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How you can get involved in community projects to improve access to dental care and meet the needs of your local population

BDJ Student (2022)Cite this article

Dental caries is one of the most common chronic diseases of childhood and can lead to a host of problems, including: pain, infection, time off school, reduced growth, delays to speech development and poor psycho-social wellbeing.1 Despite being largely preventable, the percentage of children with one or more decayed, missing or filled teeth in the London Borough of Brent is higher than the London average.2 In addition, child obesity rates in Brent have been higher than the national average since 2008.2 Many factors contribute to these statistics and I believe an essential way of tackling these important issues is widening access to dental care and reinforcing prevention to parents and children through community engagement projects.

We as dentists routinely reinforce and provide prevention to our paediatric patients in practice, including oral hygiene instruction, fluoride varnish application and diet advice as per Delivering Better Oral Health Guidelines.3 However, despite being free under the NHS, not all children have access to dental care. In addition, during the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been extremely difficult for children to access the dentist for either routine check-ups or emergency appointments. Local community initiatives are a valuable way for health care professionals including dentists, dental therapists and students to provide effective interventions, e.g. prevention to children and their parents. These initiatives can enable us to understand our patients better and be the important stepping stone for some patients in accessing dental care, especially after the pandemic, where habits, lifestyles and social circumstances have certainly changed.

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References

  1. Public Health England. Inequalities in Oral Health in England. 2021 Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/970380/Inequalities_in_oral_health_in_England.pdf (Accessed December 2021).

  2. Brent Clinical Commissioning Group. People and Place. 2020. Available at: https://democracy.brent.gov.uk/documents/s94534/6a.%20Appendix%202%20-%20JSNA.pdf (Accessed December 2021).

  3. Delivering Better Oral Health: An evidence based toolkit for prevention. GOV.UK. 2017.

  4. Witton R and Paisi M. The benefits of an innovative community engagement model in dental undergraduate education, Educ Prim Care 2021; 1-5: doi: 10.1080/14739879.2021.1947160. Online ahead of print.

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  1. Surgery @ 102, London, UK

    Serena Dodhia

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  1. Serena Dodhia
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Correspondence to Serena Dodhia.

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Dodhia, S. How you can get involved in community projects to improve access to dental care and meet the needs of your local population. BDJ Student (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41406-022-0290-2

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