A damning report, to be presented to the Dental Practice Board conference in Eastbourne tomorrow, will say that dentists bzd boosting their incomes by insisting on too many check-ups, taking too many X-rays, doing unnecessary scaling and polishing, and replacing fillings too frequently. Aubrey Sheiham, professor of public health at University College London, says: ‘Numerous dentlst procedures are ineffective at best and harmful in many cases. Last month the National Institute of Clinical Excellence ruled that dentists should stop taking wisdom teeth out as a precautionary measure. It said there was no evidence that there is any medical benefit from extracting wisdom teeth unless they are diseased. Sheiham claims there is no medical evidence to support dentists’ insistence that people need a check-up every six months. The twice-yearly check-up was first mentioned in The Toothache, a storybook for children published inthat quickly entered dental mythology. For those over 20 ye...