The International Journal of Paediatric Dentistry (IJPD) has two new Editors. Dr Chris Vernazza has been appointed Honorary Editor by BSPD while Professor Donald Chi has been appointed Editor-in-Chief by Wiley, which co-owns the journal with BSPD and the International Association of Paediatric Dentistry (IAPD). Both will sit on the journal’s editorial board. The journal is a membership benefit for both BSPD and IAPD members and dental schools around the world maintain a subscription.

The healthy child programme (HCP) developed by Health Education England now includes advice on dental issues thanks to the input of BSPD’s secretary and Consultant in Paediatric Dentistry, Urshla (Oosh)Devalia as well as Wendy Bellis, Honorary Clinical Senior Teaching Fellow at the Eastman Dental Institute. The new programme is for all healthcare providers who treat children with learning disabilities and autism in special residential schools and colleges.

Charming, creative, concise, informative. These are some of the plaudits already heaped on a new video made to explain treatments for dental decay in children. Exceptionally, the video production has been led by a team who are aged between three and eleven! With just a little bit of help from the staff of the School of Clinical Dentistry of the University of Sheffield, as well as a professional film editor, the young team of producers, directors, actors and editors have created a six minute video which focuses on silver diamine fluoride (SDF) as a technique for arresting dental caries.

Not everyone works for 35 years and loves every day of it, says Professor Barbara Chadwick, who has been blessed, she adds, by influential mentors, wonderful colleagues, committed students and a dental pathway which offers infinite variety. Professor Chadwick has just been made an MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list for services to paediatric dental health. For most of her career she has been based at Cardiff University School of Dentistry, most recently as Director of Education and Students.

The British Society of Paediatric Dentistry (BSPD), the organisation committed to improving the oral health of children in the UK, is calling for more co-ordinated steps to tackle both dental decay and obesity to stop thousands of children growing up to face a lifetime of disadvantage. It has published a position statement on obesity and dental caries which includes a new analysis from Public Health England (PHE) showing that children who are underweight, overweight or very overweight are more likely to have experienced dental decay than those of a healthy weight. New research on sugar consumption is also included: current figures suggest children and young people consume up to three times more sugar than the recommended levels.