NICE issues guidance on oral health in care homes
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- Published: Monday, 11 July 2016 07:43
- Written by News Editor
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Dentists should provide residents in care homes with preventive help and treatment as necessary, in line with local arrangements. This is the latest guidance from the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which also says that care home staff need to take teeth more seriously and help residents to brush twice a day. Dentists should also ensure dentures made for individual residents are appropriately marked by the lab during manufacture.
Older people in care homes are unhappy and irritable because staff ignore the poor state of their teeth, NICE says. Most care home residents have cavities, compared with about one third of people the same age living at home. One third of care home residents have enough teeth to eat comfortably and socialise without embarrassment, compared with more than 40 per cent of other older people.
Gillian Leng, deputy chief executive of NICE, said: “When oral health is ignored or poorly delivered in care homes it can lead to unhappy, irritable residents and for those with dementia, who often can’t describe problems with their teeth or gums, pain and infection may go untreated and worsen.” Jenny Godson, of Public Health England, said that oral hygiene was a “basic right”.
The British Dental Association (BDA) has backed calls for oral health and access to dental treatments to be given the same priority as general health for all adults in care homes. Mick Armstrong, Chair of the British Dental Association, said:
“Older people have well-documented oral health needs, and this will continue to be the case for at least another generation. The BDA has published recommendations based on our own research, many of which are reflected in the NICE guidance. We recommend that all residents have an oral health assessment when they enter a care home with the results – including any treatment needs – being entered into their personal care plan. Care staff need to be properly trained to adequately look after the dental health needs of residents, and there must be access to dental services when required. Looking after the healthcare needs of vulnerable adults is not simply an issue for care homes, and it should not be left to chance. The government needs to ensure that this guidance is more than aspirational. Little more than two per cent of the healthcare budget is spent on dentistry, and commissioning dental services for vulnerable older people is rarely a priority. It's time that this shameful situation is reversed. The current dental budget is simply inadequate to provide these patients with the care they need. An increasingly aging population needs an increasingly targeted budget. This NICE guidance, which is supported by the BDA, aims to remedy, not only a democratic deficit, but a demographic deficit in an attempt to ensure better oral health for all of our patients.”
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