Oral health and our elderly population

In June, the CQC published the Smile Matters Report, showing its findings on the state of oral health care in care homes across England. Dental CQC inspectors went to 100 care homes to carry out 100 routine inspections.

Some of the findings from the report were:

The report sadly shows that our elderly population’s oral health is not fully supported in care homes. The report recommended that there is a multi-disciplinary approach to oral health such as:

I work as a Mouth Care Lead at my NHS Trust in Kent and part of my role is raising awareness of good oral health through health promotion. In June, I attended and delivered a talk to my local care home event, where care home and nursing home managers attended to receive updates and information from health care colleagues.