Top tips for implementing the Friends and Family Test are part of a set of new information for dental practices that has just been published.

Dentists and their teams were in the most recent NHS-funded services to start using the FFT to gather feedback from their patients, from April this year. More than 833,000 pieces of feedback from patients have already been gathered and the figures show that more than nine out of ten people would recommend their dentist to their loved ones.

Patient comments also help practices to identify the things they can improve: everything from waiting room décor and facilities, to appointment booking, behaviour of staff and patients’ experience of treatment.

NHS England has published the information to provide a round-up of the resources available to support practices. This includes guidance, communications resources to help engage their patients in giving feedback, and the new top tips.

Making the FFT available to patients is now a contractual requirement for many NHS-funded service providers. The initiative was launched in April 2013 and almost 13.7 million pieces of patient feedback have been recorded, resulting in thousands of improvements to services, both large and small.