Home Page of site for dental gain, health gain and social gain

Click on the slideshow to view Oral Ulceration tutorial, or go to CPD for a contents list on the index at left. You may link to the complete notes at ORAL ULCERATION NOTES

Opportunistic screening of patients for oral cancer can be done in just a few minutes. Click HERE for the NIDCR oral examination protocol.

HSE and DENTAL NEWS

HSA publishes guide for Directors and Senior Managers

The HSA has just published (6th November 2007) a Guidance for Directors and Senior Managers on their Responsibilities for Workplace Safety and Health.This guidance is aimed at executive and non-executive directors of all types of workplaces in the private and public sectors. including Principal Dental Surgeons. The document may be freely downloaded in pdf format from the HSA website here, but please note the strict copyright notice on page three!

The report of the Review Body on Higher Remuneration - Implications for Chief Dental Officer post

In appendix B of the report of the Review Body on Higher Remuneration are listed posts covered by the scheme at the equivalent of Deputy Secretary Level, or at a level above Assistant Secretary but below Deputy Secretary. The post of Chief Medical Officer, Dept. of Health and Children is included under this heading. Deputy Secretaries who currently earn €169,415 have been given a 9.2% pay rise to €185,000. The implications from this would seem to suggest that the CMO would also be entitled to a rise of 9.2%, bringing his/her salary from the current €166,063 to €181,340.
For the record, the Secretary General of the Dept. of Health and Children, a Level II grade, currently getting €242,019, has been awarded 11.6% to €270,000. The Deputy Secretary General, currently at €169,41 gets the aforementioned 9.2%, bringing the salary to €185,000. Assistant Secretaries, currently: €125,046 – 131, 092 – 137, 144 – 143,192, have been recommended an additional 5.5%, bringing the scale to €132,000 – 138,000 – 144,500 – 151,000.
The full report is available as a pdf file on the website of the Review Body, report no 42 on http://www.reviewbody.gov.ie/publications

Minister wants Chief Dental Officer and more Hygienists
The Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney T.D. announced on 18th October that she considered the position of Chief Dental Officer "an important area where we need an advisor at a clinical level that is the CDO... as far as not just our international participation is concerned but even on domestic issues it is an important position." A decision is to be made very quickly on the post. More

Specialist Orthodontists get 4.5 per cent pay rise
The report of the Review Body on Higher Remuneration has awarded 4.3 per cent to Specialist Orthodontists, who were included in the groups covered by the review, along with hospital consultants, Directors of Public Health, Specialists in Public Health, and higher management grades in the HSE not covered by the benchmarking process. This raises the pay of a Specialist Orthodontist from €139,044 to €145,000.
Interestingly, the Review Body recommended a salary for the CEO of the HSE below that of the incumbent CEO - it is the understanding of the Review Body that the recommended rate of €303,000 will apply to the successor to the present CEO, who reportedly earns €360,000 plus bonuses of up to 25% - a potential total of €450,000 p.a.
National Directors in the National Hospital Office and in PCCC, of Finance, HR and Population Health get 9.5%; Other National Directors get 5.5%. Hospital Network Managers and Assistant National Directors in the PCCC Directorate come in at 19.6%; other ANDs at 2.3%.
The pages of the Report relating to the Specialist Orthodontists may be downloaded here

Competition Authority publishes report on Dental Services
The Competition Authority is calling for significant reform in the Irish Dental profession. The report finds that competition in dental services is restricted and discouraged by an outdated system of regulation. Among the report’s key findings are that Irish dentists are not allowed to advertise their prices nor to offer discounts; they may not canvas for each other’s customers; the number of dentists and orthodontists being trained in Ireland has not kept pace with growing demand; and Irish consumers do not have the option of going directly to qualified dental hygienists and dental technicians. For more on this, and pdf files of the executive summary and final report, go to the Competition Autority's webpage.

Radiology
The Minister for Health, Mary Harney, signed S.I.303 of 2007 in June of this year. Yet to be issued officially, this Statutory Instrument is called the European Communities (Medical Ionising Radiation Protection) (Amendment) Regulations 2007. The amendment modifies certain clauses in S.I.478 of 2002 that impacted on the efficient operation of radiology in dental practice. S.I.303 of 2007 (50KB doc)

Orthodontics
The Report of the Orthodontic Review Group was accepted by HSE Management in January 2007. The national implementation date for the new guidelines for orthodontic treatment, based on the Index for Orthodontic Treatment Need, or IOTN is July 2nd 2007. The modified IOTN may be accessed here. See original IOTN under "Orthodontics" in the page index on left.

Interview with John Gormley on fluoridation, RTE Radio, March 2007, before he became Minister for the Environment. This is a zipped mp3 file of 5.68 mbytes. Download only via broadband.

Continuing Professional Education

Provision for mandatory CPD for Irish dentists is likely to be included in the new Dentists Bill which is to be introduced by the Minister for Health and Children in 2007 or 2008. The Dental Council will start to record CPD hours in 2008 with a two-year lead in period before the mandatory requirement in 2010. It is envisaged that each CPD cycle will extend over three years with average annual requirements of 20 verifiable hours and 30 non-verifiable hours of CPD.
As of January 2004, it has been compulsory for every UK dentist actively to participate in Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in order to stay on the General Dental Council's (GDC) Register. All UK dentists must undertake 250 hours of CPD during every five year period from 1 January 2004. More