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Dental

  • The impact of COVID-19 on access to dental care: a report from the 2021 Adult Oral Health Survey (December 2022)
    On 25 March 2020 access to general dental services was paused across the UK and dental care hubs were established to deliver urgent care as part of the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Personal protective equipment (PPE), infection prevention and control, and patient prioritisation guidance were issued to dental care providers as services began to reopen in England from June 2020. This guidance further changed as the nation continued to navigate the pandemic and as wider restrictions were amended.

    Although some access to dental services was maintained throughout subsequent lockdowns and changes in restrictions, there were longer-term impacts on access to dental services. These included the time needed to clear appointment backlogs, staff availability, physical distancing and PPE requirements, some of which still applied in February and March 2021, when the Adult Oral Health Survey (AOHS) was carried out. This survey gives an indication as to the impacts of COVID-19 on access to dental care.

  • Improving the oral health of children: cost effective commissioning (October 2016)
    Resources to support local authorities investing in the local commissioning of oral health improvement programmes for pre-school children. Local authorities can use the Return on Investment (ROI) tool to inform their commissioning decisions, providing an estimate of the return on investment of these programmes using the oral health profile for Wirral's population. 

  • Dental Health Needs Assessment and Dental Health Needs Assessment for Cheshire (includes Wirral) (April 2015)
    Undertaken by Liverpool Public Health Observatory, for local Directors of Public Health, to determine the current health needs of the population, to investigate the current service provision for dental health in children and adults, highlighting gaps and inequalities. They also developed a set of evidence based recommendations for local commissioners on oral health promotion and prevention and for NHS England on the provision of dental health services for the local population; from Cheshire and Merseyside, through to local authority level.

  • Dental Health Profile for Wirral for 5 year olds for 2015 (published July 2017)
    This report provides detail about the oral health of five-year-old children in the area covered by Wirral local authority. 

  • Child Dental Health Survey 2013, England, Wales and Northern Ireland (March 2015)
    The 2013 Children’s Dental Health (CDH) Survey, commissioned by the Health and Social Care Information Centre, is the fifth in a series of national children’s dental health surveys that have been carried out every ten years since 1973. The 2013 survey provides statistical estimates on the dental health of 5, 8, 12 and 15 year old children in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, using data collected during dental examinations conducted in schools on a random sample of children by NHS dentists and nurses. The survey measures changes in oral health since the last survey in 2003, and provides information on the distribution and severity of oral diseases and conditions in 2013.

  • Oral health: approaches for local authorities and their partners to improve the oral health of their communities (2014)
    This NICE guideline makes recommendations on undertaking oral health needs assessments, developing a local strategy on oral health and delivering community-based interventions and activities.