The Chief Dental Officer for England, Sara Hurley, has been appointed Honorary Professor in Dentistry at the University of Manchester’s School of Dentistry. Her first official visit to the School was for a meeting with health service researchers to help develop her priorities for national policy.
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Restaurants should routinely offer tap water to families to help fight child obesity, councils have said. Many restaurants only give tap water on request, despite a legal requirement for licensed premises to provide it, and most diners do not ask for tap water, a survey for the Local Government Association (LGA) found. It also found that 13% of parents feel awkward about asking for free water when eating out as alternative to sugary drinks.
In reply to Parliamentary Questions, health minister Alistair Burt MP has outlined the steps he is taking to improve dental standards amongst primary school age children. Separately he said in reply to Paula Sherriff the Labour MP for Dewsbury that a reformed dental contract could begin to be rolled out nationally from 2018/19 onwards.
Read more: Minister outlines moves on child oral health and new contract
In answer to a Parliamentary Question the Minister of State, Alistair Burt, has published figures on NHS dental spending. Government expenditure on GDS was £2.03bn last year, with an additional £716m recovered in patients charges. In real terms the total spend (including charges) has decreased from £2,205bn in 2004/06 to £2.045 last year, despite the increase in patient charges.
Dealing with cavities could one day be as simple as taking a supplement to keep unwanted bacteria in check, according to findings published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Researchers at the University of Florida College of Dentistry, led by Dr Robert Burne, have a new strain of bacteria that could keep ‘bad’ bacteria under control, and pave the way to using probiotics to prevent cavities.
Lloyds Bank has published its Healthcare Confidence Index which gives insight from primary healthcare professionals. It shows that dentists continue to lead the way in terms of optimism, perhaps reflecting the fact that their sector benefits from more non-NHS income. However, there is a continued concern about long-term funding of the NHS dental contract with 81% revealing doubts. With over a third (37%) of dentists now wanting more private work, the Index suggests the trend towards becoming privately funded will continue.
Read more: Dentists are most optimistic of health professionals