Interview with Dr Milad Shadrooh “The Singing Dentist” featured on the TV show Good Morning Britain after developing methods to encourage children to brush their teeth more effectively. Dr Shadrooh has his own YouTube channel where he posts new songs aimed at young children but which parody contemporay hits with which the kids and their parents are familiar. We asked his opinion of the new Sonicare for Kids Connected – a new sonictoothbrush with features Bluetooth® wireless technology and an interactive app* which are designed to help motivate children to brush more effectively and independently.

• What are the current issues surrounding children’s dental health which need addressing?

The current issues include a lack of awareness of correct brushing habits and lack of awareness of dietary aspects which both lead to tooth decay

• What do parents tell you are their greatest struggles getting their children to brush their teeth?

Actually getting the kids in to the bathroom to do their teeth, and if they do, getting them to clean for long enough and brushing properly.

• How can we encourage kids to brush effectively and for long enough?

We have to try to make brushing fun… as much as it can be! Rewarding kids can be a good way, having a cool toothbrush would help and to ensure they clean for the right amount of time, you could use timers, sing songs, play tunes or use a visual aid which is entertaining for them to watch, whilst helping them adopt the correct brushing techniques. 

• What do you think of Sonicare for Kids Connected?

I like the concept, it ticks a lot of the boxes... it’s a nice and cool sonic brush so I'm sure kids would like it, having an associated app is great as most kids have access to smart phones or tablets and the videos make the brushing experience more fun for them.

• How do you think kids will react to Sparkly the app character?

I think it will be nice for the younger kids, having a catchy name like ‘Sparkly’ helps, as parents can use that to encourage the kids to brush so they "help Sparkly".  This turns the experience of brushing into more of a game or fun-time process as opposed to a chore.  If that can help establish the brushing habit early on, then hopefully that habit will stay with them for their adult life.

• Do you think kids will be excited and motivated by the connectivity and gamification aspects of the new product?

Kids love games and visuals, especially tablets and phones so I think the connectivity is a great idea, anything to get them excited about brushing is a good thing and it's all about getting that habit instilled into them from an early age.

• What do you think parents’ reactions will be to the new brush?

I think parents will like the brush, it looks nice and is bright and is something for the kids to get excited about. Add to that the app side and the connectivity of it and I think parents will see the advantages and the potential for it to excite their kids so that they brush better.  Also, most adults have electric brushes nowadays and our children always want to copy us so having their own special sonic brush has got to improve kids with their brushing compliance. 

• As a dentist why do you think using a sonic toothbrush will be more effective than a manual brush?

I recommend electric brushes because of their ease of use and improved plaque removal when used correctly. I prefer the sonic technology because of the feeling of the brush and the way it leaves the teeth feeling clean and polished. Also, it is much quieter and sleeker to use. Using a manual brush correctly is difficult for those with dexterity issues, whether it is due to age or other factors, so anything that makes that process easier and more effective has to be recommended.

• Would you like your children to use Sonicare for Kids?  What does your daughter think of the product?

My daughter likes the app as she is crazy about anything bubbly and colourful on the smart phone. The app has the feel of the other apps aimed at children's learning so it fits in well. My wife and I both use the Sonicare and my daughter likes to copy us with hers but being only 2 years old, she finds the sonic vibrations a little tickly and she giggles all the way through brushing at the moment, but it has made brushing fun and she sometimes reminds me it’s time to "brush teethies"... Sonicare for Kids is something I will definitely continue to use and recommend to patients.

Dr Milad Shadrooh makes his next appearance on This Morning on Friday 6^th May 2016. His YouTube channel can be found here. 

For more information about Sonicare for Kids Connected please visit www.philips-tsp.co.uk or call 0800 0567 222.

In a recent ‘in practice’ product trial the new NSK iClave mini autoclave was awarded 5 stars by over 90% of users for the speed of its cycle - the iClave mini delivers up to 12 ‘dry’ handpieces in less that 12 minutes! Additionally over 95% of practices awarded the NSK iClave mini 5 stars for build quality and overall size, as it fits in to a space approximately the size of an A4 piece of paper.

Jason Greenwood, BDS The Stafford Dental Practice, comments, “The NSK iClave mini is easy, quick and offers efficiency savings for handpiece processing”.

The NSK iClave mini is the perfect autoclave to keep handpieces in excellent working order as it complies with Europe’s Class S sterilisation standard and sterilises even the invisible parts of handpieces using direct-heating technology. This quick and effcient autoclave is the perfect solution for a busy practice.

