Dentists are calling for serious changes to be made to oral health policies in care homes, after a CQC report concluded that residents are not given enough support to maintain and improve their oral health.

The British Dental Association (BDA) has welcomed the new report from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on the parlous state of plans, policies and provision for oral health in care homes. The Association has published its own analysis of official figures, indicating funding is currently supporting access for as little as one in a hundred of those who, due to limited mobility, may require access to domiciliary services.

Based on findings from 100 care homes, the CQC found that 52% did not even have an oral health plan for residents and 47% of staff never received training specific to dental care. The figures also highlighted that 73% of care plans only partly covered or did not cover oral health at all, with homes specialising in dementia less likely to do so.

The CQC reports that one of the main challenges in providing access to NHS services was lack of domiciliary care provision. Freedom of Information requests by the BDA on domiciliary visits commissioned and provided in England suggest levels of commissioning are low and falling, equivalent to providing coverage to under 1.3% of the population whose activity is significantly limited by disability or ill health.

Dentist leaders have backed CQC calls for swift implementation of NICE guidelines among care home providers, and for comprehensive training for staff. The BDA has stressed that appropriate commissioning, underpinned by robust needs assessment is now key to ensure all those most in need of NHS care can receive it, in the right place and at the right time. In light of the CQC findings, this would need to cover mainstream, urgent and domiciliary care.

The NHS Long Term plan has committed the government to adopt an 'ageing well' model but has offered scant detail on the place of oral health.

Charlotte Waite, Chair of the BDA's England Community Dental Services Committee, said: “This welcome report shines a light on services that are failing some of the most vulnerable in our society.

“There are residents left unable to eat, drink and communicate, as an underfunded and overstretched NHS struggles to provide the care they need.

“We require nothing short of a revolution in the approach to dentistry in residential homes. Oral health can no longer remain the missing piece when it comes to care planning and budgets.”

The full report can be viewed here.

https://bda.org