Prevention – or oral health promotion – is the cornerstone of all dentistry. Today’s dental practice is focused on the health and wellbeing of its patients, particularly with the wealth of evidencebased studies highlighting the systemic links to other inflammatory disease that stretch beyond the oral cavity.
Public Health England’s Delivering better oral health: an evidence-based toolkit for prevention (third edition 22 March 2017) placed oral health education firmly at the heart of general practice with guidance for GDPs and their teams highlighting risks, advice and actions needed to prevent disease.
Oral health education is no longer confined to the surgery. 21st century care requires practices to break traditional communication channels and embrace the digital world – these days online is very often where your potential patients will first experience your business.
In the UK, 85% of the population are using smartphones, with 78% using laptops, which requires practices to have a robust social media strategy as well as an engaging and easy-to-navigate practice website if they are to reach patients with key messages.
With a profession facing a growing epidemic of child tooth decay and associated diseases, practices need to up their game to preserve the health of the nation.
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