Trial reportCommunity dentistry and oral epidemiology2025
A Link Work Intervention to Facilitate Dental Visiting in People With Severe Mental Illness: A Two-Arm, Multi-Site, Assessor Blind, Randomised Feasibility Trial With Dental Record Linkage.
Trial report in Community dentistry and oral epidemiology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT05545228 (A Randomised Feasibility Trial of an Intervention Using Mental Health Support Workers as Link Workers to Improve Dental Visiting in People With Severe Mental Illness), which is not on this map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
A Randomised Feasibility Trial of an Intervention Using Mental Health Support Workers as Link Workers to Improve Dental Visiting in People With Severe Mental Illness: The Mouth in Mind Study
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Prioritization of Oral Health among Safety-Net Behavioral Health Professionals: An Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods Study.Community mental health journal · 2026Article
- Co-Producing an Intervention Involving Dental Professionals Providing Oral Health Support in a Mental Healthcare Setting.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2026Article
- Oral health care for Australians living with mental ill-health: unaffordable, inaccessible and invisible.The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry · 2026Article
- Research priorities for oral health in people with severe mental ill-health.BMJ mental health · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
26 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesPeople with severe mental illness experience poor oral health, compared to the general population. They experience inequity in accessing dental services. This randomised controlled trial evaluated the acceptability and feasibility of a link work intervention to support people with severe mental illness to access a routine dental appointment.
methodsThis was a feasibility randomised controlled trial across three sites with 1:1 allocation to Treatment as usual (TAU) or TAU plus a link work intervention (ISRCTN13650779). Participants were adults accessing mental health services who had not attended a routine dental appointment in the past 3 years. The intervention comprised up to six sessions with a link worker. Participants completed self-report assessments and an optional dental examination at baseline and after nine months. Dental visiting data were obtained through self-report and the NHS Business Services Authority (BSA).
resultsOne hundred and sixty-one participants were referred into the trial, resulting in 79 out of the target 84 randomisations (94.0%) over 7 months. There were high levels of engagement with the intervention. Dental visiting data were available for 84.8% of participants (95% CI: 75.3%, 91.1%). Uptake of the optional dental examination within the research assessment battery was low (follow-up: 12.7%; 95% CI: 7.0%, 21.8%). There were no serious adverse events attributable to the intervention or trial procedures. There were substantially higher rates of dental attendance after nine months in the link work intervention arm, compared to TAU, in both the self-report (91.7% vs. 26.7%) and NHS BSA (55.3% vs. 12.1%) data. There was also a signal of improved self-reported oral health-related quality of life favouring the link work intervention arm.
conclusionsThe trial procedures and link work intervention were found to be feasible, acceptable and safe. The intervention showed promise in terms of clinical outcomes. The effectiveness of the intervention requires evaluation in a larger trial.
trial registrationNCT05545228.
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