The well known manufacturer of toothpaste, Colgate is stumping up money as an award for any dental practitioner – dentist, hygienist and so on who are considered to have gone beyond the call of duty.

The company is asking for dental practices to put forward names of anyone working there who the practice feels is worthy of being nominated. What’s more, the manufacturer will give the proud winner £5,000 as a prize to be paid to a charity of their choice.

As well as dentists, the organisers are looking for non-practitioners and others not directly involved in treatment to be nominated if they have come up with ideas which take the specific dental surgery in a different direction. For instance, is the practice pioneering new way of communicating with children? This is something that is often very difficult, particularly when they are frightened.

Perhaps someone in the surgery has made a suggestion to improve the efficiency of treatment or even invented a new technique which helps to minimise pain.

Called the Colgate Oral Health Month Unsung Hero Award entrants simply visit the Colgate Professional website. Full details of how to enter will also be found on the site.

Events like this are perhaps rare in Britain. Award systems are a regular feature in the USA, but it seems that many in the profession and those involved in some way such as manufacturers like Colgate are beginning to realise the valuable work of all who work in a dental practice in the UK – not just dentists themselves.

In what could be described as a 1950s throwback, a Burnley dental practice welcomed 2 new dentists who hail all the way from India.

When the NHS was being created, there was at that time a shortage of medical experts. Consequently many doctors from India and other parts of the Commonwealth were invited to the UK to work.

Sixty years on this great scheme appears to have been resurrected albeit on a very much lesser scale.

The two new dentists to arrive in Burney are Dr Nitika Virmani and Dr Ilyaz Uddin. The first of the two graduated in India but moved to Britain in 2006. Dr. Uddin recently graduated from Manchester University and has been working both in private practices as well as the NHS.

Speaking with reporters, Dr. Virmani said: “The people of Burnley don’t realise how lucky they are to have access to NHS dentists on their doorstep.”

He added: “I would certainly recommend that people get into the habit of attending the dentist routinely, and I’d like to encourage everyone to register with a dentist. Poor oral health can have a real effect on your physical and mental health.

“Looking after your teeth is vitally important for long term health.”

The two appointments were also welcomed by the East Lancashire Health Authority. A spokesperson for the NHS authority, Sharon Young said: “I am delighted to welcome the arrival of Drs Virmani and Uddin to Burnley and am confident that they will offer the residents of Burnley a first class service in dentistry.”

The practice itself in Burnley is also relatively new.

Steve Jobs may have passed on, but his legacy is likely to endure in many ways and not just with Apple’s products. It seems some dentists in the USA are taking on board some of the business practices used by Apple stores.

For instance, customer service is highly valued in Apple stores. Anyone entering one is greeted warmly and not just left to browse. Even if the shop is crowded a new visitor is talked to as if they are the only person in the shop. They are asked what they are looking for and basically treated like royalty. In short they receive personal attention from start to finish.

How can this be translated to a dental practice? After all, patients are there for treatment and not to purchase a product.

It seems that the meet and greet aspect of customer service can easily be transferred from a shop floor assistant to a practice secretary. It’s just about changing attitudes from simply taking information, to finding out what it is the patient really wants and not what they need. There is a subtle difference. The former puts the patient in the driving seat, while the latter takes power away from them.

How well this approach would go down in UK practices is anyone’s guess. The USA is known for its courteous approach to shoppers; Britain sadly is not. While the ‘customer is always right’ was once the mantra of the shopkeeper in Britain, the same didn’t usually apply to dental or medical patients. The patient-centred approach adopted by many medics, however, is changing that.

Apple is one of the most successful businesses in the world, making great products with customer service that is second to none.

Dentists can do no worse than adopt some practices offered by staff working in Apple shops. Not only will it reduce the fear factor of actually visiting the dentist, it could transform a patient’s whole experience.

While dentists in the UK appear to have no trouble getting a job, things may not be the same in the US. If so, a new website launched in the USA could help.

