How to Refer

Birmingham Community Healthcare Trust works in conjunction with the University of Birmingham to provide undergraduate training for Dentists, Hygienists and Therapists. We will accept patients directly on to the clinics from General Dental Practitioners if they meet the following criteria. Please make this clear on your referral form.

 

A shared care approach will be maintained during treatment. The referring dentist will be required to see the child during holiday periods, emergency care or where the care is beyond the scope of an undergraduate student. Where appropriate the child will be referred on to Specialist/ Consultant led care i.e., child starts to experience severe dental pain thus requiring other interventions.

 

Some patients referred to the paediatric service who are deemed to require tier 1 care (Commissioning Standard for Dental Specialties: Paediatric Dentistry) may be given the choice to see the undergraduate students or within our child friendly practices prior to discharge. This care is delivered at a range of site including both the dental hospital and community dental service and will be available in term time only. 

 

Children will be returned to the General Dental Practitioner if not deemed appropriate or where a prolonged wait is envisaged to access care.

 

The current acceptance criteria include:

• Any age up to 16.
• Parental / Guardian agreement to be treated by Undergraduates.
• Parental / Guardian understanding treatments may take longer.
• Co-operation deemed appropriate for Undergraduates.
• Enhanced prevention for high-risk groups. This may involve virtual prevention clinics.
• Simple periodontal therapy.
• Biological approaches to the management of early caries in the primary or permanent dentition, i.e. Hall crowns, sealants, non-restorative cavity control and SDF.
• Restorative procedures, i.e. restoration of permanent teeth
• Extractions of primary teeth under local anaesthetic.
• Trauma cases: monitoring or simple initial treatment including fracture repair.
   

Patients are selected from the information provided via our Electronic Referral Management System (Rego).

We accept referrals from dentists and other health care professions such as school nurses, health visitors, child development centres or paediatricians.

 

Dental Teams:

Paediatric Dentistry covers all aspects of oral health care for children, who are unique in their stages of development, oral disease, behavioural and oral health needs.  

 

We continue to accept new patient referrals that meet our acceptance criteria. These referrals are being prioritised according to urgency.

 

Prior to referring, please review our acceptance criteria on Rego to ensure your patient is being directed to the correct service.  We encourage referrers to send as much information as possible, including x-rays and photographs where appropriate, to help support appropriate allocation of these patients.  In the meantime, we would be grateful if you could continue to support these patients during this time with regular recalls, preventative advice and any acute dental issues.

 

Please send all Paediatric referrals from NHS Dental Practices through the electronic referral management system. 

 

Allied Healthcare Professionals:

We request that other healthcare professionals complete the referral form. This may also be completed by other healthcare professionals