The Online Dentist by Dr Andrew Wilson

The statistics on child tooth decay are frightening. As a dental professional, you will have heard these before but they are worth repeating.

Almost one-third of 5-year-olds in England have tooth decay. Thousands of children all over the United Kingdom are suffering from pain, swelling and sleep loss caused by a preventable disease.

Why is tooth decay the No. 1 reason that children are admitted to hospital in this country?

We can point the finger at the government and the National Health Service, or we can point the finger at parents. Maybe we should be looking at ourselves as a profession.

Actually, trying to apportion blame is a pointless exercise, because we already have all that we need to help these children.

Tooth decay is not a mystery to us: We know exactly how it works, what causes it and how to prevent it. It’s not as if we need to get the best minds of our generation to dust off their microscopes and pipettes in search of a cure for tooth decay. It’s so simple: Bacteria take sugar from your diet, crap all over your teeth and make a hole. This hole grows, ultimately leading to pain, swelling and soup. And we not only know how to cure it, we know how to prevent it in the first place.

Brush your teeth, use a fluoride toothpaste and avoid refined sugar. Simple stuff, right? For our profession, this couldn’t be more basic. So why were 46,500 children admitted to hospital in one year because of tooth decay? Clearly we aren’t getting through to the families who need our help.

When you have the right knowledge, it becomes simple to avoid dental disease. There are no excuses and we need to make this clear to patients. How often do you hear patients say, ‘It’s in my genes, Doc. My whole family have soft enamel’? Of course, we know that it’s rarely the genes that are the problem. It’s the fizzy pop.

What if we could get through to these people? What if we could make them understand that the power lies in their hands and in their toothbrushes? How many children could we save from an unnecessary general anaesthetic?

The answer is 46,500, that number that I quoted above. If 46,500 children are admitted to hospital in a year for the treatment of a preventable disease, then surely we can prevent 46,500 cases. Our target for hospital admissions caused by tooth decay must be zero.

How are we going to do this? It’s certainly not going to be easy. You cannot change people’s behaviours overnight. But you can chip, chip, chip away, sharing positive messages that slowly filter through.

The Online Dentist
That is why I created The Online Dentist. Our aim is to empower families to take control of their dental health. With the right knowledge, anyone can avoid dental disease.

We want to share positive health messages with everyone so that families have the power.

The Online Dentist is a free educational resource for the general public. We have created articles, videos and activities to teach the whole family about how to care for their teeth. There is information on dental health, dental disease and dental treatments. There are articles and activities for children that aim to teach in a fun, accessible way.

In April 2017, we launched a dental health syllabus for each school key stage, along with a comprehensive set of school resources. The syllabus tied in with the syllabus set by the Department for Education so that teachers could teach about dental health alongside their mandatory subjects.

We created worksheets, activities and videos that are all free to access on our website. The launch of the resources was featured on BBC Breakfast and since then, educational organisations have started to promote the syllabus among teachers. It’s early days but the resources have been extremely popular.

The Online Dentist is a member of the NHS Information Standard. This is a mark of quality from the NHS, demonstrating to the public that our information is trustworthy and based on the best available evidence. The website has been growing in popularity and we now help thousands of people every month with dental health advice. I’m immensely proud of the project so far. But we have a huge way to go.

How can you help?
I don’t know—you tell me! We’ve had several dentists contribute to the site so far. If you have an idea for a resource or article that you think would be helpful to patients, please get in contact; I’m open to all ideas—information, articles, advice, anything that helps patients.

Dealing with current inequalities in dental health is a huge challenge. If it was easy, we would have already sorted it and I wouldn’t be sat here banging away at my computer keys. But that’s what makes it so exciting.

Imagine the difference that we could make to the thousands of children every year who have a GA to rip out all of their baby teeth.

Dentistry is all about people. That’s probably why you’re a member of the profession. You do it to help people. And you do an amazing job! Every day you solve people’s problems. You get them out of pain, you save their teeth, you give them the confidence to smile.

Now let’s think bigger. Let’s go beyond the four walls of our surgeries and help everyone.

Get Involved
If you think you can help or would like to be involved with The Online Dentist project, please contact via the website or email andrew@online-dentist.co.uk.

Dr Andrew Wilson qualified from the University of Bristol in 2011 and practices in Central London. He is passionate about improving oral health and care through positive communication. Wilson is the author of the Art of Dentistry blog which offers advice to dentists on communication and success in general practice.