Your NHS dentistry and oral health update

Tuesday 12 October 2021 (Issue 28)

An update from Sara Hurley and Ed Waller

Dear colleague,

More than two million top up COVID-19 jabs have been delivered in just three weeks, as the NHS COVID-19 vaccination programme continues to protect those most at risk from coronavirus.

It's good news that people have been quick to take up the offer of a life-saving COVID jab – with a total of 2.08 million top ups administered so far across England.

We hope many of you are taking up your COVID-19 booster vaccine, as well as the offer of a free flu vaccination on the NHS. Vaccines have built a strong wall of defence and one of our best ways of keeping the virus at bay is the NHS booster campaign. As a reminder, from 11 November 2021, all staff entering a care home need to have a COVID-19 vaccination, unless exempt.

Please do take up the offer to protect yourself, your colleagues and your patients. Details were shared in our last bulletin. 

We are proud to be celebrating Black History Month this October and we've shared with you some of the activities that the NHS is organising.

Next month we will be observing Mouth Cancer Action Month. Dental professionals are in a unique position to help combat mouth cancer, and we have included a number of resources which can support early diagnosis and prevention.

Best wishes and thanks,

Sara and Ed

PPE provision to health and social care

DHSC is consulting on whether to extend the provision of free PPE to the health and care sector beyond 31 March. NHS and social care colleagues can provide feedback online until Sunday 31 October.

Black History Month October 2021

We are proud to be celebrating Black History Month this October. This time last year, Funmi Oluwajana wrote an insightful piece on the General Dental Council's website about identity and leadership in dentistry and she has followed this up with her reflections 12 months on. Please do give these a read.

You can also sign up to Race Ahead. As the NHS is the largest employer of people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds in the country and across Europe, the objective of Race Ahead will be to tackle the workplace discrimination that some of our staff and colleagues continue to face. Race Ahead will be a series of conversations and panel discussions on Wednesday 6 and Tuesdays, 12, 19 and 26 October, focused on the specific actions we can all take to improve the outcomes and experiences of our staff.

Get ready for Mouth Cancer Action Month

November is Mouth Cancer Action Month, a campaign spearheaded by the Oral Health Foundation and the Mouth Cancer Foundation which aims to save lives by promoting prevention and early detection of oral cancers. Visit the campaign website to find out how you can get involved, including the Blue Ribbon appeal and fundraising ideas.

Dental professionals are well placed to identify mouth cancer at an early stage and provide preventative advice to patients. This recent feature in BDJ Student summarises the main risk factors and symptoms and provides advice for dental professionals regarding screening.

70% of patients diagnosed with bone cancer of the jaw visit their dentist first, according to the Bone Cancer Research Trust. Sign up for their webinar tomorrow Wednesday 13th October 7-8pm to learn more about the symptoms and referral pathways for primary bone cancers and tumours.

For more useful information and materials, take a look at our special focus bulletin on mouth cancer which we sent out in May of this year.

Women's safety and the role of dental teams 

The distressing circumstances surrounding the deaths of Sarah Everard, Sabina Nessa and sadly many other women have shone further light on the issue of women's safety in our society.

Dental teams can play an important role in identifying signs of domestic abuse and supporting potential survivors and victims. In February's special focus bulletin we brought together the key things NHS dental teams need to know.

Please do share this bulletin with your colleagues and discuss the contents with your teams.

New website launched to promote value of clinical academic careers

The Clinical Academic Training Forum have launched the Clinical Academic Training & Careers Hub (CATCH), an online resource which aims to:

• Showcase and promote the wide variety of exciting career options in clinical academia across a range of healthcare disciplines
• Provide practical advice on clinical academic career options across all four nations of the UK
• Highlight inspiring clinical academics at a variety of career stages to help build aspirations
• Build links between clinical practice and academia

The website is endorsed by a large number of medical organisations including the Dental Schools Council, Health Education England and the Department for Health and Social Care.

Please support on social media by downloading and tweeting the graphic below, with this suggested social media post:

Have you ever considered a career in health research? You can now #DiscoverClinicalAcademia through the new Clinical Academic Training and Careers Hub, a one stop shop for information on academic careers. www.catch.ac.uk 

World Health Organisation adds fluoride to model list of medicines

The World Health Organization Expert Committee on the selection and use of essential medicines has added fluoride toothpaste to its Model List of Essential Medicines. 

Fluoride toothpaste is recommended for inclusion as a specifically defined formulation of fluoride (paste, cream or gel containing between 1000 and 1500 ppm fluoride (any type), because of its proven effectiveness in preventing dental caries and for better control of quality of fluoride content.

More widely, 'Delivering better oral health: an evidence-based toolkit for prevention' produced by Public Health England, the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England contains useful information in the chapter on the use of fluoride. 

The four Chief Medical Officers of the UK recently released a statement endorsing the fluoridation of community water supply.

In last month's bulletin, Sara Hurley, Chief Dental Officer England endorsed water fluoridation, you can read her statement online. Please do click on the social media card below to share the message on your own channels.

New arrangements for national and regional dental public health teams following abolition of Public Health England (PHE)

On 1st October the national dental public health team transitioned to the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities headed by the Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty. The dental public health team are located  in the Early Years Children and Families Directorate (Director: Liz Ketch) which will be focusing on policy, national prevention and population programmes, and services from pre-conception through to healthy ageing. The national dental public health team will lead work on oral health improvement, health protection for dental services, the Secretary of State’s responsibilities for water fluoridation, dental healthcare public health and intelligence for oral health. This involves supporting the development of evidence-based policy, services and programmes through the provision of public health advice and guidance.

