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Supportive periodontal care in dental practice: Part 2 - perceptions of locally referring UK general dental practitioners

British Dental Journal (2024)Cite this article

Abstract

Background Supportive periodontal care (SPC) is important in maintaining periodontal treatment outcomes. Hospital services provide specialist periodontal care at high costs. On completion of treatment, patients are discharged back to the general dental practitioner (GDP) to provide SPC. This project aimed to evaluate the change in GDPs' understanding of SPC over more than 20 years.

Method A validated questionnaire about SPC was sent to GDPs during 1996 (397) and 2020 (300), with a response rate of 74% and 52%, respectively. The anonymous data were entered on a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for analysis.

Results In total, 98.5% of the GDPs in 1996 and 97% in 2020 perceived SPC to be highly important. Additionally, 49% in 2020 had a better understanding of SPC when compared to 1996 (42%). Finally, 70-74% (1996, 2020) of the GDPs indicated that they were responsible for SPC; however, 13-16% said that they were not.

Conclusion and clinical relevance Notwithstanding the lower response rate in 2020, there has been an improvement in understanding and awareness of responsibility of SPC among GDPs. Reported challenges of provision were related to education and funding. If GDPs are to effectively deliver SPC, education and current funding should be addressed to prevent compromised treatment outcomes for patients.

Key points

  • The majority of locally referring general dental practitioners (GDPs) have an understanding of supportive periodontal care (SPC).

  • The locally referring GDPs need to be provided with clear discharge protocols and SPC regimes to improve delivery of SPC in general dental practice.

  • Future changes in the remuneration system in general dental services should allow for the provision of tailored SPC.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Specialist Registrar in Restorative Dentistry, Royal National ENT and Eastman Dental Hospital, 47–49 Huntley Street, Bloomsbury, London, WC1E 6DG, UK

    Shivani T. Rana

  2. Consultant in Restorative Dentistry, Royal National ENT and Eastman Dental Hospital, 47–49 Huntley Street, Bloomsbury, London, WC1E 6DG, UK

    Ulpee R. Darbar

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  1. Shivani T. Rana
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Contributions

Shivani T. Rana and Ulpee R. Darbar have both made substantial contributions to the conception of the work, approved the submitted version and have agreed to be personally accountable for the contributions.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shivani T. Rana.

Ethics declarations

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

This service evaluation did not require ethical approval as confirmed by the Health Research Authority decision tool and the Junior Research Office. Approval was obtained from the local governance committee.

Data availability

The data that support this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

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Rana, ., Darbar, U. Supportive periodontal care in dental practice: Part 2 - perceptions of locally referring UK general dental practitioners. Br Dent J (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-024-7234-x

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