September 2022

Health Education England (HEE) is responsible for educating and training the health workforce in England, ensuring the workforce has the right numbers, skills, values, and behaviours to support patients. This includes developing a multi-professional dental care workforce able to meet the needs of current and future service requirements. The recognised challenge will be to train and develop clinicians to address the changing needs concomitant with the population demographics. The number of older people is growing and will continue to grow. Many of the current cohort of older people have retained their own teeth. Whilst this is beneficial it is recognised that they have often received complex restorative treatment, some of which may cause serious complications if it fails in later life. Managing their oral health if they become care home residents, particularly for those living with dementia is often challenging and requires measures to facilitate access to dental care and supporting carers to deliver daily effective mouth care.