Care home hails 'game-changing' dentist visits

A care home manager has hailed the "game-changing" effect of getting regular visits from an NHS dentist.

Liz Wynn, of Southminster Residential Home, near Maldon, said the twice-yearly check-ups meant residents no longer needed hospital treatment.

She had previously told the BBC that getting such a regular service was an "impossibility".

NHS Mid and South Essex said its dental care home service was fully commissioned until April 2030.

It followed a successful pilot scheme that started in November 2023.

Prior to this, Ms Wynn said she had been campaigning for dental support in her care home for years.

"Our residents are already older, frail and losing weight - or they have dementia and don't know how to deal with eating - so they really do need good teeth to do the job," she said.

"We have one lady who has advanced dementia and she doesn't really speak English; she was holding her cheek in so much pain.

"If they can't eat and they're in pain, can you imagine what that's like?"

But Ms Wynn said she was delighted to be offered the service of Maldon-based practice Carmelite.

"It's been game-changing, absolutely fantastic, and they're such a lovely team that come in and they really do care," she added.

"The residents that are able to communicate and understand, they are so relieved they can be treated."

William Guy, director of primary care at NHS Mid and South Essex, said thousands of care home residents had accessed treatment thanks to the scheme, also used at a site on Canvey Island in Essex.

A report by the Care Quality Commission in 2023 revealed 25% of care home providers said their patients were denied dental care.

The watchdog urged people to get an oral health assessment on admission to a care home.

But Jeremy Clerc, chief executive of Assisted Living Magazine, which works with care homes across Essex and London, said this had become "increasingly difficult".

"People are arriving in care homes with more advanced health conditions and greater levels of neurodiversity, including dementia, autism and learning disabilities," he said.

"Delivering dental care in these environments requires time, specialist understanding and consistency - all of which are harder to achieve when services are stretched."

An NHS spokesperson previously said work was ongoing to provide 700,000 urgent appointments nationally.

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