A new toolkit has recently been piloted and released in Greater Manchester for the whole dental team.

The aim of the Healthy Gums Do Matter (HGDM) Toolkit is to bridge the perceived widening gap between general NHS dental practice around periodontal care and national guidance. The lead author, a local dentist Shazad Saleem explains ‘I believe that sometimes there is a disconnect between academics producing guidelines and general dental practitioners. It is crucial that when developing new guidance both parties should be involved because general dental practitioners under the NHS contract deliver the majority of dentistry’.

The new guidance has been developed with not only academics and GDPs, but also with patients, hygienists and therapists and public health experts. This new approach to implementing evidence based guidelines really emphasises the importance of teamwork within the dental team, but also enabling the patient to understand their responsibility in obtaining the desired result with their treatment.

This is a welcome addition to the current 3rd edition of the Delivered Better Oral Health Toolkit but will it only become useful if the new contract rolls out with an emphasis in using DCPs in a patient’s care pathway?

Watch this space - to see more about the HGDM toolkit, see their website http://www.pcc-cic.org.uk/article/toolkit-makes-periodontal-care-team-effort.