The British Dental Association (BDA) has called once again for a full review of the evidence base for the HTM 01-05 guidance document on decontamination in dental surgeries. The BDA has written to the Department of Health (DH) renewing its 2007 call for a National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) review of the evidence, after it emerged that three areas of the guidance have already been amended before the document is even printed.

The unnecessarily complex contracts for dental access funding make them risky and inappropriate for dental practice, despite some changes made by the Department of Health (DH), the BDA's General Dental Practice Committee (GDPC) has said today. The final version of the 'PDS+' agreement developed for the current round of dental access procurement has been published today by DH. It runs to nearly 50 pages and 17 schedules.

One day in medical clinics, the big picture of a patient's state of health may be found in little pictures from the mouth, says Li Mao, MD, a new professor at the University of Maryland Dental School. The mouth or oral cavity area is an excellent indicator of the whole body's health, says Mao, who is the chair of the new Department of Oncology and Diagnostic Sciences at the School.

Renishaw, the world's largest supplier of in-lab CAD/CAM scanning machines (hall 6 stand Q18), will highlight its new inciseTM dental milling system which enables dental laboratories of all sizes to manufacture truly low cost zirconia frameworks in-house.

In a remarkable study in Sweden, dentists have led the way in a study designed to spot the early-warning signs of cardiovascular disease - which can lead to heart attacks.