At about the same time that David Bottomley was making headlines over a practices refusal to see him due to his weight, the giant global food and drink conglomerate Nestlé, also managed to get a dental story that is not about the NHS, into the papers and social media.
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Dentistry has long been recognised as a ‘market leader’ when it comes to the mental health issues affecting those who deliver it.
While registrants have begun to think about the wider ramifications of the Court of Appeal top up decision, it has taken a little while for professional organisations and indemnifiers to comment.
At some point, many dentists will have fantasised about an alternative career. For most though, life as a professional musician, sportsperson, or author, will remain a dream and their days will continue to be dictated by an appointment book. One dentist’s choice of new career may be revealing of the state of UK dentistry in 2023.
Given the time they spend discussing dentistry, perhaps any MP’s losing their seats at the election could be fast tracked onto the register as experts by experience?
Read more: What’s Left To Say? Another Commons Debate on Dentistry
Despite being able to fit the original 10 Commandments onto a pair of stone tablets, the National Health Service (General Dental Services Contracts) Regulations 2005, run to nearly 60 pages.
The recent 8.5% increase in NHS dental charges has attracted bitter criticism from the BDA, not least because none of the money raised will benefit providers or fund improvements to the service. Put simply, patients are being asked to pay more so that government can pay less.
Read more: Poll Confirms NHS Dental Charges Are Repelling Patient Attendance
“I am not doing nothing, I am a woman with a plan.” These were the words of the Chief Dental Officer (CDO) of England, Sara Hurley, at the recent House of Commons Health Committee hearing. Indeed the CDO has been a prolific provider of plans. What the best laid plans of this CDO have actually achieved, rather than whether or not she is included in the Coronation honours list, will be her true legacy.
After all the hoopla and publicity surrounding the Health and Social Care Committee enquiry into NHS dentistry, the ministers and public health experts have now returned to their offices and non-executive directorships.
Read more: Back To The Real World, Another Day For Dentistry in the UK