The website is also breaking new ground in that it asks applicants a number of pre-determined questions, which the company behind the site believes will streamline and reduce the time wasted by simply uploading a CV.

Speaking with local reporters in Boston Massachusetts, Dr. Moftah El-Ghadi, one of the people behind the new site said: “The days of looking at a CV to determine a job seeker’s viability are over. At the end of the day, it results in too many hours spent interviewing candidates who just aren’t a fit for the job.”

A colleague and chairman of the company, Kevin Collins added: “I’ve been helping match dental offices and dental workers with one another for over four years. I have always been able to understand the needs of the practice and match the candidate’s personality and skills with those needs. Dental Hunters provides this same level of attention electronically to efficiently place more dental professionals in dental jobs more often.”

“We’re hopeful that with Dental Hunters’ unique approach, we will change the dental staffing industry.”

The company that set up the website is called Dental Hunters, which matches job seekers with relevant employers involved in all types of dentistry, including general dentistry, orthodontics, oral surgery and periodontics. It also matches other non-dentist occupations such as hygienists, office managers and laboratory technicians.

It seems that graduates looking for a job once they leave University, are more likely to succeed if they have studied medicine, dentistry or veterinary medicine.

This will no doubt come as a great surprise to many, but a disappointment to others, especially during these hard times. Youth unemployment is at an all time high and is not likely to improve any time soon. However the medical sector does seem to be bucking the trend. The stats come from a recent graduate survey and found the employment of students studying the main medical subjects rose in the past 12 months from 89.9% to 90.4%, with most students successfully getting a job in dentistry or medicine, with veterinary students not far behind.

Another interesting statistic is that Buckingham University, which is a privately owned educational establishment, appears to have a 100% employment record. An impressive figure before you realised that it only had 55 students in the medical fields. Most Universities have a lot more students than this, who study medical subjects and the percentage may therefore be lower.

A recent report also showed that the Robert Gordon University in Scotland, one of the larger institutions, fared best out of all of Scotland’s establishments (95.7%), whereas Surrey University, based in Guildford was the best of the English institutions at 94.8%.

Interestingly, out of the 20,000 graduates surveyed, computer science students lagged at the bottom with just 84.7% saying they found employment.

Dentists from around the world are being urged to get in touch with their respective parliamentary representatives and Government Ministers, to put oral health at the top of the agenda at a UN summit in September. The event takes place in New York.

The summit itself is being set up to discuss non-communicable diseases and since World Oral Health Day is very soon, it gives dental health a chance to be a prominent subject for debate, not to mention greater media attention.

The list of subjects to be discussed at the UN summit include: cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and respiratory disorders. However, dentists argue that there are common links between these non-communicable disorders and oral health, so the latter should be included.

Unfortunately, the feedback being given to organisations such as the World Dental Federation (FDI) is not positive. But a spokesperson for the FDI told reporters: “At this point, oral health still has little support and is unlikely to figure in the Final Declaration unless at the specific request of member governments.”

So, the FDI has taken matters into its own hands by urging dentists to lobby their MPs and other Government people. They sent an opening letter, which reads: “By writing to your health authorities and arranging a meeting, you may be able to convince them to include oral health in their written commentary and interventions at the Summit. There is a letter on our website that you can download and use as a model.

You will find some background details below. In addition, we have attached a Special Advisory document to help in your discussions with the minister.”

When you visit your dentist, you hope that your dental issues will be resolved in due course. Fillings, veneers and braces are just some of the many forms of treatment which your dentist can provide you with. A friendly service is hopefully the norm as well, as many are emotionally scarred after a particularly traumatic experience. However, have you ever had a burger or a hot dog with extra onions served to you by your dental professional? One dental practice has decided to do exactly that.

