Dental care pathways for adult inpatients in an acute hospital: a five-year service evaluation.

Introduction The oral health of adult inpatients has been found to deteriorate during hospital admissions, which can impact on eating and drinking, risk of hospital-acquired infections and overall recovery, thus extending the length of admission.Aim The aim of this paper was to evaluate the reasons for inpatient referrals to the dental and maxillofacial department and the treatment outcomes through analysis of referrals over a five-year period collected prospectively.Method Data were collected from inpatient referrals to the dental and maxillofacial department at East Surrey Hospital over five years from January 2014 to December 2018. Information about reason for referral and treatment outcomes was reflected on.Results In total, 851 referrals were received from hospital staff over five years. The most common reason for referral was related to acute dental pain and potential analgesic overdose (16%), followed by suspected dental abscess or facial swelling (12%) and dental assessment for cardiac inpatients (11%). The most common treatment outcomes included consultation and advice only (16%) or dental extraction (16%). A large proportion of outcomes related to management of oral pain due to dry mouth (9%), oral ulceration (6%), broken dentures (8%) or fillings (5%).Conclusion The data collected show there is a clear need and benefit for hospitals to commission dental services for inpatients.