Sebastian Evans

To bitewing or not to bitewing? That is the question. Actually it’s just one of the many questions to be asked by a new graduate such as myself with regard to dental radiography! While researching this rather confusing topic, I uncovered some disparity and conflicting information. One of the main documents I consulted was a…

It is well understood that patient education should be an integral part of dental treatment. It is also an essential role of the dental team not only to educate their patients but also to motivate them towards maintaining good oral health. Motivation poses the more formidable challenge as it necessitates persuading patients to change their…

Most dental practices are very good at ensuring a steady stream of patient referrals by maintaining regular contact with their sources of referrals and thanking them for their continuous support. You may be one of these practices and you might be feeling pretty good about how well you nurture these relationships but, after all that…

With the warm weather hopefully just around the corner, we need to remember to keep drinking in order to remain hydrated. As health professionals, is it our duty to reinforce this message in our surgeries, so should we be more precise about the fluid we advocate to drink? Water makes up 50% to 60% of…

A dental professor has discovered that tooth enamel indicates a biological clock linking tooth growth to other metabolic processes. New York University dental professor Dr Timothy Bromage discovered the clock – or biological rhythm – while observing incremental growth lines in tooth enamel, which appear much like the annual rings on a tree. It controls…

A scholarship award worth £7,000 for research in primary dental care is available. The Faculty of General Dental Practice (UK) (FGDP (UK)) and the British Society for General Dental Surgery (BSGDS) are inviting applications for the 2008 BSGDS Scholarship Award. Established by the BSGDS in 1993, the scholarship supports a single research project in primary…

Retired dentists want to stay on the GDC Register – thereby making a distinction between those taken off for ‘dishonourable’ reasons and those who have simply retired. They want it at a nominal cost and without CPD requirements. Currently, dentists who retire and do not wish to keep up with the requirements for CPD and…

Japan has discovered the latest recyclable item – false teeth! Denture deposit boxes have appeared in the southern Japanese city of Fukuoka in response to a request by the charity, the Japan Society for the Recycling of Dentures. The JSRD plans to set up hundreds of false teeth collection boxes in cities across Japan to…

Cumbrian dental entrepreneur Chloe Booth has been named as one of the top five female business leaders in the North West of England. Chloe beat hundreds of other competitors to join just four other finalists in the Northwest Women in Business Awards, organised by the Northwest Regional Development Agency. Chloe is director of Grange Dental…

The legal deadline (30 July 2008) for GDC registration is fast approaching – so dental technicians must act now to ensure they are registered in time. For dental technicians who have not yet registered, a ‘Registration Surgery’ will be available at the Dental Technology Show (9-10 May). The GDC will be on hand at the…

Bad gums impacts on a person’s smile, according to a recent US study. Conducted at the University of Michigan, it assessed the smiling patterns of 21 periodontal patients who were viewing a clip of a comedy show. The results are published in the Journal of Periodontology (JOP), the official publication of the American Academy of…

The link between overweight children and tooth cavities has been disproved, according to a new dental health study. Overweight children have been found to have fewer instances of dental decay than children of normal weight, a study of nearly 18,000 young people suggests. Traditional thinking has linked being fat to having more cavities but the…

Hello everyone, it’s good to be back after my holiday\. I hope you all had a fantastic Easter break; I ate my body weight in chocolate eggs of all variety, but thank goodness for gyms and toothbrushes. Easter is usually a time of reflection for all, not just an orgy of chocolate and tin foil.…

Scientists are developing the technology to enable teeth to regrow the crystals that make up dentin and enamel. The technology will eventually phase out fillings and drillings completely. The goal – estimated to be at least 10 years away – is to spot tooth decay early enough that they then get the teeth to grow…

Having few or no natural teeth at the age of 70 may be an early indicator of accelerated ageing, Danish researchers suggest. Scientists from the Copenhagen Gerontological Oral Health Research Center found that dental loss was related to the incidence of disability and death in older people. Some 573 able-bodied 70-year-old people were monitored over…

Tom Roberts, managing editor of Preventive Dentistry\.co\.uk, takes a look at what’s been going on with the website. Click here to watch the video

It seems that barely a day goes by when we don’t hear about turbulence in the world’s financial markets and the dreaded ‘credit crunch’. As Northern Rock’s speedy collapse demonstrated, it is clear that a lot of this economic uncertainty has been created by irresponsible borrowing practices within the housing market, particularly in the US.…

Mind games. Chances are that you are playing a few in your practice right now. Sometimes it is your own mind game that you play on yourself and sometimes it is one you’ve passed on to everyone on the team. The trouble is, it could be affecting your practice productivity in a very negative way.…

Periodontal disease results in the breakdown of the supportive apparatus around the tooth. The resultant pockets harbour pathogens allowing continuing breakdown. As those of you who regularly read my articles will know, I am a great advocate of the benefits of non-surgical therapy. It produces great results in an extremely cost-effective way that, with ongoing…