Tools of trade:
Vaseline

by Dr John Chiang, Picton Dental, Picton, NSW

I have read Tools of the Trade for years now, and always enjoyed the reviews of cheap generic products. It's easy to rave about a $200,000 cone-beam CT scanner and how it improves our dentistry but it is also interesting to read about the ingenious ways dentists use everyday products. I have found Vaseline to be a very useful product.

Children's oral health is associated with the oral health of their parents and their family circumstances according to Families and their oral health, a report released today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).

A second report, Chronic conditions and oral health, also released today by the AIHW, shows that people with chronic conditions and diseases were more likely than those without to have poor dental health.

We trust our dentist more than we trust our doctor, according to new research.

There is a long held view of the traditional family GP widely trusted within the community, always on hand to dish out advice. But new research reveals that dentists are winning the race for trust, as 88 per cent of people surveyed in a new poll3, confirmed that they have a very high degree of trust in their dentist, even greater than in their doctor.

A new report from Queensland's independent health watchdog shows dental complaints could be reduced if more dental practitioners adhered to existing standards, policies and guidelines.

While it's rarely news when someone gets a filling, paleoantologists are quite excited this week to report what may be one of the world's oldest fillings-made of beeswax, in a jaw recovered from a cave near Trieste, Italy. The specimen has been stored at the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics in Italy for the past century, but it has only been recently that the beeswax filling has been noticed.

Millions of children and low-income patients will get free dental care under a landmark $4 billion package of reforms announced by Health Minister Tanya Plibersek today.

Ms Plibersek said the spending would be in two key areas: