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If you’re considering travelling abroad for dental treatment, it’s important you are fully aware of what to expect and what risks are involved.

Dental hygienists and dental therapists can carry out tooth whitening on the prescription of a dentist if they have the necessary additional skills, says the GDC.

This clarification from the GDC follows its public consultation on the scope of practice of the dental team earlier this year. The consultation sought views on which groups of professionals should be able to do what, including tooth whitening. 

“This explanation should provide clarity to registrants who advised us that they wanted clearer guidance on which members of the dental team could carry out tooth whitening,” GDC President Hew Mathewson says.

“This clarification, however, does not alter the GDC’s position that tooth whitening carried out by non dental professionals is illegal,” he says.

The GDC also decided that taking impressions to a dentist’s prescription and making bleaching trays to a dentist’s prescription are within the scope of additional skills for dental nurses.

The British Dental Health Foundation has urged members of the public to ‘Brush for Health’ in National Smile Month after it was revealed that people with gum disease have a significantly higher risk of developing cancer.

Flossing while driving, opening bottles with the teeth, ignoring bleeding gums and using hammers, earrings and lollipop sticks to pick the teeth are just some of the bad habits revealed by this year’s National Dental Survey (20-05-2008)