New periodontal care guidance website launched

On 15 February 2024, SDCEP published the second edition of the Prevention and Treatment of Periodontal Diseases in Primary Cares guidance.  For the first time, SDCEP is presenting this guidance within a dedicated website to aid accessibility, navigation and updating. Various tools to support the implementation of the guidance, including patient information, are also available. Please explore the new website and we welcome user feedback on its usability via a short survey.

The newly updated SDCEP guidance provides clear and practical recommendations and advice to support dental teams to work with their patients to maintain or improve their gum health. The guidance describes the principles of periodontal care, patient assessment, diagnosis, treatment and long-term care. The guidance is based on the best available evidence using SDCEP’s NICE accredited methodology and brings together advice on disease classification and periodontal treatment within one resource.  

Within the website:

• About this guidance includes the introduction, with main changes in this edition listed, and how the guidance has been developed
• Guidance provides a Summary plus more in-depth guidance on assessment, diagnosis, planning treatment, treatment components, managing disease, long-term care, dental implants, referral, record keeping
• Supporting tools includes a range of resources to support implementation of the guidance,
  • guides for monitoring plaque and bleeding, risk assessment, giving oral hygiene advice
  • example treatment prescriptions
  • smoking cessation and alcohol consumption interventions
  • advice for medical practitioners
  • patient information
• The search function helps find specific information of interest.

A downloadable pdf version of the guidance is also provided.

Madeleine Murray, Specialist in Restorative Dentistry and Chair of the group that developed the second edition of the guidance, said:

“We have comprehensively updated this guidance and are excited to be providing it in this new format. By following the recommended prevention and treatment strategies, dental teams should be well placed to identify those patients with, or at risk of, periodontal disease and to provide care that is tailored to each patient to improve their oral health, and in some cases their general health.”

The guidance is endorsed as a source of reliable, high quality professional advice by several organisations, including the British Society of Periodontology and Implant Dentistry and the British Society of Dental Hygiene and Therapy, the College of General Dentistry and the Royal College Dental Faculties.

We trust that users will find the guidance to be a valuable aid to enhancing patient care.