UK Department of Health & Social Care

09/10/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/10/2025 09:48

Delivering better oral health: an evidence-based toolkit for prevention

Guidance

Delivering better oral health: an evidence-based toolkit for prevention

This is an evidence-based toolkit to support dental teams in improving their patients' oral and general health.

From: Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England Published 12 June 2014 Last updated 10 September 2025 - See all updates
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Documents

Chapter 1: introduction

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Chapter 2: summary guidance tables for dental teams

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Chapter 3: behaviour change

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Chapter 4: dental caries

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Chapter 5: periodontal diseases

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Chapter 6: oral cancer

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Chapter 7: tooth wear

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Chapter 8: oral hygiene

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Chapter 9: fluoride

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Chapter 10: healthier eating

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Chapter 11: smoking and tobacco use

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Chapter 12: alcohol

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Chapter 13: evidence base for recommendations in the summary guidance tables

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Appendix: clinical case studies

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Acknowledgments

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Endorsements

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Template letter for clinician to contact diabetes physician

MS Word Document, 14.7 KB

Template letter for clinician to contact diabetes physician

ODT, 5.59 KB

This file is in an OpenDocument format

Template letter for clinician to contact physician about gingival enlargement

MS Word Document, 14.8 KB

Template letter for clinician to contact physician about gingival enlargement

ODT, 5.61 KB

This file is in an OpenDocument format

Diet diary example

PDF, 70.6 KB, 4 pages

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Fluoride content of toothpastes

ODS, 122 KB

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Fluoride content of toothpastes

MS Excel Spreadsheet, 652 KB

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Details

This guidance provides evidence-based interventions and advice on how dental health professionals can improve and maintain the oral and general health of their patients.

Many of the risk factors for general health conditions also affect oral health, such as:

  • poor diet
  • smoking
  • alcohol misuse

The guidance includes advice on how to prevent the main oral diseases, dental caries, periodontal diseases, oral cancer and tooth wear (which can be found in chapter 2) with additional advice on:

  • the use of fluoride
  • brushing your teeth
  • eating a healthy balanced diet
  • stopping tobacco use
  • drinking within the lower risk alcohol guidelines
  • how to support behaviour change

The guidance is the result of a comprehensive review of published research evidence on prevention and draws on a UK wide collaboration of over 100 well respected experts including frontline dental teams and patient representatives.

Updates to this page

Published 12 June 2014
Last updated 10 September 2025 + show all updates
  1. 10 September 2025

    Updated to add 'Appendix: clinical case studies' and to make improvements to the layout and formatting.

  2. 9 November 2021

    Two additional organisations listed in the "Endorsements" section.

  3. 21 September 2021

    Reviewed and updated guidance in full. Update published as 4th edition.

  4. 22 March 2017

    Uploaded latest version of documents and added quick guides.

  5. 3 November 2014

    Update to main guidance document: third edition (October 2014).

  6. 24 September 2014

    Update to guidance documents: third edition, September 2014.

  7. 12 June 2014

    First published.

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UK Department of Health & Social Care published this content on September 10, 2025, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on September 10, 2025 at 15:48 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]