A newly retired dentist has pledged to continue looking after the teeth of the nation by launching an oral health app.

Tony Smith, who was practice principal at Stockwood dental practice in Bristol until his retirement in October last year, told his patients in a farewell post on Facebook: ‘I may be retiring from Stockwood, but I can still help prevent you needing any dental treatment with my videos.’

His series of oral health videos are part of the teeth4life app, launched to support patients in their bid to maintain a healthy mouth.

Tony has created the videos so they can be customised by dental professionals, too. All they have to do is register the app for free via care4teeth.co.uk.

DCPs can also advertise other services or interests outside of dentistry on the app once they have signed up.

Tony said: ‘Giving patients a useful resource for free in a relaxed manner improves empathy and saves time in the long term. While I am retiring from clinical work, I will continue trying to promote public prevention in oral health. Simply download the app, press ‘Squeeze Me’ on the home page and understand the tagline ‘Save a life, SHARE teeth4life’.

The free download is available on the AppStore and GooglePlay.

It supports the key preventive messages, with a simple scoring system to monitor health.

Tony said: ‘Dental health is directly linked to general health, as well as our immunity. With COVID-19, there has never been a more critical time to keep teeth and gums healthy.’

A firm believed in preventative dentistry, Tony recalled: ‘I bought the semi-detached house at 62 Hollway Road back around Christmas in 1995, as I wanted to provide NHS dentistry, with an emphasis on prevention and providing a good service for the locality.

‘I feel we achieved this, and the practice steadily grew organically. Unfortunately, the NHS dentistry goalposts moved considerably in 2006. Since then, the playing surface has got more complicated and the game of providing an NHS service for everyone no longer achievable, with targets based on cure, not prevention.

‘After my 38 years of experience, the reality is for prevention to work, it is best delivered outside the NHS generally through hygienists and dental therapists, on a preventive dental plan.’

He added: ‘Surveys show seeing the same dentist regularly results in 30% fewer fillings in your lifetime. I have enjoyed my time working in Stockwood, and I'm pleased that the experienced dentist following on from me has similar values.’

Many of his oral health videos are available on his teeth4life YouTube channel, too.

For more, visit https://www.care4teeth.org.

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