Dental and Eye Care

Why choose Dental and Eye Care as a priority?

Although on the surface dental and eye conditions may appear to have little in common, the way each service is currently provided is in fact very similar.  Both services have a large community base provided by numerous small independent practices (i.e. Community Dentists or Opticians/Optometrists).  These independent practices have links with General Practice and, where needed, refer more complex cases to hospital based specialists.  It therefore seems logical that any change in the way care is provide for one of these areas could help guide changes in the other.

• There is a great deal of research showing the links between dental health and general health¹.
• The mouth can be an entry as well as the site of disease and infection that affect general health, with studies linking dental diseases and diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and adverse pregnancy outcomes.
• The mouth and its functions can be impacted by many pharmaceuticals and other therapies commonly used in treating long term conditions.
• Approximately two fifths of five and twelve year olds living in Cardiff and Vale UHB have experience of dental decay.
• Currently, nearly 100,000 people in Wales are living with sight loss.
• By 2020, the number of people living with sight loss is predicted to increase by 22 per cent and double by the year 2050².
• More than 50 per cent of sight loss can be prevented through early identification and intervention².
   

Dental and Eye Care Workshop

Clinical Leads:   Professor Ivor Chestnutt (Dental Lead)

                                   Mr Kadaba Rajkumar (Ophthalmology Lead)

A workshop held on 12^th November 2014 brought together people who use and provide dental and eye services in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan to share their views about the future. Through better engagement with our population, better use of technology, and new ways of working, everyone at the workshop was asked to describe “what a new dental / eye service of the future could look like?”

Discussions during the workshop were captured in the form of visual minutes.  

Download a report summarising the workshop

A New Model of Dental and Eye Care

The first step in developing any new model of care is to describe a vision of what a future service should achieve. Working with Prof Ivor Chestnutt, our dental lead, and Mr Kadaba Rajkumar, our ophthalmology lead, we used the information from our workshop, together with published best practice from Wales, the UK and the wider world, to develop a Shaping Our Future Wellbeing shared vision of dental and eye care in the future.  

A report describing how the Clinical Senate and a Service User/3rd Sector feedback event helped refine the shared visions of care is available here. 

With this vision in mind, we can now begin to explore the changes that will be needed to make the vision a reality, and so begin to describe in detail a new model for dental and eye care.

References

1. Welsh Government. Together for Health: A National Oral Health Plan for Wales. Cardiff: WG; 2013  http://www.nidcr.nih.gov/datastatistics/surgeongeneral/sgr/chap5.htm [Accessed 13/04/15]
2. Welsh Government. Together for Health: Eye Health Care Delivery Plan for Wales. Cardiff: WG; 2013