News

Happy New Year everyone! What a year it has been already! There has been a lot of activity and enthusiasm, especially with the new classification. This year is set to be a very exciting one, with the BSP Conference at Brighton and the celebrations of the 70th Anniversary of the BSP - the Early Career Group has a big part to play. At the BSP Conference in Brighton, the ECG session have a Q&A session on ‘speciality training for tomorrow’. This session is open to anyone who is looking for advice on different pathways for speciality training in Periodontics and how to build their CV.

Welcome to 2019 from the British Society of Periodontology - we currently live in interesting and somewhat uncertain times, but this has been the case in one way or another ever since BSP was first formed, in the year that saw the release of such films as The Third Man, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Passport to Pimlico and Whisky Galore! The US Number 1 single in January 1949, 70 years ago, was "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth"... an early request for implant treatment? It is a real honour to take on the role of President for 2019. I hope that I can carry on the amazing work of my predecessors and work with our incredibly supportive executive team, with Council, and with you all as members of BSP to help serve and support you and to promote and develop periodontology within and more especially outside our profession.

The BSP has created a decision-making flowchart (algorithm) to help practitioners adapt to the new classification. This document is essential for all practitioners and Periodontists in guiding you through the decision-making process to arrive at the correct diagnosis for your patients. You can view and download a pdf version of the flowchart on our Publications page. The BSP team are in the process of producing a laminated version, which we hope to distribute in the coming weeks. We are grateful to our sponsors Johnson & Johnson and Oral-B who have kindly contributed towards the cost of producing and circulating the flowchart, thereby ensuring that we adequately support the dental profession in their diagnoses and treatment of periodontal patients.

As you will be aware, the British Society of Periodontology set up a working group of specialists and general practitioners to review the 2017 Classification of Periodontal Diseases that was announced at EuroPerio 9. They have worked tirelessly to look at the process of implementation of the 2017 classification for the UK to produce something that is workable and practical in UK general and specialist practice. The BSP implementation document has now been published in the British Dental Journal. The paper describes the salient points of the 2017 classification, rationalises the differences between the 2017 and 1999 classifications, provides BSP management guidelines and an illustrative case study.

The BSPerio have produced a series of webinars which discuss and explain the need for the new classification.

The latest Change4Life campaign is asking parents to “Make a swap when you next shop” to halve their children’s sugar intake from some everyday food and drinks. • Children are currently consuming around 2,800 extra sugar cubes per year. Children have already exceeded the maximum recommended sugar intake for an 18 year old by the time they reach their tenth birthday, according to Public Health England (PHE)1. This is based on their total sugar consumption from the age of two.

The BSP and it’s President, Dr Mark Ide, wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year, as we look forward to an exciting 2019.

Dear Members, As my presidential year draws to a close my overwhelming feeling is that the BSP is going from strength to strength, building on the excellent initiatives of recent years. I have been privileged to work with BSP Council whose enthusiasm and commitment to the Society is remarkable, particularly Nicola West and Mike Milward, who fit in their work for BSP around very busy academic and clinical roles. My thanks to all of Council for their support during the year.

Last year, the James Lind Alliance Oral and Dental Health Priority Setting Partnership asked patients, carers and health care professionals and members of the public to tell them what questions they wanted research to answer on oral and dental health, to keep peoples' mouths, teeth and gums healthy. Over 600 people replied, submitting over 1000 questions. The responses were whittled down to a key set of 38 questions. In order to promote Oral & Dental Health Research, the Chief Dental Officer shared a survey to identify the top 10 priorities. We are grateful to those members who took the time to complete the survey and hoped that periodontal health research would be recognised as a priority for funding. The results of the survey are now in and more information can be found here.