The British Dental Health Foundation (BDHF) has welcomed the focus on giving patients the ability to make an informed decision about their care as outlined in the new NICE guidelines on oral health promotion in general dental practice.

The guidelines cover how general dental practice teams can communicate advice about oral hygiene, the use of fluoride, as well as how areas such as diet, smoking, smokeless tobacco and alcohol intake affect oral health in order to help patients make informed decisions on their own care and encourage preventive treatments.

The NICE guidelines include lots of helpful information for dental professionals to help them to communicate with patients, such as how they can use appropriate words to discuss the strength of their recommendations.

The guidelines also include information about prescribing medicines, professional guidelines, standards and laws (including on consent and mental capacity), and safeguarding to help improve patient support.

Dr Ben Atkins, a dentist and Trustee of the British Dental Health Foundation, was a member of the committee for these NICE guidelines.

Dr Atkins said: 'These guidelines have been developed with the patient firmly in mind; they outline a patient-centred approach to ensure patients who are using the services are actively involved in discussions and able to make informed decisions about their care.

'Throughout the consultation stage it was recognised that interventions need to provide patients with support to help them change their behaviour in order to effectively change how they look after their oral health at all times.

'By focusing on providing staff in dental practices with the means to do this by following these guidelines we are hoping to see the quality of dental provision in the UK improve in the future.'