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The East of England dental trauma service
  1. Danielle Brown1,
  2. Issar Hussain2,
  3. Veni Cochrane2,
  4. Nick Barker2
  1. 1 Health Education England East of England, Colchester, UK
  2. 2 NHS England and NHS Improvement East of England, Colchester, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Danielle Brown, Health Education England East of England, Colchester CB21 5XE, UK; danielle.brown22{at}nhs.net

Abstract

Background Current evidence suggests traumatic dental injuries can be difficult to manage in primary care due to uncommon occurrence and challenging patient presentations. Such factors may contribute to general dental practitioners lacking experience and confidence in the assessment, treatment and management of traumatic dental injuries. Furthermore, there are anecdotal accounts of patients presenting to accident and emergency (A&E) services with a traumatic dental injury, which could be placing avoidable strain on secondary care services. For these reasons, a novel primary care-led dental trauma service has been established in the East of England.

Methods This brief report shares our experiences of establishing this dental trauma service, titled ‘Think T’s’. It aims to provide effective trauma care across an entire region by a dedicated team of experienced clinicians from primary care settings to reduce inappropriate attendance to secondary care services and upskill colleagues in dental traumatology.

Findings and conclusions Since its inception, the dental trauma service has been public-facing and has managed referrals from a range of sources which include general medical practitioners, A&E clinicians and ambulance services. The service has been well received and has been seeking to integrate with the Directory of Services as well as NHS 111.

  • dentist
  • clinical leadership
  • primary care
  • strategy
  • management

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Footnotes

  • Contributors All authors contributed to the development and implementation of the project. All authors contributed to the final manuscript.

  • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.