Wales reveals plans to restore dental services

It follows an announcement by Scotland’s Chief Dental Officer Tom Ferris, who has a three-phase plan for the remobilisation of NHS dental services.

Thanking dental teams across Wales for their ‘efforts and hard work during the course of the pandemic thus far’ for their ‘agile and inspirational’ response, CDO Colette Bridgman outlined a phased return to practice.

The first stage in this process is planning for the de-escalation from the current RED alert phase to a heightened AMBER phase in dentistry, which will involve ‘continuation and strengthening of the provision in UDCs for those in need of AGPs’.

The second stage will need to address the backlog of need for patients and those people who do not normally attend dentistry routinely. This will include provision of definitive care for those who have received urgent care in the UDCs, those who have contacted dental practices during the RED alert phase, because they have had a dental problem and/or pain or swelling and who have an on-going treatment need. It will in addition, include those who did not meet the strict criteria for urgent or emergency care, but who have dental problems or treatment need that has had to be delayed, postponed or self-managed during this period of service interruption.