Please welcome this month’s guest blogger Sarah and Jane from Oral Health Matters. Having shown a great passion for the improvement of oral care in care homes, we are delighted to be collaborating with Oral Health Matters on July 19th 2017 to bring a live training webinar for social care leaders across the UK.

Read their blog below to read more about the upcoming changes and what you need to know. 

In July 2016 Professor Leng, deputy chief executive of NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence), warned that ‘oral health is too often neglected’ and declared ‘oral health should be a priority in care homes’. However, in reality, putting this into practice poses challenges to Dental Services, Care Managers and all carers involved in daily mouth care.

The Quality Standards issued by NICE earlier this month, June 2017, outlines 3 quality statements. These relate to mouth care assessments, recording mouth care needs in personal care plans and supporting adults living in care homes with daily mouth care.

As a registered Dental Care Professional, there is no question about the importance of raising awareness and standards in oral care – this is the aim of our profession. But without support and training for care staff, the reality of meeting NICE’s quality measures could be problematic.

Mouth care assessments should be an integral part of an individual’s admission assessment. And from experience of speaking to care, staff, this is happening, but do robust mouth care policies exist to support the process? Simple tips from dental care professionals familiar with carrying out oral assessments could make a big difference to care staff allocated to the task.
TIP: a pen torch can really help to shed some light on the situation when carrying out mouth care assessments!

The need for closer connections between the dental profession and care sector becomes increasingly apparent as oral care becomes a higher priority on the agenda. And rightly so. Good oral health can make a vast difference to an individual’s well-being and emerging research continues to demonstrate links between oral health and systemic conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, dementia and aspiration pneumonia.

Prevention is key to offering an affordable and workable model of oral health care to adults in care homes. Perhaps by considering a cultural shift in the care sector approach to oral care by emphasising preventive care, we can together succeed in offering and delivering a better standard of care.

If this has sparked your interest please join us on 19th July 2017 for our live webinar. In this webinar, you can expect to learn:

• An overview of  NICE Guidance, Oral Care for Adults in Care Homes
• The Quality Standards in mouth care
• 4 Practical tips on demonstrating compliance in Oral care
• Outlining why mouth care matters: The effects of poor oral health and the body
• Explaining what CQC expect in mouth care
• How to demonstrate a gold star rating in oral care provision

Click here to register your place on this webinar. This is 100% LIVE, will not be offered as a recorded replay. We will have training handouts available for those of you who attend.

Sarah Barber, Oral Health Matters, Co-Founder 

Jane Peterson, Oral Health Matters, Co-Founder