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There was a time when the understanding of patients was broadly aligned with professional standards – Kevin Lewis asks how this has changed in a world of conspiracy theories and social media driven expectations. We live in an age of conspiracy theories. The existence of such theories is hardly a new phenomenon but they have blossomed…
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All of the healthcare professions are crying out for regulatory reform, says Kevin Lewis – when will it be dentistry’s turn? In making such a big show of having accepted in full the pay recommendations of the NHS Pay Review Body (NHSPRB), the Review Body on Doctors and Dentists Remuneration (DDRB), and the Senior Salaries…
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Whoever would have guessed that a debate on gender identity would have such resonance for dentistry? Kevin Lewis uncovers some unexpected lessons for us to consider. Last month’s landmark ruling in the Supreme Court on the sensitive question of legal gender ie what is and isn’t a ‘woman’ in the eyes of the law, has…
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In a world of misinformation and disinformation, it’s difficult to know who or what to believe, says Kevin Lewis. Don’t you just love silly traditions? It’s that time of year when one needs to take care not to fall foul of one of the best of them, although the date of this annual ritual foolishness…
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Prevention and oral health promotion should be a first priority, but have always been an afterthought in NHS thinking – expected but never funded, says Kevin Lewis. A lot has been said and written in recent weeks about what a satisfactory resolution of the Russia-Ukraine war might look like. I am at a slight disadvantage…
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When is a patient not a patient? And how much does it matter? Kevin Lewis revisits the myths and controversies of a recurring healthcare debate. Medical paternalism – conveniently summarised as ‘doctor knows best’ – was rooted in an age where the workings of the human body were something of a mystery for most members…
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How will we measure the successes and failures of the new year? Kevin Lewis suggests some answers and points to some challenges. Albert Einstein knew a thing or two, but if every quote attributed to him was correct and accurate, he wouldn’t have had any time left for physics. But who cares? A good quote…
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Tempus fugit: Kevin Lewis offers his seasonal retrospective on the year’s successes and failures, arrivals and departures, events and non-events. Any reader who is sad enough to have read (let alone remembered) my column here a month ago, may remember that it started and ended with the phrase ‘sod it’. You could be forgiven, then,…
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Do we really reap what we sow? Kevin Lewis examines whether or not the old proverb is right. Sod it. And I mean that in a constructive, horticultural kind of a way, rather than in any defeatist or exasperated sense. Although on reflection that might change before we reach the end of this column. We…
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Discussing the state of NHS dentistry, Kevin Lewis ponders the relative merits of too much, too little, and things we are told too often. Fifty years ago, the Japanese engineering and manufacturing boom was at its height in many industries and the revolutionary ‘just in time’ (JIT) production and supply chain concept made famous by…
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Brave new world?: Kevin Lewis suggests that the future is not made any brighter by ignoring lessons from history. It is 92 years since Aldous Huxley described a future world that suffered the consequences of having become too dependent upon science and technology (and also too trusting and blind to its risks), and which devalued…
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The law of unintended consequences is alive and well, Kevin Lewis discovers, as he explores the complexities surrounding the proposed reforms to ease the NHS dental workforce crisis. It is blindingly obvious that no government (of any complexion and whether central or devolved) can hope to resolve the current NHS dental access crisis without a…
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We may already be unwilling participants in the latest of a long line of historic workforce miscalculations, Kevin Lewis discovers. But are the clues in the past, the present or the future? Aficionados of Star Wars will no doubt shudder at my shameless purloining of the timeless adios made famous by Obi-Wan Kenobi. But there…
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It may well be true that the best things in life are worth waiting for… but this is not one of them. Kevin Lewis begins his recovery from the long-awaited dental recovery plan. You could almost taste the embarrassment of ministers and other government spokespeople when they had to front up to the nation with…
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It may be a time for contemplating the future, but Kevin Lewis suggests that we shouldn’t ignore the clues and problems from the past. Welcome to mensis ianuarius, as they used to say in Rome – the month of January. The Romans used a 12-month lunar calendar but settled on the wizard wheeze of a…
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Kevin Lewis examines why patients, dentists and the government all want to control the frequency of attendance. ‘Do you come here often?’ Probably not the most original chat-up line, I grant you, but a question which keeps cropping up in discussions about the delivery of primary care dentistry. I participated in a lecture series 35…
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Kevin Lewis discovers that, in NHS dentistry, new ideas and new solutions appear to be in very short supply. The government’s green credentials may be in a state of flux – especially after its better-than-expected outcome in the recent Uxbridge and Ruislip by-election – and Labour is clearly bristling at the one that got away…
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It may or may not be true that everything you read (or post) on a website or social media is not wholly supported by fact, discovers Kevin Lewis. Or then again, it might be. I wouldn’t claim to be a mediaeval scholar, but I like to think that I know the difference between a mendacium…
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Kevin Lewis is excited to discover that he has a pronoun and a noun, and heads off in search of things that he can be offended by. I was sitting on a train a few months ago, and my ears pricked up at the mention of the word ‘dentist’ emanating from the seats behind me. …
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