EDITORIAL

Dr Ciara Scott

Honorary Editor

Supporting professionals and patients

Navigating new technologies and treatment approaches can be challenging for dentists and patients, and articles in this issue offer guidance and support.

Digital technologies are often described as disruptive. The term ‘disruptive technology’ was coined at Harvard Business School. Digital transformation using disruptive innovations builds a ‘new better’ way to do business and deliver care. Ireland is rich with innovation hubs that create forums to share ideas and create new ways of working. Innovations that challenge the status quo have created many positive changes in how we live and how we work. ehealth transformation is one of the cornerstones of Sláintecare and the HSE has recently partnered with Dell to provide a free programme for healthcare workers called Digital Futures in Healthcare. One disruptive technology of concern to the dental profession is the increasing trend for orthodontic treatment to be marketed ‘direct to consumer’ without the physical examination or supervision of care by a registered dentist or orthodontist. The Dental Council of Ireland published advice to the profession and patients regarding this in 2017 and the British Orthodontic Society and EFOSA, the European Federation of Specialist Orthodontists, have followed, by recently publishing their own advice. As a profession, we rely on legislation and regulation to control the qualifications and standards that are required to advertise, prescribe, manufacture and deliver custom devices to the general public. In our last issue, Roisín Farrelly outlined the new legislation on the prescription and manufacture of custom dental devices, and in this issue Dental Protection provides a useful update on direct-to-consumer orthodontics for the profession to support our decision making, and to support our patients.

Supporting behaviour change

Patients don’t always listen to our advice or follow it, and the health psychology literature is rich with models to explain why. Caring is at the core of our identity as professionals, so when treatment outcomes don’t meet our expectations or our patients’, this can impact on us as professionals as well as on our patients. Motivational interviewing (MI) is a technique that has been developed to support behaviour change and there is evidence that it not only supports patients, but reduces burnout for practitioners too. Having completed some training in coaching, MI and positive health, I can honestly say I am a strong advocate, as it has not only changed the conversations I have with my patients but the conversations I have with myself! So I am very grateful to Rebekah Brennan and Robert O’Driscoll for sharing their scoping review of the use of MI in oral care in this issue. This links well with our clinical feature, in which Anthony Roberts, Lewis Winning and Peter Harrison have summarised very comprehensive new S3level periodontal clinical guidelines, including patient behaviour change as a key step. The authors of both these articles have provided very comprehensive tables, which are not included in our print edition, but are available on our new online resource, www.JIDA.ie. While all our articles and past issues are open access and available on the IDA website, the Editorial Board has responded to the interest from both readers and authors to access individual articles. I hope you will find this new website valuable and we welcome your feedback. Our second peer-reviewed article reports an interesting and unusual case, and I thank Gagandip Singh Dhanjal and his colleagues for sharing this with us.

A growing profession

The increasing number of pages allocated to our classified ads highlights the growing demand for dental professionals in Ireland. Our members’ news section in this issue is focused on the current challenge of meeting this demand for staff. For many members, IDA events and conferences are an opportunity to reconnect with old classmates and colleagues, but for an increasing number of colleagues, it is their first opportunity to connect with the profession in Ireland, share information and create those allegiances. I moved to Ireland and registered with the Dental Council in 2001, and since joining the IDA in 2004, I have valued both the social and professional benefits of membership. I’m very grateful to our colleagues, Amalia Pahomi, Marcela Torres-Leavey, Erika Barta and Tristan Hartung for sharing their experiences of bringing their training and experience to Ireland, and the challenges and benefits of practising here, in this issue.

The Colgate Caring Dentist Awards in November offer the perfect opportunity to connect and really celebrate dental care in Ireland and I look forward to seeing you there.