Research

2 • Surveillance and Oral Health Monitoring at the Practice Level

Background

The systematic collection and monitoring of oral health information at the practice level is becoming more important as concerns about clinical governance, evidence-based and patient-centred care meet increasingly stringent medico-legal requirements. Practices must understand and monitor the care they provide and meet the needs of health services and dental insurers, in order to assess whether oral health is being achieved and maintained. There is also increasing interest in aggregating electronic data from practices in order to monitor wider population health.

Progress highlighting Oral Health Assessments & Review Guidance and the use of ICDAS in general practice

DHSRU continues to play important roles with partners in the development of the Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme (SDCEP). Professor Clarkson is Director of SDCEP, reporting to Professor Jeremy Bagg, Chair of the National Dental Advisory Committee and the Chief Dental Officer, Scotland. Professor Pitts is Chair of the SDCEP Guidance Development Group on Oral Health Assessment and Review (which has completed its initial work in 2010) and is an SDCEP Steering Group member. The guidance on Oral Health Assessment and Review is being distributed as Guidance in Brief to all General Dental Practices in Scotland to complement a more comprehensive resource available on the SDCEP website http://www.sdcep.org.uk/.

The use of ICDAS in General Practice – a Scottish perspective: Unit research, conducted with a practitioner, sought to investigate the implications of using the ICDAS caries grading and monitoring system in NHS general practice and, in particular, to assess the time taken to use the system. After online and in-practice training and calibration, 50 adults and 50 child patients were randomly allocated for assessment using ICDAS detection codes. All patients had their teeth brushed by the dentist before the assessment and the data were recorded on draft ICDAS clinical proforma sheets. The results suggested that with training and experience it is possible to carry out ICDAS assessments in times which are practical for practice.

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Impact Statement