NHS dentistry and oral health Update: Denture loss

The latest NHS dentistry and oral health update has a special focus on denture loss. 

Jason Wong, Interim Chief Dental Officer England, is pleased to announce the publication of the Guidelines for Preventing and Managing Denture Loss in Hospitals and Community Residential Settings. "These guidelines have been developed to set the standards which hospital trusts and community residential settings should follow in order to reduce and manage denture loss experienced by patients and residents.

Denture loss is often underreported in hospital and community residential settings due to a lack of standardised prevention or management policies regarding denture loss.

 Hospital patients and community service users often move between rooms, wards and departments, making the loss of dentures more likely to occur during these transfers, or during mealtimes or sleep, when dentures may be removed and inadvertently disposed of.

The guidelines are an addition to existing local mouth care policies and the resources available as part of the e-learning for healthcare (e-lfh) Mouth Care Matters programme . Users must create an e-learning for health account to download the items". Click on the NHS dentistry and oral health update link below for further information.

 Update articles include: Dentures are more than false teeth; Guidelines for preventing and managing denture loss in hospitals and community residential settings; Mouth Care Matters - Keeping the mouth in the picture, and Denture Care Matters - using technology to manage denture loss.

NHS dentistry and oral health update