World Oral Health Day started in 2007 with the purpose of highlighting the importance of good oral health for everyone throughout the world. If you do not look after your oral health properly, it can lead to you experiencing pain, lack of self-confidence and social isolation. If left untreated, some dental diseases can also lead to other serious health issues.
World Oral Health Day’s message is clear – look after your teeth and get them checked regularly by a dentist; prevention is much better than cure. Many oral health conditions are preventable, and when detected in the early stages, are treatable.
How can you help promote good oral healthcare for your service users?
In their 2019 Smiling Matters summary, the CQC detailed how they reviewed 291 care plans across the 100 care homes that they visited and found the following:
- 27% of care plans fully covered oral health
- 63% of care plans partly covered oral health
- 10% of care plans did not cover oral health at all
These statistics clearly highlight areas for improvement within the social care sector. This is where QCS can help. With the World Oral Health Day message in mind, we are offering you all the templates needed to ensure you can:
- Pick up on any oral care problems your service users are experiencing
- Use templates to keep track of your service users’ dentists’ details and when they last had a routine oral health care examination
- Learn techniques on how to help service users with additional needs with their oral care
- Learn how to check your service users for signs of oral cancers
What exactly does QCS provide?
We have a comprehensive Oral Care Policy and Procedure including information on how to:
- Perform an oral health needs assessment and form a plan
- Carry out an oral assessment for a service user
- Tell if a service user is experiencing dental problems
- Help service users who require support with their oral care routine
- Check service users for signs of oral cancer
- Look after service users’ dentures
- Access dental services and emergency out-of-hours treatment
- Arrange a dental appointment for a service user
Other than the policy, what templates does QCS have that you can use?
- Oral health needs assessment
- Oral health needs plan
- Oral care mini audit tool
If you would like more information on how we can help you with all the tools you need to meet World Oral Health Day’s message, please contact our Customer Experience Team on 0333 405 3333. We would be happy to arrange a free demo and 24-hour access to our system.
Not only do our policies and templates provide your service users with a great service, but by completing the assessments regularly you are also providing vital evidence to meet the requirements of the CQC framework.
More information on World Oral Health Day can be found here: Campaign theme 2021-2023 | World Oral Health Day
