David Behan CBE, the Department’s Director General of Social Care, Local Government and Care Partnerships, has announced his departure to take up the role of Chief Executive at the Care Quality Commission (CQC). David is expected to take up his new role in July, when he replaces Cynthia Bower.

The Welsh Government has been urged not to follow the lead of New York City and stop the sale of large soft drinks. Welsh Conservative AM Darren Millar urged policymakers not to follow their example. He said: “This amounts to nothing more than a Tizer Taliban and any suggestion of similar proposals in Wales should be rejected out of hand.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) has published a fact sheet, which will come as little surprise to UK GDPs. It shows that oral disease in children and adults is higher among poor and disadvantaged population groups. Risk factors for oral diseases include an unhealthy diet, tobacco use, harmful alcohol use and poor oral hygiene, and social determinants.

Martin Fallowfield, a GDP in Peterborough, has been elected to chair the BDA’s new Principal Executive Committee (PEC).  Also elected as Deputy Chair was Robert Kinloch who is also a GDP, practising near Loch Lomond in Scotland. The third senior key office holder of the PEC will be Judith Husband, who has been elected as Chair of the Education, Ethics, and Dental Team Committee. 

Deborah White, associate professor and director of education at the School of Dentistry at Birmingham, has been elected as the new Chair of the British Dental Association’s Central Committee for Dental Academic Staff (CCDAS) for the 2012/14 triennium. She was Vice Chair of CCDAS in the last triennium. The new Chair of CCDAS will be supported by Jeff Wilson, the newly-elected Vice Chair. Jeff is a senior clinical lecturer in restorative dentistry at Cardiff University Dental School.

Dr Nigel Carter has been appointed an Officer of the Order of the Brritish Empire (OBE) in the Queens Birthday Honours list. He is Chief Executive of the British Dental Health Foundation (BDHF).

Also honoured was Roger Farbey, head librarian of the British Dental Association, who becomes an MBE.

Oral bacteria that escape into the bloodstream are able to cause blood clots and trigger life-threatening endocarditis, according to recent research. If the bacteria Streptococcus gordonii enter into the blood stream through bleeding gums they can start to wreak havoc by masquerading as human proteins.