Bridging the Gap Between Dental and Hospital Care

Dental health is often overlooked in hospital settings, yet it directly affects patient outcomes. Poor oral health can complicate medical treatment, delay recovery, increase infection risk, and impact nutrition. Our ward liaison service works alongside hospital teams to ensure dental health is considered as part of holistic patient care.

How Our Ward Liaison Works

Direct communication: We work directly with ward nurses, doctors, speech and language therapists, dietitians, and discharge teams. When dental issues are identified, we can be contacted for advice or to arrange a bedside visit.

Oral health screening: We can provide oral health screening for ward patients, identifying dental needs that might otherwise go unnoticed. This is particularly valuable for long-stay patients and those with complex needs.

Care plan integration: Our dental findings and recommendations are documented and integrated into the patient’s overall care plan, ensuring dental needs are considered alongside medical treatment.

Staff guidance: We provide ward staff with practical guidance on supporting patients’ oral hygiene, recognising dental problems, and understanding when to request a dental referral.

Family communication: We liaise with patients’ families to discuss dental findings, treatment options, and ongoing care needs — particularly important for patients who lack capacity.

When to Contact Us

We encourage ward teams to contact us when a patient reports dental pain or discomfort, a patient’s dentures are missing, damaged, or ill-fitting, a patient is struggling to eat due to dental problems, oral health is affecting the patient’s medical treatment or recovery, a patient is being discharged to a care home and needs dental assessment, or staff are unsure whether a patient’s oral symptoms need dental attention.

We’re always happy to provide telephone advice in the first instance — not every query requires a visit.

Working with Discharge Teams

Effective discharge planning should include dental health. We work with discharge coordinators to ensure patients’ dental needs are identified and addressed before they leave hospital. This may include arranging denture replacements, providing dental reports for onward care providers, or setting up community dental follow-up. See our discharge planning page for more details.