Clinical dental policies

Statement of support for water fluoridation by the Chief Dental Officer for England

In this statement the Chief Dental Officer for England says she strongly believes water fluoridation can benefit the nation’s oral health.

Recall of children for dental appointments: Implementation tool to support NICE guidance

The Chief Dental Officer England has produced an implementation tool to support NICE guidance, which assists dental professionals in the recall of children for a dental appointment. All risk assessment and recall should be undertaken in line with NICE guidance which can be found on the NICE website. Dental professionals are strongly encouraged to read the guidance in full in ‘Appendix G – Implementing the Clinical Recommendations – selecting the appropriate recall interval for an individual patient’.

Dental Record Keeping Standards: a consensus approach

This document outlines a consensus based record keeping standards for the dental profession. These standards were developed with respect to views expressed by the profession in a national survey with an aim to enable ‘one patient, one record, one standard realisation across the NHS.

Letter from the UK’s four Chief Dental Officers to clarify the way forward for the consideration of the findings of the Intercollegiate Advisory Committee for Sedation in Dentistry (IACSD): Standards for Conscious Sedation in the Provision of Dental Care Report. The extant DH guidance is the minimum standard to be achieved pending further joint direction from the four CDOs.

Notes for avoidance of doubt

Avoidance of Doubt: Provision of Phased Treatments – The purpose of this document is to support dental professionals, and to clarify where it might be appropriate to provide phased treatment spanning over several courses of treatment. In turn, this should improve access to high quality NHS dentistry to meet the needs of patients who will not usually have accessed and completed routine dental care in the previous 24 months. This cohort of patients would generally be those with high dental needs and as such are more likely to be adults from a vulnerable background with additional health or social needs. The document was produced in consultation the Business Services Authority and Commissioners.

Avoidance of Doubt: Dental visits for children under the age of 3 years – The purpose of this document is to support dental professionals, and to clarify when children under the age of 3 years are seen in primary care, items that can be claimed on an NHS Contract. It is recognised that early visits for children under the age of 3 years are vital for delivering key preventive messages, acclimatisation and beginning a positive, lifelong relationship with NHS dentistry.  The document was produced in consultation the Business Services Authority and Commissioners.

Avoidance of Doubt: Application of Fluoride Varnish by Dental Nurses – The purpose of this document is to support dental professionals, and to clarify the application of Fluoride Varnish by Dental Nurses in either a clinical setting (treatment service premises) or in a community setting (for example in a children’s centre or nursery):

Notice on the restrictions of use and disposal of dental amalgam (First published 29 June 2018) – The purpose of this document was to inform GDC registrants of the European Union Regulation 2017/852 regarding the use and disposal of mercury. In specific it highlights Article 10 of the regulation which introduces provisions that will need to be implemented by all dental professionals in the UK.

The document shares that work has been done with NHS Choices and the Scottish Clinical Effectiveness Programme, to ensure that information is available online to answer questions from the public, should these arise, and also highlights where patient information leaflets can be downloaded.  

Guidance provided by the Chief Dental Officer-England in conjunction with the NHS Patient Group Directions Website Board, Department of Health and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to provide clarification to the dental care profession on the legalities of NHS England and NHS Improvement commissioned services buying patient group directions (PGDs) from online registered dental practitioners.