It’s time to eat more sugar?! The British Dental Conference and Dentistry Show 2018

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  Posted by: Dental Design      14th March 2018

Following the horrifying new figures for children’s tooth extractions in England,[i] health and dental care practitioners have to accept that warnings about consuming too much sugar aren’t getting through.

It is against this background of rising concerns that Tim Ives will present an inspiring lecture at the British Dental Conference and Dentistry Show 2018, entitled “Sweet offender versus sweet pretender: utilising sugars to treat and prevent disease”. About his lecture to be presented in the Hygienist & Therapist Symposium, he says:

“My presentation will look at how we got to this point in time, from when we started to eat lots more sugars and the reasons behind that. I will also discuss ‘good’ sugars, and how I utilise them in practice to prevent and treat oral disease. We will cover themes like government misinformation, bad science and ruthless marketing from the sugar industry.

“On the positive side, I’m going to look at how sugar alcohols, like xylitol, can wipe out the bacteria that cause decay and how we can encourage patients to consume them in a variety of products. It’s a cheap and simple way to help prevent oral disease.

“For the practice, you can also build up your appointment book when you offer additional treatments using these sugars. I’ve been using them in my airflow machine, so I’m polishing the teeth while at the same time destroying bacteria and changing the make-up inside the mouth.

“I think there is a belief that we shouldn’t be encouraging people to eat sweet things, because they are ‘bad’. Yet lactose is in breast milk, so we consume sweet things from the minute we’re born. People are often simply resistant to change, too.

“Plus, it’s difficult to affect behaviour change. I recently conducted a social media survey to see if dental hygienists could stop eating sugar for 28 days. My thought was, ‘If we can’t do it as a profession, how can we convince our patients?’ This was just before Christmas, which probably explains the poor turn out! So I tried again at the beginning of the year and I hope to have some useful data that I will be able to present at the show in May, about why people succeeded and why they didn’t.

“I’ve been to the British Dental Conference and Dentistry Show many times in the past. If you aren’t going, why not?! There is everything there, so many good speakers and fantastic choice on the lecture programme. You can also find out what’s new and take advantage of all the experts there, with an enormous amount of free CPD on offer, too.”                                                                

You can learn, network and source the latest products on the market when you head to Birmingham in May. Suitable for the whole team and for every level of experience, this is one professional event that should never be missed.

 

The British Dental Conference and Dentistry Show 2018 will be held on Friday 18th and Saturday 19th May at the NEC in Birmingham, co-located with DTS.

 

For further details visit www.thedentistryshow.co.uk, call 020 7348 5270

or email dentistry@closerstillmedia.com

 

[i] 170 operations a day to remove rotten teeth in children. Local Government Association, 13 January 2018. Link: https://www.local.gov.uk/about/news/170-operations-day-remove-rotten-teeth-children (accessed February 2018).

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