Your NHS dentistry and oral health update

16 March 2023 (Issue 59)

An update from Ali Sparke and Sara Hurley

Dear colleague,

This World Oral Health Day, which is celebrated on Monday 20 March, dental practices across the world are invited to get involved by supporting, advising and promoting good oral health for people in their local area and on social media. There’s an excellent suite of free resources to download that you can use to show your support for World Oral Health Day, including fact sheets, posters and social media materials.

World Oral Health Day is a great opportunity to raise awareness and promote the importance of oral health.  Whilst empowering patients to take care of their oral health sits at the heart of prevention, it is the ability to access high quality care from local dental teams that remains a vital component in achieving good health and wellbeing. 

Oral health is everyone’s business and as we integrate care more through our work in integrated care systems (ICS), World Oral Health Day is also an ideal opportunity to continue the conversations with health and social care colleagues in your local communities, primary care networks, schools and early years settings. Together we can work to improve oral health prevention and outcomes. 

Ali and I will be attending the British Dental Industry Association (BDIA) show on the 24 and 25 March, where we will jointly deliver a keynote speech. There is also a CDO zone and we’ll be hosting a number of sessions on a wide range of topics, including the use of skill mix, leadership and career pathways, addressing inequalities and supporting high needs patients.

Full programme details are available on the BDIA Showcase website. Please do come along and we look forward to seeing many of you there!

Ali and Sara

Solving Together podcast

“I want everyone in the NHS to point to some change...and say, I contributed to that. I was part of that because I was submitting ideas to Solving Together.” Tim Ferris, Director of Transformation, NHS England. 

In the latest episode of the Agents Assemble podcast Tim and Bev Matthews, clinical and virtual collaboration lead of NHS Horizons and programme director for Solving Together, discuss how the programme works, the vision and why everyone should take part.   

Solving Together is the improvement method that captures, assesses, tests and shares ideas on a range of issues affecting our health and care services. Listen to this fascinating conversation here.  

Find out about more about Solving Together – sign up so you can get involved in the next challenge – let's get solving together!

School talks to mark NHS's 75th anniversary

To help mark its 75^th anniversary, the NHS has teamed up with Inspiring the Future to inspire children to consider a career in the Service. The ‘NHS Ambassadors’ programme connects NHS staff with schools. By talking about their job, NHS staff will help to illustrate the connection between what students are studying in the classroom and the potential opportunities available in the NHS, recognising that the Service has over 350 different careers on offer. The initiative is looking for NHS staff, from all levels and professions to register and commit to a minimum of an hour a year to go into schools and colleges – in person or virtually. It’s easy to sign up and by doing so you’ll be helping to inspire the NHS workforce of the future.

NHS Parliamentary Awards 2023 – nominations now open

The NHS Parliamentary Awards provide an excellent opportunity for health and care organisations to engage with their local MPs, tell them about the work they do, and build or strengthen ongoing relationships. There are ten categories in this year’s awards, including the Volunteers Award, which is new for 2023, as well as the long-standing The Excellence in Primary Care and Community Care Award. Last year, Luke Pollard MP nominated for the South West the Community Clinic for Vulnerable Patients at the Peninsula Dental Social Enterprise Devonport Dental Education Facility.

More information, including a pack for health and care organisations, is available here to support any individual, team or organisation who wishes to request an MP to submit a nomination for the NHS Parliamentary Awards. Nominations close 24 April 2023.

Course 3 of the Core Manager: Developing Inclusive Workplaces programme is now live

If you have already completed the first two courses in the Core Manager programme you can now begin the next course. Course 3: Noticing and Challenging Microaggressions will build on your 

learning from the previous modules. If you are a manager or supervisor in health and care but haven’t already signed up for the Core Manager programme then it’s not too late. This programme is available through the NHS Leadership Academy and is made up of a suite of online short courses.

Find out more today.

British Dental Industry Association - Dental Showcase 2023

The BDIA are once again hosting the Chief Dental Officer's Zone at this year’s BDIA Showcase 24-25^th of March, at  EXCEL London .  We are delighted to be offering a programme of CPD accredited updates, topics include building the skill mix, professional standards and clinical standards.  The Chief Dental Officer's team will be joined in the Zone by colleagues from the GDC, HEE, Local Dental Networks and NHS Primary Care Commissioning.  For more information and to

RESERVE A FREE PASS FOR 2023 

Please see the BDIA website for further programme information.

NHS ConfedExpo 2023

NHS ConfedExpo will be returning next year on 14 and 15 June 2023 at Manchester Central. The event, which we deliver in partnership with NHS Confederation, will once again bring together health and care leaders and their teams from across the sector for two days of inspiring sessions, shared learning, and valuable networking opportunities.    

The two organisations are already working together with stakeholders right across the health and care system to develop an exciting agenda across five key priority themes. 

To be the first to receive registration details when bookings open please register your interest in ConfedExpo2023. NHS, local authority and wider public sector staff will be eligible for a free ticket.   

Keeping your NHSmail active – use it or lose it

NHSmail user accounts that are not proactively used or monitored present a security risk to the NHSmail platform. To enhance security, we are making some account changes.

Currently user accounts that are not proactively used have 90 days before being classed as inactive, if there is still no activity (while in the inactive state) for a further 90 days (total 180 days), the account is deleted.

Both the active and inactive periods are being reduced to 30 days, therefore accounts that are not proactively used for 60 consecutive days will be deleted.

Once the account is deleted; it can be restored within 30 days by contacting : National Administration Service (NAS) – NHSmail Support If the account is not restored within this final 30 days, the account is permanently deleted and cannot be recovered.

New user account management lifecycle

What do I need to do?

Undertaking at least one of the following activities every 30 days will keep your NHSmail account active:

• Log into the NHSmail portal
• Log into O365 application
• Use O365 applications (i.e., Outlook with cached credentials)
• Send an email

If you no longer require your NHSmail account, please contact : National Administration Service (NAS) – NHSmail Support who can process the closure of your account.

This change will be implemented on 1 December 2022.

Launch of the African Regional Summary of the WHO global oral health status report

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is hosting a webinar on Tuesday 21 March, 12pm – 2pm (GMT) to launch the African Regional Summary of the WHO Global Oral Health Status Report. Anyone interested in joining can register via this link.

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.

Recent dentistry and oral health bulletins 

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

Special focus bulletins 

Chief Dental Officer Sara Hurley and the NHS team regularly produce 'special focus bulletins' on clinical priorities and key aspects of patient care. These bulletins summarise the key information dental teams need to know and act as a refresher, combining best practice, expert opinion and useful resources. If you would like to suggest a topic for a future special focus bulletin please email the CDO's team at England.CDOExecutive@nhs.net 

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. 

Key advice, guidance and resources for NHS dental teams

NHS updates to the profession 

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

Infection prevention control (IPC) 

NHS practices should refer to the NHS England Infection Prevention and Control Manual which details the principles NHS dental practices should now follow to deliver care. The accompanying dental framework identifies hazards and risks with guidance on measures that should be maintained as we move to new, improved and safer ways of working. 

Dental recall priorities for children: implementation tool

Children are a clinical priority group for all NHS dental teams. Practices are encouraged to use the NHS implementation tool which assists dental professionals in the recall of children for a dental appointment, in line with NICE guidelines. You can view the tool online.

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