Distinctive roles within a dental team need to be overlooked if dentistry is to meet the oral health needs of the future.
This message came from Sara Hurley, the new chief dental officer (CDO) for England, when she addressed delegates at the British Association of Dental Therapists (BADT), she also promised to act on ideas put forward by dental care professionals (DCPs) to facilitate necessary chages.
Joining her predecessor, Barry Cockcroft, in delivering the event’s keynote speech, she advocated the policy of dental teams considering themselves as ‘one entity’ when tackling dental health care.
‘It’s heartening to hear Sara Hurley acknowledge the value of DCPs and to hear that she wishes to keep in touch with us, offering to be a sounding board and conduit for our ideas and suggestions,’ Amanda Gallie, BADT president elect, said.
Learn from the past to predict the future
Barry Cockcroft, past CDO for England and now non-executive director of Mydentist, said the profession must ‘learn from the past in order to predict the future’.
He argued that data – and accurate interpretation of that data – was key to developing services for the future and, whilst acknowledging the current inequalities in child dental health, maintained that these could not be tackled by improvement of dental services alone.
