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Andrew Sturrock,

Why do think providing oral health advice is a new thing to pharmacies?

I don't think that the provision of oral health advice is necessarily a new thing for pharmacies. Pharmacists and their staff have always provided oral health advice to patients or signposted them to dental services. What this pilot facilitated was a more structured and targeted approach with pharmacists actively looking to engage patients with oral healthcare.

This pilot allowed pharmacists to take advantage of their location in communities and unique access to patients who otherwise would not seek oral healthcare.

Did any of the results surprise you?

I expected that patients would be receptive to receiving oral health advice in pharmacies as community pharmacies already engage with many other health promotion initiatives and services. The most pleasing finding was that 66% of participants reported that they intended to change their oral health habits as a result of the intervention.

What do you think the next steps considering your findings?

I would like commissioners to embrace the potential of pharmacies in providing oral health advice and hope that the pharmacy and dental professions can work closely to improve patient care. From a research perspective it would be great if we could explore the actual patient benefits of such services, as although patients reported improved knowledge and intension to change current behaviour there is no evidence of any lasting health improvements. There is also great potential for pharmacists to expand their role into other areas of oral health, the prevention or screening of oral cancer, managing adverse drug reactions such as xerostomia or in the prevention of MRONJ and the links with chronic diseases such as diabetes all warrant further research.