The lost treasure?

In the UK, and particularly England, we have a unique opportunity to change the future of dentistry. As GDPs there are lots of things that we probably cannot change on our own but at the same time there are lots of things that we could change if we worked together. In particular there is the role of GDPs in primary care research.

For example, it’s unlikely that most general practitioners will be able to design and test new technology or a procedure in a general practice setting. This type of work will often need to take place in collaboration with academic colleagues usually in a very controlled environment. However, we are able to get involved with randomised controlled trials and other community based studies. Recently there have been a few studies that have been based in primary care and have provided GDPs the opportunity to participate.

Although it seems like much more could be done to utilise the opportunity that is offered in primary care. Primary care provides an excellent opportunity to find out about what motivates patients to attend the dentist and what those patients expect from the NHS, at the same time we could also find out what it is that patients do not expect from the NHS.