June 2014

Jenny Godson is Regional Consultant in Dental Public Health, Public Health England, UK The development and implementation of evidence based practice is important for both clinical and oral health programme interventions. Dental teams have asked for clear guidance about the advice and preventive treatments they should be offering their patients, and acknowledged the need for dental teams as well as other health and care workers to give consistent and evidence based messages. In response in 2007 the Department of Health in England and the British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry (BASCD) first published Delivering Better Oral Health (DBOH) followed by a second edition in 2009 this document provided an evidence base for preventive treatment and advice for the dental team in the surgery setting. It is well recognised that oral health has an important role in general health and that many of the chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) share a set of common risk factors, namely smoking, alcohol misuse and a poor diet. A common risk factor approach to health promotion (Sheiham and Watt, 2000) addresses risk factors to several NCDs ensuring that action effects both oral and general health improvement. We know that common risk factors often cluster within the population. The prevalence of the five key risk factors for ill health (smoking, alcohol, diet, obesity, and physical activity) have been assessed, with almost the whole population having at least one risk factor, 55% three or more and 20% having four or all five. It is therefore important that all members of the dental team make every contact count and support patients to make healthier choices maintaining both their oral and general health.