Love it or loathe it, The Apprentice returns to our screens for its eighteenth series on Thursday 1st February, and this year a West Yorkshire dentist is one of eighteen contestants hoping to be crowned Lord Sugar’s next ’apprentice’.
No commentsRead more: BBC's The Apprentice: Will Pudsey Dentist Be Hired Or Fired?
By the standards of a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Dame Andrea Leadsom is a big beast.
According to the Chair’s recent postings and their assorted webinars the GDC have not finally committed to changing the Standards for registrants, let alone deciding the nature of any alterations. And yet, by their own admission, they have already done “a lot of work,” considering such changes.
Dental practices in rural areas are poised for a ’major funding increase’ when Jeremy Hunt stands up to deliver what will be his party’s pre-election budget in six weeks time.
Many New Years resolutions do not make it into February. Setting modest goals is one way to help a higher proportion survive, and the GDC have provided some helpful supporting material for registrants. In his blog, “A view from the Chair: the GDC’s priorities for early 2024” Lord Toby Harris provides some highlights from the Councils to do list.
A new study by scientists at universities in the USA and Kuwait, published in PLOS One and reported in The Times (17th January 2024) has ’found evidence that microbes that live in the mouth are linked to tooth decay are much more likely to be passed down to an infant from its mother if her dental hygiene is poor’.
Read more: Mothers' Resistant Microbes Affect Their Children's Teeth
The dental profession has reacted with incredulity to an article by Daily Mail journalist Amanda Platell, whose January 19th column sought to blame mothers, and not government underfunding of NHS dentistry, for the admission of children to hospital for tooth extractions and clearances.
Read more: Dental Profession Hits Back At Mail Journalist Platell
If and when the much delayed dental recovery plan is published it may include the promotion of water fluoridation as part of a preventative strategy. For decades this has been recognised as a cost effective public health measure.
In what would make a plotline in “The thick of it” the UK’s dental regulator has had to clarify one of its own news stories - about clarity. This has occurred within days of the GDC publishing: ‘Seeking clarity on the interpretation of when immediate and substantive suspension orders commence and expire.’