‘Access Dental’ is delivering a new dental helpline service to patients living in BNSSG from April 2nd 2019. Access Dental is open 8am-10pm, 7 days a week 365 days per year. It is an advice and triage service that
- Provides information about NHS dental services in the area
- Provides appropriate advice and signposting of non urgent dental enquiries
- Provides urgent care advice where appropriate
- Can book patients into dedicated urgent care slots provided by General Dental Practitioners (weekdays) across the area, or out of hours providers, following triage and assessment.
Patients access the dental service by dialing NHS111 and selecting the dental option. When Access Dental is open, patients who select the dental option will be diverted directly to Access Dental and will therefore not come through to NHS111 for pathways assessment, or to the Clinical Assessment Service (CAS). When Access Dental is closed, dental cases will come through to NHS111 for pathways assessment and may be passed through to the CAS for clinician input.
Patients that have already been assessed on the dental pathway can call the emergency dental line on 0300 3034165 8am-22.00 instead of being asking to call back on NHS 111.
A couple of tips when advising patients about the Access Dental service:
- Do tell patients not to call a few minutes before 8am as they will then get through to the medical 111 service, and miss their opportunity to get through to the dental service
- Do advise people that the patient has to be the one who speaks to the Access Dental team, or has to be present if someone is speaking on their behalf (there have been instances where the caller was not aware that they need to be physically with the patient in order to discuss the case with the team)
Guidance for clinicians managing patients with dental symptoms/ problems:
If you speak to a patient with a dental problem between 10pm and 8am when Access Dental is closed, please advise the patient to call back to NHS111 and select the dental option after 8am the following day.
In the interim period, the NICE Clinical Knowledge Summary provides helpful guidance about the diagnosis and management of dental problems in primary care. It outlines the features of serious illness or complications warranting immediate treatment. In the absence of these features, the guidance outlines that our main role in primary care is to provide advice about and/ or prescription(s) for analgesia. Patients should also be advised to seek advice/ assessment from a dentist as soon as possible.
We should therefore not routinely provide antibiotics for otherwise healthy patients at low risk of complications, when there are no signs of spreading infection. In the absence of immediate attention by a dentist, only prescribe an antibiotic if the patient:
- is systemically unwell
- has signs of severe infection (eg fever, lymphadenopathy, cellulitis, diffuse swelling)
- is at high risk of complications (eg immunocompromised or diabetes)
In cases where antibiotics are prescribed, please also ensure that the patient seeks emergency dental assessment as soon as possible.
Dental Complaints
The following information can be shared with patients who would like to make a complaint about the service they have received from the NHS Emergency Dental Service.
The service is currently being managed by HUC and the contact details are shown below.
Website https://hucweb.co.uk/patients/have-your-say/
Email huc.feedback@nhs.net
Telephone 0808 260 9934
Alternative key words: tooth / teeth / gum / pain / dental / dentist