Missed out on this week’s dental news? No problem, here’s what happened over the past seven days…
Patient with chloroform, crossbow and knives ‘planned to torture’ dentist after four years of stalking
Does stalking disproportionally affect those in dentistry?
This week we heard the story of how patient, Tom Baddeley, planned to torture his dentist, Ian Hutchinson, after four years of stalking. In the police footage you can clearly see the crossbow found in the back of his car, as well as plastic-covered car seats along with chloroform and knives. The dentist-patient relationship has swung too far one way if this is becoming a problem in dentistry.
Ian tells us dentists are contacting him complaining of patients stalking them. Is this a growing issue or something we’ve completely overlooked?
COVID-19: missed dental appointments hits 14 million in England
We won’t know the real impact COVID-19 has on dentistry for years to come. But the BDA is providing small snippets.
This week we found out the number of missed NHS dental appointments has reached 14 million! The fallout from this is going to be missed oral cancer diagnosis, missed opportunities for education and missed chances to tackle early signs of decay. Early figures show NHS dentistry isn’t recovering either, with levels at 24.63% of what they were in 2019. This will lead to a crisis, if there isn’t already one, in NHS dentistry.
FGDP(UK) launches a fallow time calculator for dental practices
Confused over fallow time? You’re not the only one. Thankfully the FGDP(UK) has launched a fallow time calculator. This makes it easy to work out how long to leave your surgery fallow between patients, based on the different precautions you are putting in place.
Dental practitioners rank highest for mental health issues
This week we learned dental practitioners are the highest-ranking occupation when it comes to mental health struggles. World Mental Health Day is on 10 October. Let’s make sure we take this opportunity to check our colleagues are ok.
Dental treatment holiday to Turkey leaves one dead and two ill
Dental tourism is a growing trend amongst those looking for that ‘Hollywood smile’.
So the story about one man dying and another two taken seriously ill after a trip to Turkey for whitening treatment should ring some alarm bells. Local reports suggest they collapsed after taking medication prior to the procedure. However, there is currently no suggestion the drug caused both the death or the illness of the other two men. Despite this, it’s imperative we educate patients about the dangers of going abroad for dental treatment. This story is one example we can highlight to patients.
What’s life like at dental school following lockdown? – a student’s perspective
Many students are now back at university, despite government projections that this will cause a spike in COVID cases around the country. We spoke to Gursahib Sohal, a student at Manchester University, about his experience going back and how university has changed.
Latest webinars
Dentistry Study Club is the place to go for all the latest dental webinars. With a huge back catalogue, you can sign up for free and access all our previous on demand webinars. If you have a spare few minutes, make sure you take the opportunity to browse through some of the topics we’ve covered.
Catch up on last week’s news here.
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