News

Mouthcards given out to the public, as part of our #howsyoursmile gum health awareness campaign, have made it to Australia! Two members of (BSP president-elect) Ian Needleman’s specialist dental team handed out hundreds of mouthcards to the public in London’s West End this summer. By complete chance, one of the recipients was Debbie Waalkens, wife of Dr Chris Waalkens – past-president of the Australia and New Zealand Academy of Periodontists! Our gum health awareness campaign has been a huge success reaching 4-5 million people across the world, predominantly through the use of social media.

To bring our 2016 public awareness campaign competition to a close we nominated a second winner of our selfie #howsyoursmile supporters. Chosen at random was Michelle Morris, a teaching assistant from Liverpool who was delighted to win £1000 worth of Apple vouchers. Here is Michelle and her nieces and nephews sporting the mouthcards we used to support our campaign. Well done Michelle!

The much anticipated Good Practitioner's Guide to Periodontology has been launched this week in London. It is a completely revised version of its predecessor, The Young Practitioner's Guide to Periodontology, taking on board comments and suggestions made over the intervening 5 years. Not least its name: For "Young" now read "Good"! The revised text addresses changes in research and clinical practice. It is available to download in PDF format (see Publications) and also in digital and interactive format (also available under Publications). This exciting addition has been made possible by Fiona Clark of Atlas Education and a BSP member, an expert in the field of e-learning. This third version of the Guide aims to be a helpful companion to the dental team in clinical practice following on from the undoubted success of its two previous versions.

Radio Kent contacted our President, Phil Ower, this morning requesting a live radio interview about the amount of interest generated by the press coverage of the debate "to floss or not to floss". With less than a hour's notice the call went out and Professor Francis Hughes rose to the challenge. He was the only person interviewed on the subject and was on air answering a barrage of questions from the show's host Julia George. You can hear the interview at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0417szw (10.50am).

This week has seen a renewed interest in the thorny subject of flossing. Our statement follows - this shows the BSP's position on the flossing debate...

Reena Wadia was one of our 2016 Clincial Fellowship Award winners and has recently returned from her trip to Boston where as she says, she had a fantastic learning experience. Her report can be viewed here.

We are delighted that the BBC's Hugh Pym was spotted sporting a BSP mouthie to raise awareness for gum disease! #howsyoursmile

Our film 'The Sound of Periodontitis' is now being used and translated across Europe. It powerfully shows the patient perspective on gum disease. It's well worth watching and sharing if you haven't already!

In the latest BDJ (22 July 2016) there is a letter expressing concern about the tactics of the BSP gum health campaign. To read this, and our response, please click on the 'More' button below: