News

We have now worked our way out of winter, and the clocks are about to spring forward. I hope that you don’t miss the extra hour in bed. We have been very busy and now April is almost upon us! We held our first Council meeting of the year earlier this month. It was an extremely productive day and we have lots of exciting projects in the pipeline that will benefit our members. The members of Council and our administrative team continue to be dedicated to the development of our Specialty and I feel honoured and grateful to be working with this focussed, imaginative and hard-working group of people.

The BSP recognise the importance of supporting undergraduate students. We currently offer free undergraduate membership and a range of annual awards and prizes for research into periodontology, thereby reflecting our commitment to progression and innovation.

We were delighted with the success of this month’s webinar “The New Periodontal Classification, by Students, for Students.” The event was free to all students and aimed to discuss the BSPs implementation of the periodontal classification system which resulted from the 2017 World Workshop in Periodontology, as relevant to the undergraduate dental student. We were incredibly proud of the student team from Bristol University for working so hard on this initiative and presenting such a professional and informative webinar.

Thank you to all of our members who took the time to vote in the recent Council election. The BSP is delighted to announce that Professor Francesco D'Aiuto was successful and has been appointed as "other member of Council". He will take up his position in January 2020 and we look forward to working with him. We would like to thank all of the other members who applied for the position and welcome them to apply again in the future.

It is with deep sadness that the British Society of Periodontology records the death of Dr Robert Genco. Professor Iain Chapple has kindly agreed to lead our tribute:

The BSPerio have produced a series of webinars which discuss and explain the need for the new classification.

The BSP are the owners of the copyright in the document entitled, “Implementing the 2017 Classification of Periodontal Diseases to Reach a Diagnosis in Clinical Practice”. As it is a copyrighted document, we own exclusive publishing rights. That copyright is protected under UK Law. It has come to our attention that an unauthorised version of the copyrighted document has been circulated at a dental event. The version of the document does not feature the BSP QR link to our website. Furthermore, the logos of our Partner Sponsors, Oral-B and Johnson and Johnson have been replaced with two other company logos. This is an infringement of our rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The BSP has taken legal advice and immediate action to prevent this breach from continuing. The document can be used without permission in its original format, however, any editing of the document is prohibited. We would encourage all dental professionals to continue to download the BSP flowchart from our website: https://www.bsperio.org.uk/publications/index.php

• Cardiologists should be aware of the connection between gum disease and heart disease and encourage their patients to be screened for periodontitis • Patients with gum disease should manage their cardiovascular disease risk factors Madrid, Spain, 19 February 2019. Proper oral hygiene and regular visits to the dentist can support cardiovascular health. This, in a nutshell, is what dental and heart experts agreed today at a joint workshop in Madrid. Representatives from the European Federation of Periodontology (EFP) and the World Heart Federation (WHF) reviewed the evidence linking cardiovascular diseases and gum disease (periodontitis) to prepare joint recommendations for health professionals and patients.

There have been some interesting developments in dentistry and periodontology already this year. We have seen the release of the NHS Long Term Plan and more coverage of issues related to diet and caries, periodontal diseases and systemic disease, and NHS availability. Although it was very disappointing to see that periodontal disease was not mentioned in the NHS plan it was good to see that there was an emphasis on prevention and for the delivery of care to vulnerable groups. We are continuing to try to work to promote improved periodontal care provision for all, with associated health benefits and improved quality of life. This month sees the Joint Workshop on Periodontology and Cardiovascular disease being held in Spain by EFP and the World Heart Federation – there is representation from the UK, and this may help broaden the awareness of research findings on this relationship to professionals and the public.