Horizons 2011

The programme will be delivered by dento-legal advisers from Dental Protection and will explore regulatory issues and scenarios relevant for all members of the dental team.

Facts, myths and choices

In a difficult economic environment, this is a confusing and challenging time for most dental health professionals. Regulation, scrutiny and accountability are increasing and change is all around us. This creates uncertainty and unseen risks at a time when economic considerations will also affect patients’ choices and their expectations of treatment outcomes. This seminar is designed to explain relevant facts, dispel some dangerous myths and provide some powerful insights into several areas of patient care which are also potentially important medico-legally. This new programme for the whole dental team draws from DPL’s massive international experience and provides practical and relevant advice in an enjoyable and memorable way, including:

• Regulation and accountability
  In 2011, for the first time, there will be a new climate of information sharing between a variety of bodies such as the GDC, Care Quality Commission in England and HIW in Wales, and NHS agencies. This will impact in new ways upon private, NHS and mixed practices and there is a pressing need to correct some of the dangerous misinformation in the dental press about how best to navigate a safe course through all this regulation and scrutiny.
  
  
• Interpersonal powerplays
  The body language clues to look for, and to use yourself, when having important one-to-one interactions with your patients (or in the case of children, their parents) and also work colleagues. Are they listening? Are they concentrating? Are they interested? How to help them to remember the key points of what you are saying, and understand what really matters.
  
  
• Memories are made of this
  The inherently fallible nature of memory and how it can play tricks on us. Why patients don’t always remember what we tell them. What we need to record in the clinical notes in order to compensate for this.
  
  
• Thanks, but no thanks
  Patients have a right to elect not to accept the advice we give them, or the treatment we recommend – but we also have a duty to make them aware of the consequences of their decisions. In difficult economic times, “informed refusal” needs to be understood by the whole dental team.
  
  
• Stepwise to success
  The “staircase” model of behavioural change helps us to understand why some people will immediately engage with and start to implement our advice, many will show encouraging early signs of doing so before slipping back to where they started, and others will never change – no matter how much advice and guidance we give them.

Venues and dates

All events will run between 1630 and 2030, and will include a hot buffet dinner for all attendees plus 2.5 hours verifiable CPD for all GDC-registered members of the team.

Click here to download the full programme.

Tickets

• DPL member (dentist, hygienist or therapist) £60
• DPL Xtra member (dentist, hygienist or therapist) £50
• Non-member (dentist, hygienist or therapist) £80
• Team member (dental nurse, technician, reception team or  practice manager) £5 (to cover catering costs). A maximum of four reduced-price team members can attend per paying dental professional.

Meet the speakers:

Brian Edlin, Stephen Henderson, Alasdair McKelvie and Jane Merivale 

To register to receive further information regarding the event please email events@dentalprotection.org or to book your tickets contact the Events Department on 020 7399 1339.