Taking place at Haberdashers’ Aske’s Girl’s School, Butterfly Lane, Elstree in Hertfordshire on the 10^th July 2011, the “Anglo-Asian Odontological Group” (AOG) is giving their patients and staff members along with their family members the chance to be given something else other than a dental bill as they will be serving up a delicious barbecue.

This isn’t the first year that this event has taken place and last year three hundred guests attended, who also had the chance to participate in family sports, see children’s entertainers and listen to some great music.

Tickets for this year’s barbeque are available on the day and they cost £10 for adults, £2 for children but you can buy before the day itself and they cost £5 for adults and £1 for children. The proceeds from this event will go towards the many goodwill gestures and projects which the AOG are involved with which include charitable projects in Tanzania, India and Sri Lanka.

By becoming an exclusive member of the AOG, you can attend the BBQ as well as being invited to the other events which are just as much fun as this is bound to be. Members will also find a reduction of their outgoings which include products and services that include educational courses and dental equipment.

The top jobs in the world come with huge investments and potential risks—years of training and the possibility for lawsuits. A recent American study revealed that jobs in the medical and dental industries top the list of best jobs.

The study was apt to point out the perks of these top positions, chief amongst them being the hefty salary of an average of over $200,000. In fact, the top eight highest paying jobs in America are all branches of medicine and dentistry, fields shelling out the most bucks include anesthesiology, gynecology, orthodontics and surgery.

Employees in these fields are likely to have considerably larger bank accounts than most, but that’s not where the perks end. There’ll always be people having surgeries—cosmetic or life-saving, women in need of pap smears, and children in need of braces. Medicine and dentistry is pretty solid in terms of job security.

A senior recruitment officer for an American hospital, Alan Dixon, said he would recommend the medical profession to anyone looking or a secure place to work. “During the economic decline we have always had the ability to keep our patients, keep our staff, with no layoffs.  For us that’s a huge thing of security in our jobs. So that you are able to come to work everyday and have good benefits and good salaries.”

Come Sunday over 100 dentists will be taking to London streets on a mission. No, they will not be brandishing dental drills and dental picks. Nor will they be armed with dental cue cards about periodontal disease and gingivitis. Instead, they will be participating in a marathon—the 2011 Virgin London Marathon.

The dentists will serve as just a fraction of the nearly 50,000 people slated to run in the marathon. Of the dentists participating, 68 will be male and 43 are female and they have been training for this event for months. The marathon, which is expected to attract half a million spectators, will take place along the 26.2 mile route through London from Blackheath Park/Greenwich Common to the Mall.

The organizers of the marathon have revealed that the 111 dentists taking part in the marathon are not the only dental professionals—68 dental assistants will also be taking part in Sunday’s event, eight of whom are men and 27 of whom are women.

While a few Royalists around the nation, regarded the news of the upcoming royal nuptials with bliss and awe, most of were happy to add another day’s holiday to our list of allotted lazy time. In the dentistry profession, however, things don’t look to be as promising.

According to dental accountants, having holiday on 29 April is purely at the discretion of employers. Amanda Maskery, a member of the National Association of Specialist Dental Accountants, it is a common misconception that employees are entitled to time off work for bank holidays.

Ms. Maskery suggests that employees are only entitled the statutory minimum number of holidays: 5.6 weeks, which includes eight days for public holidays. That being said, there is currently no statutory mandate for a right to day off work for any additional public holidays, so long the employee is receiving the statutory minimum holiday requirement.

Of course, for every rule, there’s an exception. Where a contract deems that an employee is entitled to public holidays in addition to annual leave, but the neither number nor the specific dates are mentioned, they will be entitled to an additional holiday.

However, if the contract specifies a total number of holiday days, inclusive of bank holidays or stating the specific dates which may be taken, the employee will not be contractually entitled to an additional holidy, Ms. Maskery said.

However, there’s no need to panic. Ms. Maskery advises that although some employers are not obliged to give an additional day’s holiday in April, it is likely that they will.