Dementia-Friendly Dentistry: Good Practice Guidelines

Dementia-Friendly Dentistry: Good Practice Guidelines covers the epidemiology of dementia and a wide range of implications for dental professionals, including patient identification, competence and referrals, communication, consent and capacity, history taking, treatment planning, care delivery, prescribing and site-specific considerations for dental practices, care homes and domiciliary practice.

Developed in conjunction with the British Dental Association and the Alzheimer’s Society, it contains over 50 recommendations for practitioners, categorised using the Faculty’s ‘ABC’ (Aspirational, Basic, Conditional) notation, and was first published in hard copy in October 2017.

Dementia-Friendly Dentistry has now been added to the Standards Online portal, which already includes Clinical Examination and Record-Keeping, Selection Criteria for Dental Radiography and Antimicrobial Prescribing for General Dental Practitioners, and which has received over half a million page views since it launched in 2015. Dental professionals can register free of charge at www.fgdp.org.uk/standards-online, and the publications are also available to buy in hard copy at www.fgdp.org.uk/shop.

Dr Mick Horton, Dean of FGDP(UK), and Paul Batchelor, Vice-Dean of FGDP(UK) and Editor of Dementia-Friendly Dentistry, commented:

“In the UK, dementia affects one person in twenty, and its incidence among general dental patients is only likely to increase as the population ages. It’s vital that as a profession we understand it, and adapt our patient management and clinical decisions accordingly. FGDP(UK) guidance is developed by dentists and for dentists, and we’re delighted to be able to make Dementia-Friendly Dentistry freely available for the benefit of all dentists, dental practices and their patients.”

The Faculty, which is working to establish an independent College for general dental practice, recently announced that it will be publishing new national standards for implant dentistry later this year.

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Notes to editors

1.      The Faculty of General Dental Practice (UK) is based at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. It provides services to help those in general dental practice raise standards of patient care. It does this through standards setting, providing education courses and assessments, CPD, policy development, research and publications. Membership of FGDP(UK) is open to dentists and other registered dental professionals.

2.      Standards Online was previously known as the Open Standards Initiative.

3.      For FGDP(UK) enquiries, please contact Jamie Woodward, Head of Professional Affairs, on 020 7869 6759 or email jwoodward@fgdp.org.uk.

4.      Receive the latest news and updates from FGDP(UK) by following us @FGDP_UK on Twitter or on Facebook, Google+, Instagram and Linkedin.