For more information on NSK’s care and maintenance range contact Mark Beckwith on 07900 246529, contact NSK on 0800 634 1909 or visit www.myNSKdecontamination.co.uk

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In recent years, Dental Practices have noted a rise in the number of requests for patient records being received, especially from legal services. It is probably no coincidence that this rise has corresponded with an increase in adverts for ‘no win no fee’ solicitors encouraging patients to come forward if they have received what they perceive to be poor dental treatment.

In this blog I set out the legal framework in relation to keeping and disclosing dental records and provide some practical tips on how to respond to requests for the same.

Record Keeping

As you all know, whether you work in a private or NHS practice, the Standards for the Dental Team, Standard 4.1 applies.  It states:

‘You must make and keep contemporaneous, complete and accurate patient records’.

Furthermore, various pieces of legislation also require dentists to keep records, including Regulation 20 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, which is monitored by the CQC.

Those who work in an NHS practice will know that the NHS contract has a contractual requirement for dentists to keep patient records.

However, there is no hard and fast rule for how long you should keep the records before destroying them.

The NHS contract only requires you to keep patient records for two years. Given that a claim for clinical negligence can be issued within three years of the date of knowledge of the injury, a claim for breach of contract within six years of the breach and a claim for defective products within ten years of the defect, two years will be insufficient should you need to rely on such documents to defend a potential claim. The dental records may be the only evidence of what was discussed during a consultation and what consent was provided by the patient; they are therefore crucial in helping you to prepare a defence.  

The Department of Health’s ‘Record Management’ code recommends community records are kept for a minimum of 11 years after the date of the last entry. For children, it is 11 years or up to their 25^th birthday, which ever period is longer. For hospital records the recommendation is a minimum of eight years. The maximum recommended length for retention is 30 years, unless otherwise required by law or some other circumstance.

If you have received any complaints or there has been an adverse incident with a patient, we would recommend keeping the records indefinitely, even if the complaint was resolved satisfactorily. Whilst there are time limits for bringing claims, the courts have the power to extend those limits. This does leave a dark cloud hanging over you; never knowing what might come through the post. However, being prepared with ‘contemporaneous, complete and accurate’ records will help ease the stress of dealing with any complaint or claim.

Please note that if a patient has a disability as a result of an ‘unsound mind’ the normal time limits for record retention do not apply. In these cases, the records should be held indefinitely.

On top of your professional duties, dental practices will also be covered by the Data Protection Act 1998. This requires anyone who holds sensitive personal data about an individual to ensure that the data is accurately created and carefully and securely maintained. Ensuring records are kept securely includes keeping them confidential. The Data Protection Act also states that data should be retained for no longer than necessary. You can find further guidance about your duties under the Data Protection Act in this helpful guide for businesses produced by the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Disclosing Records

Both the Data Protection Act and Access to Health Records Act provide patients with the right to see their dental records.

If you receive a written request from a patient for their dental records, this must be dealt with as quickly as possible but in any event within 40 days. We have set out below under ‘practical tips’ the fees you can charge for providing the documents and what to do if the request is from a third party.

The request must be to the person who controls the data, and it must contain information such that the data controller can be satisfied as to the identity of the person making the request and provide information as to the data sought.

You cannot refuse a patient access to their records unless one of the following applies:

1.       Disclosure would be likely to cause serious harm to mental or physical health of the patient or any other person;

2.    Disclosure would require you to provide information about a third party (other than the dental team providing the treatment) unless the third party consent’s to the disclosure. (Please note that if you can easily redact such information you should do so, rather than refusing the request.)

Once you have received a request you must provide the patient with a copy of all the information you hold about that patient.

If you have destroyed records and a patient subsequently asks to see their record, under the Data Protection Act it is reasonable to say that it was destroyed because it was no longer necessary to be kept.

Breaches of data protection laws can result in criminal as well as civil liability (not to mention adverse publicity, which is increasingly the likely result of non-compliance) so it is not advisable to ignore requests for personal data.

Practical Tips

Identity. You must ensure that the identity of the patient is correct and that you are sending them their patient records. If you are in any doubt ask the patient for more information to help identify them. If you send the wrong records you will be in breach of the Data Protection Act and, as stated above, this could result in criminal or civil action against you.

Consent. If the request is from a solicitor, ensure that the patient has consented to the records being sent to the solicitor and that they understand why the records are being sought. Most solicitors will use a standard form, because it sets out all the relevant information, but there is no requirement to do so.

