This guidance focuses on the patient journey to providers of care and includes specific self-help advice to support dental staff in advising patients and a simple method for prioritising dental emergencies in primary care practice. It also provides quality standards that specify the requirements of out-of-hours emergency dental services for use by NHS Boards and dentists.
The guidance is directed towards all those who have a role in delivering dental care and those responsible for organising emergency dental service provision at a local or regional level. The guidance is intended to complement the national work on emergency dental service development involving NHS Boards and NHS 24.
The guidance was reviewed in November 2013, by the SDCEP Steering Group who agreed that the guidance should remain extant without revision for a further period of three years.
The full guidance and support materials can be downloaded from the SDCEP website.