Sir, I am a community dental officer and provide dental care for a large proportion of nursing and residential home residents. In 2018, there were up to 16.007 beds in a nursing home or residential care facility in Northern Ireland.1 We provide a combination of dental assessments for new residents, review appointments for existing patients and dental treatment as appropriate, either in the nursing home setting as a domiciliary visit or with transfer to the dental clinic where appropriate. We also carry out annual oral health screenings for private and NHS nursing home and residential facilities in the Belfast area.

Prevention appears to be the safest way forward for this group of patients, in addition to our fit and well population. The Oral Health Strategy for Northern Ireland was last updated in 2007 and our care providers will be referring to the 'Guidelines for the Oral Healthcare of Older People Living in Nursing and Residential Homes in Northern Ireland' which were published in 2012 for their oral healthcare plans, both of which are now out of date given the current climate.

Perhaps we would benefit from an updated oral health strategy with a strong emphasis on prevention, particularly in our shielding population. Should the profession also be giving specific advice to carers with regards to safe oral care for our nursing and residential care patients, given the potential risk of exposure to the care provider in the current climate of limited PPE?