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Letter

The BNF is a joint publication of the British Medical Association and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and is published under the authority of a Joint Formulary Committee, which comprises representatives of professional bodies and of the UK Health Departments. The BNF aims to provide both prescribers and pharmacists with sound up-to-date information about the use of medicines.

You will receive your first edition of the BNF in the new format in the near future, and the frequency of subsequent distribution will be an improvement on the previous provision, as the DPF was issued only every two years.  The principal advantages of receiving a single resource more frequently are that dentists will not only receive more timely information on pharmaceutical preparations that they themselves prescribe, but also that they will have access to more up-to-date information on a patient's medication, which has been prescribed by medical and nursing colleagues.

As you will already know, new medications are made available on a regular basis, and last year a significant number of new preparations were added to the BNF. It is essential that dentists have convenient access to all this information in one publication to reduce the likelihood of avoidable adverse drug interactions, which can be a cause of inconvenience and possible morbidity for our patients. 

Until new prescribing arrangements are in place for NHS prescriptions, dentists should continue to prescribe only those items that are listed in the Dental    Practitioners' List. Preparations that can be prescribed by dental surgeons using NHS form FP10D are identified within the BNF by means of a note headed Dental Prescribing on NHS. The full Dental Practitioners' List follows the Appendixes in the BNF.

We do hope that you will find the new arrangements useful in the care of your patients.Yours faithfullyPROFESSOR RAMAN BEDI
Chief Dental Officer for England

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