Dentistry and the adult at risk

The term ‘vulnerable adult’ is used in Department of Health (DH) guidance and employed in the same way as it was used in the Lord Chancellor's consultation documents (Lord Chancellor's Department, 1998) relating to the Mental Capacity Act 2005. More recently, ‘vulnerable adult’ has been superseded by the term ‘adult at risk’ (Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), 2011). This article refers to guidance and the ways this may be translated into the dental surgery with particular application for dental care professionals.

Quite often when we think of someone as being vulnerable, it gives us a negative perception about them, and this is one reason why the term has been changed to ‘at risk’. Within the dental literature, a vulnerable adult was depicted as one that had some form of impairment, for example a learning disability, a wheelchair user, a person who is Deaf or sight impaired. More recent definitions place the adult at risk as a person over the age of 18 years of age who is or may be in need of community care services by reason of mental or other disability, age or illness and who may be unable to take care of him or herself, or unable to protect him or herself against significant harm or exploitation (DH and Home Office, 2000).