Care homes face uphill struggle as new rules give them responsibility for oral health

Dentist leaders have welcomed the new questions being posed by inspectors – which ask homes to assess both their policies and access to dental services – but warned that support and resources are not yet in place to help homes provide dental care to their residents. 

NHS dentists across England now anticipate high demand for dental visits to meet the new standards but are unequipped to assist, owing to NHS England’s failure to commission dedicated services for residents. The BDA understands local authority funded oral health promotion teams will also struggle to meet new training needs, owing to sustained cuts to public health budgets.

Before 2006 NHS dentists in England could provide domiciliary care as a matter of routine. Since then, reform has left practitioners unable to make visits without a dedicated contract.

The recent CQC Smiling Matters report noted that one of the main challenges in providing access to NHS services was lack of domiciliary care provision. BDA analysis of Freedom of Information data suggests levels of commissioning are low and falling, equivalent to providing coverage to less than 1.3 per cent of the population whose activity is significantly limited by disability or ill health.