November Round Up from NHS Mid and South Essex

Dental initiatives to improve access to care for residents of all age

More than 19,100 patients have been able to access dental appointments during evenings, weekends, and bank holidays thanks to additional capacity we’ve created through a dental access initiative. We are also at the forefront nationally in piloting a technology solution to enable NHS 111 to book emergency treatment appointments directly into dental practice appointment systems. This eliminates the need for patients in pain to have to call dental practices themselves to try to arrange emergency treatment.

All of the 8,424 care home beds in mid and south Essex are also now covered by a dental practice. This is especially important as care home residents are often unable to communicate that they have dental pain or are physically unable to travel to a dental practice. All care homes have been offered oral health assessments for their residents, following which over 3,113 courses of treatment have been provided to date.

We’re also establishingl’s programme to give young residents access to oral health education and assessment in school. Pupils in reception and year three will receive a mouth check and children who don’t have a regular dentist will be able to access a dental practice assigned to the school if treatment is recommended.

Find out more about these initiatives