Dental news you’ve missed this week

Missed out on this week’s dental news? No problem, here’s what happened over the past seven days…

Dental teams should receive priority access to COVID-19 vaccine

Health and social care workers should be granted priority access to a COVID-19 vaccine when available in the UK

Health and social care workers should receive priority access to the COVID-19 vaccine. It’s essential if we’re going to get through this pandemic. The BDA has jumped in and called for the vaccination to include dental team members. This shouldn’t even be an issue, but past experience has taught us that if the government can sideline dentistry, it will. If the profession doesn’t make a loud noise now and clear up any ambiguity, before the vaccine is available, it won’t be heard when everybody else starts asking for it too.

NHS dental practices to get free PPE under new government plan

Dental practices will have access to free PPE as part of the UK government's new second wave strategy

The government is now promising free PPE to all NHS dental practices under its ‘second wave strategy’. The Department of Health is promising to build a stockpile, around four months’ stock, by November 2020. After Scottish dentists received face masks almost a decade out-of-date from NHS Scotland, we worry what this stockpile of PPE will look like!

COVID-19: calls for sustainable solution to PPE within dentistry

Calls are being made for a sustainable solution to PPE in dentistry as the profession responds to the COVID-19 crisis

Attention is now starting to turn towards the environmental impact all this PPE is having. A recent report published in the BDJ suggests if we don’t consider sustainability, it will cause a public crisis in the future. ‘As adversity paves the way for innovation, we are presented with an opportunity to impart substantial change and reform in our PPE provisions,’ the report concludes – it’s certainly an area we should all consider before we throw away some more gloves.

Dentistry Awards 2020 – the finalists

Dentistry Awards winners

The Dentistry Awards finalists are out! Have you made the list? You can find out here.

Dental health added to curriculum materials for primary and secondary schools

Dental education has been added to the curriculum for primary and secondary schools

Dental health is being added to the curriculum for primary and secondary schools, and it’s about time too! Students will learn about the benefits of good oral hygiene, the importance of brushing twice a day with fluoride toothpaste and the benefits of regular check ups. Hopefully the message will then also filter out to the parents too. This could potentially bring a host of new patients to see an already busy NHS dentist!

Autumnal drinks contain more than the daily recommended amount of sugar

coffee containing lots of sugar

And finally, before you reach for that Autumnal hot drink, just give a quick thought to the amount of sugar it might contain. A new survey looks at the most sugary drinks in Starbucks, Costa Coffee, Caffe Nero, Pret a Manger and Greggs. Find out which drink is in the top 10 here.

Latest webinars

Make sure you take a look at the latest webinars happening over on Dentistry Study Club. Next week we have:


Catch up on last week’s news here.

Follow Dentistry.co.uk on Instagram to keep up with all the latest dental news and trends.

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