Outstanding Innovation Award Announced by BSPD
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- Published: Thursday, 09 May 2024 09:09
- Written by Peter Ingle
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The British Society of Paediatric Dentistry (BSPD) has announced the winners of its Outstanding Innovation Award for 2024.
Lindsy Vallayil, Assistant Clinical Director, Community Dental Service, Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust, won with an innovative digital video for children and young people to access prior to procedures requiring inhalation sedation.
The winning entry, entitled Inhalation Sedation: Introductory Animation for Families, is described as delivering a simple and reassuring animation about sedation that is for all of the family.
With sedation being a useful adjunct within paediatric dentistry that can help anxious patients and carers manage dental care, the OIA judges were pleased to see such an innovative, yet simple approach to informing and reassuring children and young people undergoing these procedures. The video is positioned as an animation for all of the family to watch, so that parents and carers can be involved in discussions to assist with preparation for treatment.
The project met the award criteria of providing a clear benefit to children and young people, whilst also being easy to access and environmentally-friendly due to its easy-share digital format. The animation is shared with parents and carers via a QR code in an Inhalation Sedation patient information leaflet, issued prior to treatment taking place.
Professor Paula Waterhouse, BSPD President said: “Our profession sees inhalation sedation as a valuable part of paediatric dental treatment, so to have an engaging resource in the form of a simple animation to explain the process and allay fears is a very useful tool. As we know, post-pandemic we are seeing significant numbers of children needing inhalation sedation. Having recognised the issue, Lindsy was able to come up with a creative solution that will make a real difference.”
Award winner Lindsy Vallayil, explained that she was seeing many children with high treatment needs, following lockdown periods in 2020 and early 2021 when children had been at home and unable to access dental care. As a result her service had been treating high volumes of children in clinic with inhalation sedation. The idea had been to help children and parents to know what to expect when they attended their appointment for treatment. She also thanked the Comms team who had brought the animation to life and made it possible.
In addition, Aya Shammout and Masa Shammout have received the highly commended award, for their submission, the Interactive Dental Storybook “Floss and Granny Visit the Tooth Fairy.” The judges recognised that it gave children from diverse socio-economic backgrounds access to vital oral health education. Launched in 2022, the digital storybook re-imagines traditional storytelling as an interactive, educational journey, and became available for free on platforms including Amazon, Apple Books and Google Books.
Professor Waterhouse said: “This entertaining and accessible free tool will help educate children who don’t necessarily have access to oral health learning materials. With BSPD’s focus on the most vulnerable in our communities, we are delighted to see tools that support dentistry professionals to advocate a preventative approach for everyone.”
The book’s free accessibility ensures children from diverse socio-economic backgrounds can access vital oral health education and it is distinguished by its dyslexia-friendly design, as well as having an audio version, and supplementary interactive materials which cater to various learning styles.
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