Up-to-date seminar

Sitting in a theatre noted for drama, listening to speakers noted for their eloquence, in a city noted for its vibrancy, the Oral B Up-to-date Seminar provided a plenitude of all three. The Shaw Theatre at the Novotel Hotel in St Pancras, London, was bulging at the rafters, struggling to contain the few hundred delegates cradled in its seats who sat enthralled by the lectures.

After a delicious buffet meal we ushered ourselves into the Shaw Theatre, where Stephen Hancock introduced the much-anticipated proceedings by reminding us that the theatre was named for the dramatist George Bernard Shaw, a perfectly apt distinction in view of the lively speakers about to grace the stage.

The first lecture was by Prof Iain Chapple of Birmingham University, who had the unique skill of making periodontal disease seem fascinating! He spoke of the revelatory new concepts that linked periodontal disease to many other systemic causes of mortality. The underlying villain of the pathological piece was inflammation, present in most chronic diseases as well as periodontal disease, and it is becoming acknowledged that this inflammation determines the outcome of mortality and disease, rather than simply being a reaction to it. Prof Chapple said this inflammation is influenced significantly by lifestyle and diet, particularly a lack of exercise and a high simple carbohydrate intake. Eliminating free radicals is not something lifted from the plot of a James Bond novel, but an essential part of abating the detrimental effects of metabolic oxidative stress. Without blinding us with intricate science, Prof Chapple surprised us with the evidence that periodontal inflammation can be reduced through better diet alone, even in the absence of oral hygiene! An unfortunate enlightenment for myself personally was that too much sleep can also adversely affect longevity, and less sleep didn't seem to have a detrimental impact.