key: cord-0020166-fyf1vock
authors: nan
title: Update to dental infection prevention and control guidance
date: 2021-08-27
journal: Br Dent J
DOI: 10.1038/s41415-021-3409-x
sha: 069500dc462c27dc15ff672b39282ee70219c981
doc_id: 20166
cord_uid: fyf1vock

nan

The AGM is being held as part of a study day on 'Synopsis of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery for General Dental Practitioners' with Arshad Siddiqui.

To book to attend the study day and AGM visit www.bda.org/bse or alternatively to attend just the AGM email branchsectionevents@bda.org with your name and BDA membership number.

Paediatric dental patients are among society's most vulnerable. They may have a complex condition, a dental anomaly or extensive decay, but whatever their needs, they are children and should be prioritised. However, a workforce shortage which has been ignored for more than a decade makes access to a specialist in paediatric dentistry a challenge in many areas of the UK.

believes that by appointing consultants and specialists to leadership roles in areas where access is poor, the workforce can be upskilled, developed and supported.

Urshla (Oosh) Devalia, the BSPD's Honorary Secretary and a Consultant in Paediatric Dentistry, said that there are already parts of the country where specialists are being given a leadership role with a mandate to support GDPs in rural practices. However, more specialists are needed as well as more innovative models of care: 'There is no shortage of dental graduates wanting to train as a paediatric dentist but the recruitment system and the absence of collaboration between employers are barriers to developing the paediatric dental workforce.

'We need to be working creatively and collaboratively to ensure that every child and young person is able to access highestquality, specialist-led paediatric dental services' . New research published in the BDJ last month 1 into the UK's dental specialist workforce suggests that the number of specialists in paediatric dentistry should be trebled to meet the needs of children aged 0-16. There are currently 227 specialists in paediatric dentistry working in the UK.

David Auld, Chairman of the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry (BSPD) specialists' branch (pictured), says urgent steps should be taken to incentivise specialist training: 'You can see clearly on the map created by the study's authors that there are areas of relatively good access very close to areas with a much poorer specialist-to-child population ratio, often in more remote areas.

'Children living in rural areas will have clinical needs just as children in urban populations do, although the specific needs aren't looked at in this study. I hope that individual health boards and regional NHS teams will look closely at these inequalities and take action to improve access for children to specialist-led care where it is required. '

The concept of developing specialist-led services is supported by the BSPD, which BSPD calls for equality of access to specialist care

The Chief Dental Officer for England, Sara Hurley, announced a minor update to the dental infection prevention and control (IPC) guidance on 10 August.

Following the update, the COVID-19: infection prevention and control dental appendix 1 now states that 'post-AGP down time (fallow time) is not considered necessary for successive appointments between members of the same household; to minimise aerosol spread dentists should use mitigating measures such as high volume suction/rubber dam; cleaning and disinfection of the environment should be carried out between patients of the same household; high risk patients should be separated by space or time from other patients' .

infectionprevention-and-control/covid-19-infection-preventionand-control-dental-appendix