dhs-dental health service

 Promote Public Prevention in Health

My vision some time ago was to promote public prevention in oral health. More recently, following the experience of Covid and the opportunity and time to look into health in general, I think we drop the word oral.


We work in the health business, and health should be our priority. More and more, the emphasis is business first, and health second as applied by many dental corporates. One could argue the biggest one is the NHS system. Despite the phrase you will have heard, "I hate the dentist", the public trust us. We can utilise our circle of trust by nudging the general public into better health habits as well as interdental cleaning. The idea is for the simple App to provide preventive and specific marketing advice that promotes you, as you can customise the App yourself. It's what Stephen Covey would call a win-win. It saves us time by supporting our oral health advice the public needs and earns money by explaining your recommended services, which the public generally wants. It saves time and money for the public also.


The BPE is related to general health, and the BEWE is associated with the high volume of UPDs, the resulting obesity and type 2 diabetes epidemic, and the increase in UPFs more readily available and affordable from when I qualified in 1982. Why not include some of these details in a simple format, or include links to trustworthy sites other than the "Fake news" that has paralysed water fluoridation. We can be central to health delivery, as the NHS system is overwhelmed by the six million plus backlog of treatment. We can help.


Teeth4life also encourages the public to set reminders for screening themselves. It is not a diagnostic device but a tool to help raise public awareness and access a developing triage process. As with all cancers, early diagnosis improves outcomes. I have engaged the NHS, and specifically, help with funding to help add Teledentistry and a language option that the NHS want. We need an RCT for evidence and demonstrate a profit before they consider supporting it. The Dahl technique in orthodontics and the Hall technique in paediatrics originated from single cases. The proof came later. Clayton Christensen stated years ago regarding disruptive innovation in health delivery that you can't have historical data on innovation. The NHS framework has neglected the public and ourselves in delivering a model for prevention in health for decades. Why not promote ourselves centrally in promoting health rather than being sidelined by this overwhelmed bureaucracy?


The fixed prevention videos follow the government's evidence-based "Delivering Better Oral Health" toolkit. For the App to continue, it needs funding, as outlined elsewhere on this website, with supporting videos for all the dental team. It needs funding to maintain it as a free resource for the public and the majority of DCPs. It would take 0.25% of registered dentists paying £10 a month to keep the current version of the App, or 1% to improve it. Some contributions by peer review study groups would be more helpful to collaborate and help develop the content and functionality iteratively as with most Apps. Banking Apps have resulted in the high street changing significantly. Why not with health delivery? It would be our dental profession taking the lead in our nation's health, rather than the usual spin by the government on greedy dentists. Want to help?


In her lifelong work, Marion Nestle is looking for advocates to reduce the negative influence of the food industry on our health. We need to be able to provide a health service for the general public. The dental team have that position at zero cost on our time as we can include minor incremental changes or nudges within the video content, which we know work, as with Team GB in the 2012 Olympics. We also need to address the long-term issue where most of the population will not be able to afford our services, as outlined by Michael Sandel, and the legal system has crept into the profession, as outlined by Johnathon Sumption. We need to look outside our business to provide a fair solution for us and the public.


Don't hesitate to contact me if you are interested in a bespoke version for your dental business. Please register on care4teeth.co.uk and look at how the App can market you.
If you want us to register you or if you want to take part in a webinar for further information.

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