DT News - UK - BDA calls for better guidelines on aiding patients with eating disorders

Dental Tribune International

Tue. 6 March 2018

save

LONDON, UK: Dentists play a key role in identifying conditions such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia and gastro-oesophageal reflux disease. According to a new report by the British Dental Association (BDA), dentists have been left in a difficult position in aiding patients with such illnesses, owing to authorities failing to set guidelines and treatment pathways or fix target-focused systems. It stated that reform by the NHS is needed to aid vulnerable patients.

Patients who are reluctant to seek medical help for conditions such as anorexia may instead visit a dentist for treatment of conditions of tooth wear associated with frequent vomiting. “Dentists are uniquely placed to provide an early warning for eating disorders, so it’s tragic that they have been left out of the equation. Left without the time, training or appropriate pathways to refer patients, we cannot unlock this potential,” said the Chair of the BDA’s General Dental Practice Committee, Dr Henrik Overgaard-Nielsen.

Eating disorders affect an estimated 725,000 people in the UK—at a cost of around £15 billion per annum. The BDA has called on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to act on requests to provide clarity on onward referral by dentists when they suspect that a patient might have an eating disorder and include dentists in multidisciplinary teams when treating inpatients with eating disorders. It has also called on government to offer a decisive break from the widely discredited NHS contract.

Since 2006, the target-driven NHS contract has reportedly forced practitioners to prioritise targets for curative treatment, and 85 per cent of practitioners have reported that it is restricting the time they can spend with patients.

According to the BDA, progress on priority areas, including reducing antibiotic prescribing and delivering advice on diet, nutrition and lifestyle, has been stymied by the “targets and tick boxes” culture. It has accused government of consistently failing to offer joined-up approaches to related challenges, such as dental caries and obesity.

Overgaard-Nielsen noted that the NHS desperately needs to deliver a joined-up approach to health care. He said, “Ultimately a contract system that puts government targets before patient care remains a major barrier. Unless the NHS is prepared to value the life-changing interventions dentists can make we cannot make progress.”

Tags:

To post a reply please login or register

New guidance for care of patients with oral potentially malignant disorders

LONDON, UK: General dental practitioners (GDPs) now have clearer recommendations to which they can refer for successfully monitoring and managing oral ...

Report calls for better training in oral healthcare for retirement home staff

LONDON, UK: An ageing population is a topic of concern in many countries around the world. It is estimated that the number of those over 60 will have ...

Eating disorders and dentistry: Identifying early signs in the dental office

RUGBY, UK: According to some eating disorder organisations and charities, between 1.25 and 3.40 million people in the UK are affected by an eating ...

UK urged to update dental antibiotic guidelines for potential endocarditis patients

SHEFFIELD, UK: Infective endocarditis (IE) is a potentially life-threatening heart infection that is caused by dental bacteria in around a third of cases. A...

Examining body dysmorphic disorder in dental patients

LEIPZIG, Germany: As cosmetic dentistry procedures have become less invasive and generally more affordable, their popularity has risen considerably. For ...

BDA calls for radical action to lower Britain’s sugar intake

LONDON, UK: Lately, there have been increasing efforts to curb Britain’s high sugar consumption. Although the British Dental Association (BDA) has ...

BDA calls on new government to fix dentistry system

London, UK: The British Dental Association (BDA) has said that it will work with the new Conservative cabinet and members of parliament towards a better ...

Jamie Oliver calls for ban on chewing gum in public

LONDON, UK: In a personal manifesto, British chef, broadcaster and food campaigner Jamie Oliver has called for a ban on chewing gum in public in order to ...

Napier calls for excellence in cosmetic dentistry

EDINBURGH, UK: Once a derided field, cosmetic dentistry has changed so much that it has become the basis of almost everything that dental professionals are ...

Engineers generate teeth from patients’ own gum cells

LONDON, UK: To date, research on bioengineered teeth has largely focused on the use of embryonic cells. However, a new study has shown that teeth can be ...

Education

Live webinar
Fri. 26 April 2024
5:00 pm UTC (London)