Clinical photography is an area within dentistry that is becoming increasingly popular amongst clinicians wanting to capture cosmetic craftsmanship to those wanting to document information to monitor dental disease such as erosion.

Associate Dentolegal Adviser Simrit Ryatt explains the help Dental Protection can offer when you receive a letter of complaint.

Associate Dentolegal Adviser Simrit Ryatt outlines the key components of a response to letter of complaint. She offers tips on the wording of your letter to maintain a professional and effective relationship with the patient making the complaint.

Receiving a letter of complaint from a patient can often come as a shock, and can be a stressful and difficult time for a dental professional.

Hannah qualified from Peninsula Dental School in 2015 and went on to complete her DF1 on the Oxford Scheme. Today she is a DCT1 in Paediatrics and Oral Surgery at Birmingham Dental Hospital, but she found the choice of applying for DCT a difficult one to make.

A Judicial Review brought by Dental Protection has found that the General Dental Council (GDC) was wrong to deny a dental practitioner the right of review after receiving an unpublished warning.1

In November 2015, the GDC changed the rules on registration to ensure that all Dentists and Dental Care Professionals (DCPs) have a statutory requirement to maintain adequate and appropriate indemnity when practising dentistry in the UK. This has been a professional requirement for some time. Paragraph 1.8 of the GDC Standards document makes it clear that all registrants must have appropriate arrangements in place for patients to seek compensation if they have suffered harm. The GDC goes on to define such arrangements as being appropriate insurance or indemnity.

The Health and Social Care (Disciplinary Procedures) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016 currently govern disciplinary proceedings in relation to some family health practitioners, including some family health practitioners.

It’s fair to say that nobody likes to receive complaints, but our ability to respond to them constructively, and to learn any lessons that they provide for us, goes to the very heart of professionalism especially working in dental practice.

In addition to several references in the press to “dirty dentists” this is the month that the case of Dr D’Mello returned to the GDC. More importantly, when the case is reported in the national press it has the potential to suggest that dental surgeries may not be safe or that cross - infection standards have been disregarded. One way to avoid such suspicion is to share your infection control routines with your patients at an early stage when they first come for treatment; adopt an “open house” policy.

Find out why you need to put your reasons in writing, and be clear and focused on why the relationship needs to end. Read our advice booklet on Ending Professional Relationships

Learn why this raises important questions about confidentiality, and your duty of care towards other family members, in particular, children.

Dr Jane Merivale, Senior Dentolegal Adviser at Dental Protection, explains why discussion around ending a relationship should always be couched in terms of the best interests of the patient.

Mohamed Jaffer graduated in 2013 from Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry.

When the General Dental Council (GDC) decided to allow certain DCPs direct access to patients as of 1 May 2013, many questions arose. Dental Protection sets out its stall in this article.