June 10th.. a good day! Dental teams from all over Wales met at Maesmawr Hall Hotel in Caersws for the Annual Rural Dental Conference. Always a social occasion and chance to network there was definitely the feeling this year that a sea change was imminent in our understanding of the disease process, it's detection, diagnosis and treatment. Hence the title of the day 'Fresh Insights.. New Conclusions'.
Dr Charles Vaughan Jones, postgraduate tutor, introduced the day and the first speaker Professor Nessa Carey who explained to an avid audience the important discovery that our genes are not fixed from birth, but activated and controlled by our life experience. This profound difference from accepted understanding is called Epigenetics.
Professor Simon Carding followed up this stunning lecture with his own bombshell ...that our gut bacteria directly affects many of our body processes, from our immune system through to the health of our brain...and this microbe population responds to our diet on a daily basis and can be altered directly with probiotics and other less savoury means!
Dr Lisa Howells was introduced to a packed audience by Dr David Thomas, interim Director of Postgraduate Dental Education. As Deputy Chief Dental Officer for Wales, Lisa outlined the predicted path oral care in Wales would take after the recent Assembly elections and also informed the conference of the new Chief Dental Officer, shortly to take up post, Dr Colette Bridgman MBE.
The afternoon session saw a breakout group of Dental Care Professionals being brought up to date by Fiona Sandom, president of the British Association of Dental Therapists and Kirstie Moons, Associate Director for Dental Care Professionals while the main conference examined the paradoxical world of the Placebo in the capable hands of Dr Chris Beedie. Finally the conference regrouped to hear Dr. Keith Hunter talk about the role of epigenetics in oral disease and the work to find a biomarker for early malignancy.
All in all it was clear that, with the human genome and its workings are an opening book, the future potentials for the treatment of currently debilitating disorders, whether inherited or developmental, are huge and significant. Putting that aside, the annual rural conference organised by the Dental Postgraduate Section, Wales Deanery for dental teams, mainly from, but not limited to, the Principality has become the foremost occasion in the Dental calendar for high quality CPD and making contacts.
Congratulations to all concerned. As Dr Vaughan Jones said 'Feeling part of a team engenders a sense of loyalty and professionalism that in itself promotes high standards'. He gave particular thanks to his course coordinator Nicola Dempsey for facilitating the day and to Maesmawr Hall for the level of hospitality.