2022 07 25

Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry

Dental Institute

Issue #1, July2022

Dentistry | Healthcare | Technology | Politics | Students

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Welcome to the 11th Issue of the Dental Mirror on ‘The Wider World”. In this issue we aim to think outside of the dental clinic and appreciate the dental field from a broader perspective.

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We often get asked the classic question of “why would you want to look at teeth all day?” when we tell people about our choice to pursue dentistry. To the general public, this is an understandable thought to have, with many people being unaware of the influence of oral health on the rest of the body and it’s links to many other serious diseases.

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With this in mind, we wanted this issue to capture the complexity of dentistry aside from the clinic and emphasise that as much as we may enjoy it, there is a whole lot more to dentistry than drilling and filling! Our writers have brought their knowledge of dental public health forward and taken a closer look at the common risk factor approach, the future of NHS dentistry, and dental care in developing countries. Another particularly interesting topic covered is misinformation in dentistry, where the age of social media can lead users astray with fake news.

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Finally, I would like to thank the Dental Mirror team for all their hard work over the past year. Working alongside the team as Editor-in-Chief has been thoroughly rewarding and I look forward to seeing what the next year’s team produce!

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Yours, Demi Bains

Editor-in-Chief

 

Demi and I felt it was important to dedicate this issue to ‘The Wider World’ raise awareness about prevention, health inequalities, and tackling preventable diseases that are highly prevalent in our population. This was especially important to us following the COVID-19 pandemic and it’s devastating effects on both oral and general health.

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In this issue, we encourage you all to broaden your understanding, to have a holistic view of dentistry and your patients; Dentistry is an all-encompassing field, it is about more than just the mouth and teeth, as oral health is also a reflection of our general health and wellbeing.

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In this issue, we cover a plethora of topics from tips on providing very brief advice for smoking cessation, tackling health inequalities and access to dental care, as well as the link between oral health to the rest of the body, and the future of NHS dentistry.

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I would also like to take a moment to thank all the members of our Dental Mirror team for spending countless hours seamlessly putting this issue together, our writers and editors for meticulously reading and re-reading every single article, and the design team for hand painting the front cover and sewing the entire issue together. It has been a pleasure being a part of this team and working along-side Demi as the Deputy Editor-in-Chief. We also welcome any feedback from students and staff members on our 11th and last issue of this academic year. We all hope you enjoy reading this issue as much as we have enjoyed creating it!

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Yours, Mariam Bqain

Deputy Editor-in-Chief

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