Nurses Failing To Carry Out Oral Health Checks

Thu, 12 Feb 2009

The British Dental Health Foundation (BDHF) has raised concerns over new research that shows less than half of hospital nursing staff carry out routine oral health checks upon hospital admission.

The dental health charity warned that such check-ups must become routine practice to help eliminate mouth cancer, as early detection of the disease improves survival chances to 9 in 10 cases.

A survey carried out by the online journal for BioMed Central (BMC) worryingly revealed that just 49 per cent of nurses routinely carried out oral health checks, despite 80 per cent of them believing they were important.

Identifying warning signs of oral cancer was also shown to be low, with some 5 per cent of nursing staff admitting to not being trained in oral health awareness.

In addition, the BMC found that while 70 per cent of nurses identified smoking as a major cause of mouth cancer, only 30 per cent highlighted alcohol as another major cause of the disease.

Dr Nigel Carter, chief executive of the BDHF, said: "Nurses have an opportunity in their role looking after oral health of their patients, as hospital admission provides the perfect opportunity for oral cancer screening ."

"Just as we encourage dentists to ensure they carry out screenings and discuss the issues with patients, we hope to see health professionals across the industry take action and improve awareness."
add to favouritesnewsletterlink to this pagesend to friendpost comments

Link to this page

Copy and Paste the following HTML into your page.

Health cover, life insurance and PMIProtect Your Health

Find Critical illness, Life and Private Medical Insurance PMI policies.

Save money on your mortgageSave on Your Mortgage

Would you like to save money on your mortgage? Fill out our quick mortgage enquiry form