NHS Dentistry and Oral Health bulletin - a focus on mental wellbeing

With Mental Health Awareness Week approaching on 12 May, this bulletin shines a spotlight on key resources available to support the mental health of dental teams, and highlights the excellent work being undertaken by organisations and qualified professionals across the sector in promoting and embedding wellbeing in the workplace.

Patient care can be demanding and impact on our physical and mental health. Oral healthcare teams can face mental health challenges, including depression, stress and burnout - and studies show colleagues working in general dental practice and community dentistry are most adversely affected.

The wellbeing of dental professionals can impact the quality and continuity of patient care, with poor mental health impacting clinical confidence and treatment decisions.

Research by the General Dental Council outlines that contributory factors for mental health challenges can include:

• Personal factors (professional/social relationships, finances)
• Working environment and workload issues
• Career development and job satisfaction
• Regulatory and litigation pressures
• Wider economic and financial challenges have added to these pressures.

While focus is often on the wellbeing of the individual being treated, it is crucial that dental colleagues also look after their own health and wellbeing needs. It is encouraging that more organisations are taking action and facilitating open conversations on mental health and wellbeing, including:

• Indemnity providers, trade unions, and regulators publishing resources
• FDI World Dental Federation launching a mental health project with digital toolkit 
• The MINDSET UK collaboration of mental health and dental experts, is researching mental health across dental teams nationwide. Their recent BDJ article highlighted that there was agreement from respondents across different UK countries about significant stressors in dentistry, despite working in different systems.

The NHS England website lists a range of resources available to NHS employees to help improve their wellbeing. You can also check your emotional and mental wellbeing to be offered relevant resources.

NHS England were delighted to launch a new initiative - the BREATHE Dental Wellness platform - at the British Dental Industry Association (BDIA) Dental Showcase last month. Designed specifically for dental teams, the platform outlines techniques for stress reduction, mindfulness and breathwork to help colleagues to refocus and improve their wellbeing. This will prove to be a valuable resource for team members to access, providing benefits across the spectrum of the valuable work that we are all doing - find out more below.

Something that has helped my wellbeing this month has been welcoming Rakhee Patel to the Office of the Chief Dental Officer. She will be taking on the role of Deputy Chief Dental Officer (CDO) for England, alongside Deputy CDO Nick Barker. Rakhee is a Consultant in Dental Public Health and has worked across general dental services, community, hospital, domiciliary care and academia. She will be leveraging her extensive experience to further drive priorities to support the profession.

Finally, please register to join the first CDO webinar at 6-7.30pm on Thursday 8 May 2025. Here you will be able to hear about what is going on within the Office of the Chief Dental Officer for England and how it affects you and your patients. These events will take place approximately every two months.

Jason Wong, 

Chief Dental Officer for England 

This months bulletin also has information on: 

• BREATHE Dental wellness platform - a national support scheme
• Mental Health Wellness in Dentistry group 
• NHS Midlands Pilot resilience and culture programme
• Green Impact: A tool for sustainability and wellbeing
• BDIA 2025
• Learning From Patient Safety Events (LFPSE) Introductory Guide

and more, read the full NHS Updates here.