HNY Policy and Pathway Repository - York

Changes to the patient pathway for urgent dental care services with effect from 1 April 2019.

As part of the Yorkshire and Humber integrated urgent care pathway, NHS England has developed a strategy for local urgent dental care (UDC) services that will provide dedicated, responsive and reliable dental triage and booking patients into the most appropriate care.

Dental emergencies: recommended treatment time of up to two hours from the point of calling NHS111), with provision at A&E (and nearest A&E or urgent dental care provider for reimplantation of avulsed teeth).

Examples of dental emergencies are:

• uncontrollable dental haemorrhage following extraction
• rapidly increasing swelling around the throat or eye
• trauma confined to the dental arches

It is important to note the differences between dental emergencies, urgent and general dental access and to consider services that meet these definitions. There are three categories of need:

• dental emergencies: recommended treatment time of up to two hours from the point of calling NHS111), with provision at A&E (and nearest A&E or urgent dental care provider for reimplantation of avulsed teeth). Examples of dental emergencies are: uncontrollable dental haemorrhage following extraction; rapidly increasing swelling around the throat or eye; and trauma confined to the dental arches.
• urgent dental care: recommended treatment time of over two hours and up to and including 24 hours, from the point of calling NHS 111, with provision from contracted urgent dental care providers; Urgent dental care includes: severe dental and facial pain not controlled by over-the-counter preparations; dental and soft tissue acute infection/swelling (which is not rapidly increasing around the throat or eye).
• general dental access for routine dental conditions.

 

Use of 111 to seek urgent dental care

People should only ring 111 or access via NHS 111 online to seek urgent dental care if:

• They have a regular dentist but that dentist is closed because it is ‘out of hours’;
• They do not have a regular dentist and it is ‘in hours’ or ‘out of hours’.

• NHS 111 Online: https://111.nhs.uk/ 

Urgent dental care: recommended treatment time of over two hours and up to and including 24 hours, from the point of calling NHS 111, with provision from contracted urgent dental care providers;

Urgent dental care includes:

• severe dental and facial pain not controlled by over-the-counter preparations
• dental and soft tissue acute infection/swelling (which is not rapidly increasing around the throat or eye)

There are three parts to the UDC patient pathway:

1. Patients should call 111- Patients >5 years with an urgent dental problem will be transferred to the dental Clinical Assessment and Booking Service (CABS); Non- dental problems and patients <5 years old will be assessed by the provider of NHS 111 for Yorkshire and Humber. Patients can also access https://111.nhs.uk/ 
2. Dental Clinical Assessment and Booking Service (CABS);
3. Urgent dental care provided by Urgent Dental Treatment services (UDTs), as well as UDC provided within existing general dental practice contracts.

Recent procurements have allowed for the introduction of new providers (with effect from 1 April 2019).

Service	Provider
NHS 111 and NHS 111 Online	Yorkshire Ambulance Service
Clinical Assessment and Booking Service	Local Care Direct (LCD)
Urgent Dental Treatment in Humber, Coast and Vale	Night Dental

Information sheet - Urgent Dental Care

 

The changes came into effect on 1 April 2019.

NHS England is creating patient literature and posters and these are expected to be circulated soon. If you have any queries contact england.yhdentalreturns@nhs.net