Objectives: (1) To identify current practice when handling dental emergencies; (2) To identify changes in practice following publication of the SDCEP guidance.
Methods: Semi-structured interviews were undertaken pre- (baseline) and post- (follow-up) guidance dissemination (n=18). An interview schedule was devised which included questions about practice policy, use of triage, out-of-hours care and registration. At six-month follow-up, participants were also asked about the impact of the guidance on their practice.
Results: At baseline participants reported considerable variation in terms of practice policy when dealing with dental emergencies. Triage was undertaken in the majority of practices, however in the remaining practices the policy was either to contact an on-call dentist or to advise the patient to attend the surgery, often resulting in a double booking. There was also variation when seeing unregistered patients, often determined by whether the patient was private or NHS. Following the SDCEP publication there was little reduction in this variation. Only three participants were aware of the SDCEP guidance, two reported reading it and one advised that they had changed some aspects of their practice as a result.
Conclusion: Considerable variation in current practice was confirmed. Few changes were identified in the six months following publication and dissemination of the guidance. Therefore merely posting out the guidance had not been effective in reducing the variation in practice and further implementation intervention is required.