Are we human, or are we dentists?

There are often moments in life when you can pinpoint exactly where you were, what you were doing and how you felt. From the ecstasy of your wedding to the moment you found out about a family bereavement, those feelings stay with you for the rest of your life. As dental professionals, it is understandable that, given the pressures exerted by UDAs and the way the contracts are, many patients will be treated and forgotten about by the time the next person is in the chair.

'It is easy to find yourself working outside your comfort zone when working with autistic children'.

Wendy Bellis is Assistant Clinical Director and Specialist Paediatric Senior Dental Officer for Camden and Islington Community Dental Service (Whittington Health). She is considered a world renowned voice on autism and paediatric dentistry, and news editor David Westgarth sat down with her to discuss some of the challenges presented by autistic patients.

Use of deflector shields to reduce intramammary infection by preventing impacts on the teat ends of cows during machine milking.

A series of short duration experiments has shown that infections caused by the milking machine or the way in which it is used can be controlled by fitting deflector shields in the teatcup liners. This not only provides a simple means of controlling such infections, but demonstrates that they result from penetration of the streak canal of the teat by contaminated milk particles impacting on the teat ends.

Effect of duration of teat cup liner closure per pulsation cycle on bovine mastitis.

Measurements of teat end expansion and contraction times from step changes in pressure suggest that teat ends require a minimal duration of liner closure for response. Effect of duration of liner closure per pulsation cycle on susceptibility of the udder to infection was tested. Four durations of liner closure (liner more than half closed) were applied: zero, .

Effect of deflector shields fitted in the milking machine teatcup liner on bovine udder disease.

Deflector shields were inserted in the teatcup to prevent 'impacts' against the teat end, and their effect on the rate of new udder infections was studied on 15 commercial dairy farms in Britain and 16 in Australia. Small metal shields were fitted between the liner barrel and short milk tube of 2 teatcups in each cluster in a milking installation so that all cows in a herd always had the same 2 quarters shielded. Half-udder comparisons were made using 1039 cows in the British herds and 1268 in the Australian herds.

Disinfection properties of some bovine teat dips.

The efficacy of 18 disinfectant teat dips was tested on teats artificially contaminated with a milk suspension of Staphylococcus aureus. A solution of Na hypochlorite with 40 g/l available chlorine was significantly more bactericidal than one containing 1 g/1 available chlorine and than most other disinfectants tested. The method was not able to distinguish differences in efficacy between solution containing 40g/1 and 10g/1 available chlorine nor between these and some of the iodophors containing 5 g/1 available iodine.

A method of diagnosing intramammary infection in dairy cows for large experiments.

Diagnosis of microbial infections in the udders of cows in commercial dairy farms for large experiments cannot be without error. Limitations of sampling method and routine prevent collection of the necessary information for sure diagnosis. However, with an organized method of repeated bacteriological examinations using consistent and proven methods of aseptic sampling the errors were shown to be very low.