Sir, we write further to the recent paper on the evaluation of a dental nurse-led triage system in a private dental practice.1During the first UK national lockdown a method of communication was established with patients with special needs through means of welfare telephone calls. This telephone call reviewed their dental and overall wellbeing. A total of 2,269 telephone calls and outcomes were recorded on an Excel spreadsheet with a ranking of 'how well received was the call?' using a five point Likert Scale. Further information included telephone location, patient demographics and whether the patient was signposted to appropriate services or otherwise.

An enthusiastic response with an agreement for the clinician to call back again at a later date was reported from 778 patients with 58 signposted to other services such as NHS Stop Smoking and 1,688 receiving oral prevention advice. There is perhaps further scope in the future to continue this means of communication.