A need for better care

As a population, we are living longer. According to the latest Office of National Statistics (ONS) data, the number of people aged 85 years and over in the UK is projected to double from 1.6 million in 2018 to 3.6 million by 2050. A great deal of this population is or will be living in residential care settings and cared for by others. Before accepting the role of ‘Clinical Mouth Care Lead for Cornwall, the Isle of Scilly and South von’ for Health Education England (HEE) in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020 I had not set foot in a care home. I had no personal experience of relatives in residential care, and even during my time working in community dentistry both as a dental nurse and later as a dental therapist, my role was predominately paediatric based rather than older people (community dental visits to care homes stopped in 2006 when the domiciliary care contract changed and moved out of the community dental teams’ remit).