Adult oral health metrics to go live from 1 August
National Services Scotland, working with system suppliers, has begun making changes to the system architecture for the new Determination I which allow the collection of oral health metrics for the nation’s adult population.
In a letter to NHS dental teams, Tom Ferris, the Chief Dental Officer (CDO), said that data collection is set to go live on 1 August. It will be “some months” before sufficient meaningful data on registered patients has been amassed, said the CDO. He is planning a webinar later in the year to provide more detail on what the benefits of having access to such clinical outcome data could be for dentists and their teams.
The plan to collect data on adult patients was unveiled by the CDO at the Scottish Dental Show earlier this year. Last month, Practitioner Services confirmed that the metrics will be:
It is arguably more important to understand the impact the care provided has on the patient’s oral health
Tom Ferris
- Number of teeth present
- Number of teeth requiring restoration or extraction
- Highest sextant scores with BPE
Now, in his letter to dental teams, the CDO has provided a detailed rationale. “First and crucially, is to allow NHS dental teams to reflect on the oral health status of their registered patients and to understand the effectiveness of their interventions on the oral health of their NHS patients.
“Whilst it is important to know how much and what range of dental treatments is provided, it is arguably more important to understand the impact the care provided has on the patient’s oral health. Now, is an ideal opportunity given the introduction of the new Determination I in Scotland with much more emphasis on periodontal and preventative dentistry.
“Secondly, we do not have sufficient oral health information on the adult population. By collecting this information, we will be able to begin building a longitudinal database of the population that will allow cross-sectional and time-series comparison over time. This deficit with respect to adult oral health reporting compares unfavourably with the National Dental Inspection Programme that has been reporting on the state of child oral health in Scotland for a considerable number of years.
“Thirdly, by gathering this population-level information over time will allow both Health Boards and Scottish Government to be able to report on critical oral health metrics and look to understand how targeting additional care to sections of our communities could help reduce inequalities.”