The Society of British Dental Nurses are delighted to see the updated CQC Report ‘Smiling Matters’ . Oral Health matters across the life-course no irrespective of age. The SBDN special interest group have a string focus in this field and meet many of the challenges on a regular basis. Notably, not having access to the provision of dental careis high on the list. We know that having a healthy mouth and a functioning dentition greatly improves people’s quality of life, so why do we have such barriers and such need?
It is all to easy to focus on the care setting as being central to the problem, but there must be shared responsibility and accountabilty accross a number of key stakeholders. If you recall in 2019 the first iteration of the report made reccomendations that Oral Health Champions were adopted in the care setting, staffed by the care setting themselves. There was much talk about consistant care in the care setting, but was this an ideation, a possibility or an ask greater than was possible? Yes there is the NICE Guidelines and yes they are accessible, but how do we create a shift from knowledge to application?
The Society recognise there are missed opportunities and push for better provision in the care setting and indeed across the wider care settings and hospitals, but in doing so they also recognise that this is not a simple or ‘quick fix’ situation. This is not as simple as training people in the care setting, it must also consider the sustainability of care, the consistant training approach in an industry not unlike dental nursing, that has a high staff turnover and a workforce who are not always well remunerated. There is also the question of who will pay for care, oral care products and for transportation and more, for those needing more than day to day mouth hygiene? Should this not be, in part at least, the responsibility of the dental and oral healthcare teams and services? Is it not time to rethink the model of provision and who can do what, so that we have the right care in the right place, with the right people, at the right time and fair and proportionate funding in place to manage this and mange it well? The Society look to commissioners and others to prioritise this much needed provision of sustainable oral care.
The CQC acknowledge that there is a systems approach required (pg 11) and makes 6 recommendations:
- People who use services, their families and carers need to be made more aware of the importance of oral care.
- Care home services need to make awareness and implementation of the NICE Guidelines apriority.
- Care home staff need better training in oral care.
- The dental profession needs improved guidance on how to treat people in care homes.
- Dental provision and commissionig needs to improve to meet the needs of people in care homes
- The NICE Guideline needs to be used more in regulatory and commissioning assessments.
The Society are urging dental teams and oral health practitioners to read the full report and to share it with colleagues in the allied care professions, we have already had some very interesting feedback and it is clear there is more to be done. We do find it challenging that the measurement matrix already exisits, yet the infrastructure is still not there. Please click on the link below to access the full report and plese do take the time to feedback.