Dental Health Spa: 4 years on - September 2011

With all of us at Dental Health Spa celebrating our 4th birthday, Christina talks a little about why she set up the business and how the hygiene referral has affected our progress so far.

"Dental Health Spa opened on to Brighton high street 4 years ago on September 17^th 2007, without a single patient on our books.

I wanted to take dental hygiene to the high street. Gum disease affects up to 50% of the population and is often undiagnosed because it's not painful and goes unnoticed by the patient. People loose teeth through gum disease, their breath smells and their confidence is affected - all things that can be prevented. As the science proves, there are more health benefits for the rest of your body if the bacterial load in your mouth is reduced, not to mention the fact that gum disease is linked to systemic diseases. As a population we are living and holding on to our teeth for longer, therefore prevention is better than cure as well as being more cost effective. With taking dental hygiene to the high street it seemed a logical step to do what I know and to do it well.

Yes we are 4 years old and its been tough. So why did we do it? What changed that allowed a dental hygienist or any other registered Dental Care Professional with the General Dental Council (GDC), to set up and manage a dental business?

In 2003 the Consumers Association instigated the biggest ever super complaint against private dentistry. As a result of that complaint, The Office of Fair Trading investigated claims made by the Consumers Association and the results of those investigations and their recommendations were made public. They asked for transparency of pricing, choice and removed the monopoly of dentists being the only ones to manage the business of dentistry to allow a more competitive market. A statement made by The Office of Fair Trading also said that the GDC should review the 'under a prescription rule' and consider whether dentists should be obliged to inform consumers of their choice. Unfortunately that 'under prescription rule' still stands - which means you cannot see a dental hygienist or therapist to have your mouth cleaned, for want of a better description, without a dentist telling you you can.

Don't get me wrong, regulation is good. It protects the public and ensures that people are professionally trained and competent to treat, as well as being kept up to date with continuing professional development. It never ceases to amaze me the treatments that the public can have from unregulated professionals.

But, and there is a big but - a huge proportion of the population do not go to the dentist at all or on a regular basis, whether that is through fear, cost or accessibility. This also means that with Oral Cancer on the increase, regular screening and smoking cessation advice for this core group is also being missed. The last Adult Dental Health survey (2009) highlighted that 12% of the population studied in this study do not go because of dental anxiety. A survey published by the British Dental Health Foundation in 2011 said that people were more frightened of dentists than they were of snakes and spiders.

So, with levels of gum disease high, consumer awareness growing, access to hygiene services limited – Dental Health Spa opened on Brighton high street (there were already 60- 70 dental practices in Brighton and Hove and the surrounding areas). With all that in mind, and still working with the 'under prescription rule', how has Dental Health Spa faired in the last 4 years?

4 years on we have clearly demonstrated that with 4,258 patients now in our books, and with a 30% increase in our hygiene only numbers since last year, we cannot be wrong. The Office of Fair Trading's most recent announcement last week re-looks at dentistry again and hopefully this time the 'under prescription rule' will go, allowing people more choice where they can go and who they can see. Certainly a proposal has been put to the GDC by both the British Society of Dental Hygiene and Therapy and the British Association of Dental Therapists asking them to look again at the position of access to hygiene services, backed by a robust undergraduate programme that show our training is almost the same except in areas outside our competencies.

To start the year off and to help really push things forward, we are now collating information from patients to provide some validated data to support the consumer wants for access to hygiene services. When we, the Direct Action Group, put our case forward to the GDC in March 2012, they need to be aware that it is a consumer want. But we also want our consumers to be aware that it could change, and their views really do matter."

Chris