The Regional Dental Public Health Consultants transferred to NHS England.  As system leaders for oral health they will continue to support the local dental system across the three pillars of public health, providing the regional and local source of dental public health expertise across health improvement, health protection and healthcare public health. They will also support Local Dental Clinical Networks. They are vital providers of Regional and place-based specialist dental public health expertise necessary to support the development of population oral health-based interventions for ICSs, across the whole commissioning cycle, in the delivery on the wider system focus of improving health and reducing health inequalities. 

Reminder: Vaccinations for all staff entering a care home

From 11 November 2021, all staff entering a care home need to be vaccinated, unless exempt. 

Following the publication of DHSC operational guidance, we have written to the NHS and published FAQs on how this new regulation will be delivered operationally. All relevant providers of NHS funded services will need to actively support staff to have their first COVID-19 vaccine by 16 September 2021 (as eight weeks is required between the two doses) and carry out proactive workforce planning to ensure:

• only staff who are vaccinated, or exempt, are deployed to a care home from 11 November
• service provision is not disrupted once this regulation comes into force;
• ensure that relevant staff can demonstrate to care home staff, via the NHS COVID Pass service, that they have either had two doses or are exempt

The FAQs will be updated on a regular basis, to support systems and providers to implement this new regulation.

Information on how to book your COVID-19 vaccine is online.

Legislation bars cosmetic use of Botox and fillers on under-18s

The Botulinum Toxin and Cosmetic Fillers (Children) Act has come into force, making it an offence for a person or business to administer, in England, to a person under 18: 

• botulinum toxin or
• a subcutaneous, submucous or intradermal injection of a filler for a cosmetic purpose (an injection of a filler is taken to be for a cosmetic purpose when the likely effect of the injection is to alter the appearance of the person injected).

It is also an offence to make arrangements to undertake these procedures on a person under 18 in England.

This will not apply where the arranged procedure will be administered by a doctor or a:

• registered nurse
• dentist
• pharmacist

but only when acting in accordance with the directions of a doctor.

The Act applies to everybody in England, not just businesses. Failure to comply with the new law could result in a criminal prosecution and an unlimited fine.

Have you read ...?

British Dental Journal: New police training course on child neglect includes oral health: South Yorkshire Police are rolling out a training programme which will educate officers and support staff on dental neglect in children.

NHS England: Advice for parents, guardians and carers on how to support a child or young person if you’re concerned about their mental health: this useful blog is written by Dr Prathiba Chitsabesan, Associate National Clinical Director for Children and Young People’s Mental Health for NHS England.

NHS England: NHS encourages pregnant women to get COVID-19 vaccine: The NHS is encouraging pregnant women to get the COVID-19 vaccine as new data shows that nearly 20 per cent of the most critically ill COVID patients are pregnant women who have not been vaccinated.

NHSBSA: Changes to public service pensions: A decision from the Court of Appeal has removed age discrimination from public service pension schemes where transitional protection was introduced. Read about the implications for your pension in this NHSBSA explainer.

By Word of Mouth ... the colleagues we're all talking about!

This week, we would like to highlight the great work of Community Dental Services CIC and their "Driving for Change" project. 

The buses will operate a dental clinic alongside other direct interventions for those in need such as GP consultations, showers and haircuts, digital and financial literacy, employment support - all vital services for vulnerable homeless people.  

Lorraine Mattis, Director of Transformation, was at the launch event in London and said "We are delighted to be part of the Driving For Change initiative, bringing much needed oral health care directly to homeless people building on our experience in mobile dentistry and supporting the oral health of vulnerable people. It is fantastic to see social enterprises working together in an innovative way like this to directly address social need."

Signing up to this bulletin

Have you been sent this bulletin by someone else? 

This bulletin is a round up of all the latest news and important resources for anyone working in NHS dental services. We'll send it out as and when important news needs to come your way. If you've already signed up but didn't receive the update, then check your junk folder for the confirmation email and make sure you've followed the instructions to complete sign up.

Previous NHS dentistry and oral health bulletins 

Previous bulletins can be accessed by clicking on the links below:

NHS primary care bulletin

The NHS primary care bulletin provides resources on health policy and practice and we encourage you to sign up for this, too. It is aimed at teams across general practice, dentistry, community pharmacy and optometry. 

COVID-19 advice, guidance and resources

Communications resources for NHS dental practices

Click on the links below to view and download useful communication resources:

• Click here for social media image cards and patient leaflets
• Click here for social media assets and posters explaining IPC requirements
• Click here to download website/social media copy and scripts for answer machine message, text message and emails.

NHS updates to the profession 

Key letters from the Chief Dental Officer and the NHS dentistry and oral health team are online here. 

Transition to Recovery: Dentistry's standard operating procedure

The latest version was published on Friday 16 July 2021. Changes to the previous SOP are in yellow. You can read the SOP online here. 

COVID-19: infection prevention and control dental guidance

The guidance is an appendix to and should be read in conjunction with the national guidance on infection prevention and control for COVID-19 . You can read the general guidance and the specialist dental appendix online here.

Avoidance of doubt note: provision of phased treatments

This document is to support dental professionals, and to clarify where it might be appropriate to provide phased treatment spanning over several courses of treatment (CoT). You can read it online here.

Health and wellbeing support