Journal, found that out of 4,000 children in Greater Glasgow, a quarter of the children had tooth decay. In the deprived areas, a third of the children had tooth decay. The number of decayed, missing or filled teeth (dmft) in the children seen from the least deprived areas was 0.3. In the most deprived areas, children had a dmft score of 1.5, researchers from the University of Glasgow Dental School found. The dental examinations were carried out by dentists be- tween 2006 and 2008. Andrew Lamb, British Den- tal Association director for Scot- land, said: While there has been a significant improvement in the nation’s oral health over the past 40 years, this study high- lights the depressing fact that poor dental health and inequality arecloselylinkedfromveryearly in life. ‘‘Given that tooth decay is to- tally preventable, it’s unaccept- able that social deprivation is still such a strong study of poor dental health. This study rein- forces the importance of provid- ing support to children from de- prived communities soon after they are born.’’ He added: ‘‘We commend the progress made by Childsmile, which focuses not only on chil- dren attending nursery and primary schools, but also on identifying children at risk from birth. As part of Childsmile, as- sessments are carried out by health visitors in the first two weeks of life. ‘‘As adult oral health can be predicted by childhood dental health, this targeted interven- tion is vital to closing the gap in oral health inequalities.’’ DT More than 3,000 dental care pro- fessionals taken off GDC register M ore than 3,000 dental care professionals have been taken off the Gen- eral Dental Council register, after they failed to pay their annual re- tention fee by the end of July. Being registered with the Gen- eral Dental Council (GDC) is a legal requirement for dental care professionals (DCPs) in the UK. All dental nurses, orthodontic therapists, dental hygienists, den- tal therapists, dental technicians and clinical dental technicians must be registered. Those who failed to pay their fee by 31 July have been removed from the register. Head of registration at the GDC, Gurvinder Soomal, said: ‘‘We worked hard to ensure that all dental care professionals knew about the deadline and under- stood what would happen if they didn’t pay their annual retention fee (ARF) on time. We are equally committed to making sure those who want to restore to our regis- ter are helped through this proc- ess. At the end of July there were more than 58,000 DCPs on our register and whilst 3,387 have been removed for non-payment, we are pleased that so many met this year’s deadline.’’ Dental care professionals who didn’t pay on time and want to re- turn to the register must complete a form to apply for restoration, have a medical examination and provide a character reference. They must also pay a fee of £120 and give evidence that they have completed the required amount of continuing profession- al development (CPD). If they were practising over- seas while off the register, they must provide a letter of good standing from the relevant author- ity of the country/state in which they last worked. If they were working in the UK while their name was erased from the register, they and their employer will need to explain the circumstances in a letter. If this has occurred, they are advised to contact their solicitor or defence organisation before submitting their application. Patients, members of the public and employers can check whether someone is registered by using GDC’s online register at www.gdc-uk.org. DT September 13-19, 20104 News United Kingdom Edition