A major milestone

A symposium on oral health titled ‘Mouth Matters’ was an integral part of the conference and represented a major milestone in child protection, being the first time that the link between dental neglect and safeguarding of children has been explored in detail at a BASPCAN event.

Jenny Harris, a consultant in Community Paediatric Dentistry from Sheffield and the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry’s Safeguarding Children representative ran the symposium. She was supported by paediatric dentistry speakers from four other centres, pictured (l-r with Jenny in the middle): Susan Parekh, Elizabeth O'Sullivan, Professor Barbara Chadwick and Richard Balmer.

A series of introductory presentations reviewed current knowledge, providing an overview of childhood dental disease and its consequences, and explored contemporary approaches to dental treatment and management of dental neglect.

The conference also heard about projects examining the follow up of families who fail to attend dental appointments (DNAs).  The first was a retrospective service evaluation of safeguarding activity in a Hull dental general anaesthesia referral service. As a result of the evaluation, a multi-disciplinary team approach may begin to address issues for those families who fail to engage with dental services.