Domiciliary dental care: considerations and challenges

Provision of dental care outside a dental practice can take place in many settings, including a patient's own home, care and nursing homes, hospital wards and schools, and for a number of reasons, including patient frailty. Domiciliary dental care is defined as provision of dental care outside the clinic setting, reaching out to those who cannot attend a clinic-based service, and this differs from dental screenings or epidemiological programmes that may take place in similar settings.^1,2 Lewis and Fiske's review² remains an accurate representation of domiciliary oral healthcare and this article provides an update in the areas most useful for clinicians.

In 2019, the Office for National Statistics reported that the number of people aged 85 and over in the UK is projected to double by 2043.³ As the population continues to age, and older people living with frailty make up a larger proportion of the population, the demand for domiciliary dental care is likely to rise. Geddis-Regan and O'Connor reported that there were 68,063 NHS payment claims for domiciliary dental care for adults in England in 2015. They also noted that service availability may be influenced by provider availability, there was a limited association between levels of deprivation and number of domiciliary claims made, and that access to a service may not always be based on need.⁴