Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to (a) move towards a preventative model of care for dentistry and (b) bring forward a public awareness campaign on oral health.

NHS England will engage with stakeholder representatives from dental professional groups on potential solutions to the challenges facing National Health Service dentistry and how these could be implemented. This engagement will be focused on improving urgent care access; supporting access for new patients; re-orientating the system towards prevention; and dental team recruitment and retention and assisting dental teams to feel part of the NHS.

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities has published ‘Delivering Better Oral Health - an evidence-based toolkit for prevention’ to support dental teams to deliver preventive advice and treatment for patients, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/delivering-better-oral-health-an-evidence-based-toolkit-for-prevention