Geddis-Regan AR, O'Connor RC. The impact of age and deprivation on NHS payment claims for domiciliary dental care in England. Community Dent Health. 2018; 35:223-227 https://doi.org/10.1922/CDH_4355Geddis-Regan05
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Monaghan NP, Morgan MZ. What proportion of dental care in care homes could be met by direct access to dental therapists or dental hygienists?. Br Dent J. 2015; 219:531-534 https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2015.919
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This article examines the planning that goes into successfully providing domiciliary dental care. It includes a comment on patient demand for this type of service, what dental treatment is appropriate to offer, and the impact of relevant legislation introduced over the past 15 years.
CPD/Clinical Relevance: This article highlights some of the considerations that should be taken into account when providing dental care for patients outside the clinic environment when the need arises.
Article
Provision of dental care outside a dental practice can take place in many settings, including a patient's own home, care and nursing homes, hospital wards and schools, and for a number of reasons, including patient frailty. Domiciliary dental care is defined as provision of dental care outside the clinic setting, reaching out to those who cannot attend a clinic-based service, and this differs from dental screenings or epidemiological programmes that may take place in similar settings.1,2 Lewis and Fiske's review2 remains an accurate representation of domiciliary oral healthcare and this article provides an update in the areas most useful for clinicians.
In 2019, the Office for National Statistics reported that the number of people aged 85 and over in the UK is projected to double by 2043.3 As the population continues to age, and older people living with frailty make up a larger proportion of the population, the demand for domiciliary dental care is likely to rise. Geddis-Regan and O'Connor reported that there were 68,063 NHS payment claims for domiciliary dental care for adults in England in 2015. They also noted that service availability may be influenced by provider availability, there was a limited association between levels of deprivation and number of domiciliary claims made, and that access to a service may not always be based on need.4
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