H-Ts undertaking the RDE of low-risk NHS dental patients (pilot)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Can Hygiene-Therapists maintain the oral health of routine low-risk dental recall patients in "high-street" dental practices: a pilot study.
IRAS ID
226296
Contact name
Paul Brocklehurst
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Bangor University
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 2 months, 31 days
Research summary
Over one half of all dental 'check-ups' result in no further treatment. The patient is examined by a General Dental Practitioner (GDP) and returned to the recall list for a further 'check-up' in another six or twelve months’ time. As the oral health of regular dental attenders improves further, it is likely that increasingly more patients will be 'low-risk' and will only require a simple 'check-up' in the future, with no further treatment. The use of the GDP to undertake the routine dental 'check-up' is becoming a costly way of providing care.
Research undertaken by the same team has shown that other less expensive members of the dental team, known as Hygiene-Therapists (H-Ts), are just as good at detecting dental decay, gum disease and oral cancer. Using H-Ts in this way could help free up the GDPs’ time to concentrate on more complex cases, pursuant to their skill-set. It could also be a model of care that could be used to free up resources to treat patients who currently don’t access care and meet the future challenges for NHS dentistry, like the growing number of house-bound elderly.
To explore this, a pilot study is proposed over a fifteen month period. This will inform the design of a definitive trial. The current practice of using dentists to provide 'check-ups' will form the control arm and will be compared to the new model, where dental 'check-ups' and any subsequent treatment will be provided by H-Ts. At the end of the study, differences in oral health will be assessed, using accepted measures of 'gum' disease, oral cleanliness and tooth decay. At the same time as the trial, parallel interviews will explore GDPs', H-Ts’ and patients’ views to improve understanding about what could work well, how and under which conditions.
REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/EM/0365
Date of REC Opinion
9 Nov 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion