Special Care Adults (including phobics): Special Care Dentistry provides dental treatment to individuals and groups in society who have a physical, sensory, intellectual, mental, medical, emotional or social impairment or disability or, more often, a combination of these factors. The specialty focuses on adolescents and adults only and includes the important period of transition as the adolescent moves into adulthood. We provide a limited range of treatment to phobic patients; however we do not provide advanced restorative or endodontic treatment.
Minor Oral Surgery: The specialty of Oral Surgery deals with the diagnosis and management of pathology of the mouth and jaws that requires surgical intervention. Oral Surgery involves the treatment of children, adolescents and adults, and the management of dentally anxious and medically complex patients.
Paediatrics: Paediatric dentistry is the provision of oral healthcare to Children and Young People from birth until their 16th birthday. Specialists in paediatric dentistry provide oral healthcare for those:
- with extensive oral disease,
- whose oral health care is complicated by intellectual, medical, physical, social, psychological and/or emotional factors/disability,
- with developmental disorders of the teeth and mouth,
- who are either too anxious or too young to accept routine dental treatment, with diagnosed special educational needs
- who have sustained complex traumatic dental injuries.
Urgent Care: For those of any age in the locality who are not registered with a dentist and who have an urgent dental need. Urgent care provides often a one-off appointment and undertakes the minimum amount of treatment to relieve the pain the patient is experiencing. Treatment options are limited under urgent care.
Community Health Projects
Fluoride Varnish Project: This project is delivered to 24 primary schools in high deprivation areas of the city. This scheme provides oral health talks and messaging to children in Foundation / Year 1 / Year 3 and Year 6. With parental consent, our oral health education trained dental nurses also apply fluoride varnish to Foundation/Year 1 children’s teeth twice yearly.
Epidemiology surveys: With guidance from Public Health, the service supports epidemiology surveys annually to identified year groups in allocated schools across Plymouth and the locality. These surveys, with parental consent, look at the health of children/young people’s teeth and helps provide key information for Public Health and NHS England in the dental care of the region.
School screenings: PCDS clinical staff arrange visits to Special Needs schools in the city and with parental consent, review the oral health of children attending. This helps this vulnerable cohort get used to a dentist and dental nurse looking at their mouth and provide advice to parents to support with their oral health management.