Welcome from the editor

From theEditor

Matt Everatt F.O.T.A

lWelcome to your August edition of

The Dental Technician Magazine.

It always scares me when I sit down to type up my welcome note just how quick the months’ fly by. Maybe it’s an age thing or maybe it’s that I cram a lot into daily life, the days’ whizz by!

The holiday season is now upon us and I do hope you all manage to get a welldeserved break away from the tools. The CPD cycle is also upon us and the GDC are sending out their regular reminders, hourly it seems. Is it me, or is the declaration process totally over the top and the website very clunky? It has a ridiculous log in process that I inevitably get wrong and have to request a new password. This year I managed to get logged in relatively easy. I did my annual declaration and submitted my CPD hours, winning at life. Less than 24 hours later I received another GDC email asking me to make my declaration. I gave up in the hope that it was just an automated email and they now have my declaration logged.

NHS dentistry seems to be having a real big shake up. Dentists leaving the NHS system in their droves, labs not offering NHS priced work anymore, patients turning to private dental treatment. As much the NHS is part of our Great British Institution, I cannot help but feel it is no longer fit for practice and the move towards private dental treatment can only be a good thing for us as Dental Technicians. We just need to navigate our way to better pricing. Many labs and technicians don’t price their goods and services properly; I have been guilty of this in the past. An understanding of the actual cost of goods sold is so important when setting prices. We also tend to undervalue our skills. My hope is that we can all have open dialogues about pricing and hopefully see then end of undercutting prices to win business, after all, this inevitably is a race to the bottom.

We had hoped to have an update from the MHRA in regards to their views on ‘Illegal manufacturers in Dentistry’. I submitted a ‘Freedom of Information’ request in on the 1st of June. They have failed to meet the 20 working day deadline for this request, disappointing! I have recently chased up my request and have yet to have a response to this. Some of the questions asked would have to be answered from the top of the organisation, I suspect they are giving the questions the attention they deserve. We will update you as soon as we have any response.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a fantastic summer. I do hope we see a little more sunshine than the 2 days of sunshine we have had so far.

Please do not hesitate in reaching out to me if you would like to include an article in the magazine or you have any suggestions, I am always keen to hear from you all.

All the best for now, see you in September. Matt

UPDATE MHRA POLICY ON ILLEGAL MANUFACTURE IN DENTISTRY – NO ANSWERS YET

l The Dental Technician has asked the MHRA to answer a wide range of questions on - requirements for manufacturing custom made dental devices, what happens when they are made aware of illegal activity, how they work with other regulators in dentistry and policy implementation of regulations in dental hospitals.

Some of the information was asked for under the Freedom of Information (FoI) act, which has a time limit for providing an answer.

The MHRA have acknowledged the FoI but have not provided any answers so far. (The time limit for the FoI has been passed.) The questions are very focused and go to the heart of regulation. This may explain the delay.

The DT will wait for the information. However, if ultimately the information is not provided, it would be for the information commissioner to decide on whether it should be released or not.