The Chief Dental Officer for England, Sara Hurley, has outlined the key themes of her proposed integrated strategy for oral health and dental care. In a speech to the FGDP(UK), she called for “more joint endeavours - professional, geographic and conceptual”, “greater national direction” over the responsibilities of Local Offices, and “training and support… to ensure that all NHS England Commissioners know what quality oral care looks like”.

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Dr Milad Shadrooh, a dentist from Basingstoke in Hampshire, is making his name as ‘The Singing Dentist’ – the man behind the eyebrows and funny quips in a series of videos. He told a local paper about his first video: “It all started out as a bit of a joke really, there’s so many bad, illegal tooth whitening products out there that can be really damaging to people in the long term that I made a video and put it on Facebook and different forums and groups for the dentists to see.”

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The General Dental Council (GDC) and Thurrock Trading Standards have joined forces to stop a leading high street retailer from offering tooth whitening services by individuals not on the register of dental professionals. An investigation by the GDC found sales assistants in the Hair and Beauty by Regis UK concession stands in Tesco stores were offering tooth whitening services to in-store customers using kits and LED lamps.

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The British Dental Association (BDA) has insisted that practices are not penalised following IT failures in the new NHS ‘Compass’ system, which could leave many failing to meet contractual requirements. The BDA had expressed grave concerns about bringing in a new system so close to the end of the financial year, but had received repeated assurances from the BSA that these concerns were misplaced.

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There was strong press reaction to the report that thousands of children have had their decayed teeth removed in hospital over the last four years. Also a response came from Sara Hurley, chief dental officer at NHS England, who said: “It’s really disappointing that even though people understand the impact of a sugary diet so many children have advanced tooth decay – a highly preventable disease. With regular visits for advice, prevention and earlier intervention we can avoid the need for general anaesthetic for the removal of teeth that are beyond repair.”

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Read more: Strong response to child GA figures