Exploring the barriers to oral healthcare promotion and provision in the community

With their wide breadth of expertise and the ability to leverage the therapeutic relationship, community nurses are ideally placed to manage the complications and challenges associated with a diverse range of conditions and to provide treatment and support to an extensive variety of patients, from newborns to multimorbid or older demographics. Their close contact with this wide range of patients means that community nursing teams are also in a good position to promote and reinforce positive health messages, particularly to vulnerable groups. This is in alignment with the principles of the approach outlined in the consensus statement ‘Making Every Contact Count’, a strategy to initiate behavioural change promoted by Public Health England, NHS England and Health Education England, which uses the multiple daily interactions that organisations and teams have with patient groups to support them in making positive changes to their physical and mental health, and wellbeing (NHS England, 2016; Sibanda et al, 2023). This includes the efforts of community nurses to promote good oral health and address the conditions that affect oral health status.