Fees. The fees that can be charges for copying records are as follows:

Please note that the fees are the maximum you can charge and you should be able to justify them. They are meant to cover your costs for reproducing the records. For example if the patient only has around 10 pages held manually, charging £50 for administration and copying charges is unlikely to be deemed reasonable.

X-rays and scans can be transferred onto a CD and then disclosed rather than copying them onto film.

Opinions. A legal representative may also seek your opinion on the patient’s treatment and prognosis. Unless you are being asked to provide an expert witness report for court purposes (which you would only be able to do if you had never treated the patient in question) we would recommend that you avoid providing any comments. Any comments could later be used against you in respect of a claim.

If you do provide an opinion, you can seek a separate fee for this, as this is a report and therefore not covered by the Data Protection Act.

Potential Claims. If you receive a request from a legal representative, we would not recommend seeking clarification as to the reasons for the request, simply respond to the request and notify your indemnity insurer or defence union, so they are on notice should anything arise in the future. Providing the medical records may be enough to show there is no claim and nothing further may come of it.

There can be no denying that the face of dentistry is changing. Over the last two years it has been well documented how cosmetic treatments have truly come to the fore – with the public demanding access to procedures such as tooth whitening and dental veneers as standard.

A number of different causal factors have been attributed to this trend, ranging from an increased understanding of available procedures and possibilities, to a more stable economy – some experts even consider the growing ‘selfie culture’ to be responsible for society’s drive for a better smile.

Whatever the reason, dental professionals must be prepared to take advantage of this growing demand. Those who do not take adequate steps to align their services with the demands of the public will ultimately find themselves losing out to those who have.

Of course, the first step is to gain the appropriate qualifications in order to offer such procedures. In the UK there are many exceptional learning programmes that impart the clinical skills necessary to offer the most desirable treatments. However, clinical ability is only one small part of the larger equation. Practitioners must also be aware of the different aspects of the growing cosmetic dentistry market.

For example, professionals must understand that their patients’ desire to improve their smile through elective treatments will always be tempered with their mindfulness of cost. It would be remiss to suggest that cosmetic treatments are inexpensive; by their very nature, along with the time and professional expertise required to perform them predictably and safely, they can be relatively costly.

It is no good to simply lower the cost of treatment, since remuneration for these treatments must be worth the cost of training, equipment and materials, and in many cases, the cost of outsourcing work to laboratories. Nevertheless, practitioners must be mindful that patients who are desperate to achieve a more aesthetic smile for less may resort to unlicensed providers or DIY treatments.

An effective solution to this conundrum would be to offer patients credit.

Those practices that provide patient finance benefit in a number of ways. Firstly, from a business sense, they can increase the uptake of their high-value procedures by making them more accessible to a public that wants them. From an ethical point of view, it enables practitioners to offer a safer option than DIY dentistry. It also becomes a USP for a practice – and can be used to attract more patients and revenue over time. For patients, it enables them to attain the treatments they want in a more affordable way.

Yet offering credit to patients has recently become far more complicated than it has ever been before. Before 2014, the provision of consumer credit licences was governed entirely by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and, by all accounts, the process of acquiring one was simple. However, as a direct result of the credit crunch in 2008, the Government transferred management of consumer credit to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Unlike the OFT, the FCA requires detailed reports on a quarterly and annual basis as well as numerous fees and duties which equate to a significant amount of management and expense simply to maintain compliance. Many practitioners simply do not have the time to do this – after all, their primary remit is the safe and effective provision of dental treatment: not fiddling around with bureaucratic applications and reports.

As such, a plethora of different companies have emerged offering to manage FCA authorisations on behalf of a practice. For a fee, these services will ensure a practice remains FCA compliant and will support customers with all the necessary reporting and maintenance. However, while this type of service can certainly help practitioners cope with the administrative burden of an FCA authorisation it still represents a significant monetary investment that could potentially negate the financial benefits of offering credit in the first place.  

Chrysalis Finance offers an alternative solution, however. Rather than directly managing a practice’s own authorisation, it allows practices to become an Appointed Representative – essentially enabling it to offer credit without being directly authorised. All regulatory matters and FCA reporting are dealt with by the expert team at Chrysalis Dental, in exchange for a nominal monthly fee. What’s more, the team will be on hand to offer marketing advice and promotional material to ensure that patients are fully aware of the available finance options. 

To meet the demand of modern dentistry, practices need to be able to offer their patients more options. Extending credit for high-value procedures is an effective way of increasing uptake and building a positive reputation for your service. Do so easily and securely as an Appointed Representative of Chrysalis Finance.

For more information about Chrysalis Finance call us on 0333 32 32 230 or visit www.chrysalisfinance.com