Guidance on Comprehensive Oral Health Assessment - Consultation ended 27 February 2009

The consultation period for 'Guidance on Comprehensive Oral Health Assessment' has now ended. The feedback received is currently being considered in order to agree the amendments that are required before publication, expected to be later in 2010. Meanwhile, if you would like a pdf of the consultation draft of the guidance, please email us at: scottishdental.cep@nes.scot.nhs.uk. 

For a description of the consultation process see SDCEP Guidance.

This guidance aims to promote a systematic and comprehensive approach to managing the overall oral health of each patient and to facilitate individualised long-term care of patients. Many aspects of the guidance will be familiar to dental team members. However, a newer concept is introduced that comprises assessing risk factors associated with the development of oral disease and assigning a 'risk level' to each patient in order to facilitate the development of a personal care plan and identification of a recall interval that is specific for each patient. In addition, details of the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS), which is an evidence-based preventive approach to recording caries stages comprehensively, are presented. Example forms to facilitate collecting information and example risk assessment scenarios, together with a quick reference guide, are also provided. Further explanation of the rationale for the development of this guidance is presented in the introduction.

Guidance Development Group  

Name	Details
Prof. Nigel Pitts (Chair)	Director, Dental Health Services Research Unit, University of Dundee.
Ms Jenny Hally	Clinical Research Fellow, Dental Health Services Research Unit, University of Dundee.
Mr Phil Higginson	General Dental Practitioner, Dundee.
Prof. Lorna Macpherson	Professor of Dental Public Health, University of Glasgow.
Mrs Mary McCann	General Dental Practitioner, Glasgow; Deputy Chief Dental Officer until June 2006.
Mr Charles Ormond	General Dental Practitioner, Falkirk.
Mr Derek Richards	Consultant in Dental Public Health, Forth Valley; Director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Dentistry, Oxford.
Mrs Margaret Ross	Senior Lecturer for DCPs, Edinburgh Dental Institute.
Dr M. Petrina Sweeney	Senior Lecturer in Special Needs Dentistry, University of Glasgow Dental School.

Page last edited: 27 April 2010