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Objective: A qualitative exploration of the barriers and facilitators for people experiencing homelessness achieving good oral health. Participants: Adults using two homeless centres in Leeds. Methods: Focus group discussions were convened with homeless people using support services. Both an inductive and deductive approach to data analysis was taken. Themes were identified and then a framework applied to analysis using Nvivo software. Results: Three focus group discussions with 16 participants were conducted with people experiencing homelessness. The barriers identified were insufficient information on local dental services, negative attitudes of oral health professionals, low priority of dental care, anxiety and cost of dental treatments. Facilitators included single dental appointments, accessible dental locations and being treated with respect. Conclusions: Despite the barriers that prevent people experiencing homelessness from maintaining and improving their oral health, the participants were aware that they needed oral healthcare and requested that dental services were made available to them and were accessible in line with their socioeconomic status and needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To report the oral health status and dental attendance of smokers and non-smokers. Methods: A postal survey enquiring about smoking status, stop smoking advice, dental attendance and perceptions of oral health was conducted in Yorkshire and the Humber, UK, in 2008. To address potential biases data were weighted to account for variations in gender, age and deprivation. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, chi-square tests and binary logistic regression. Results: A response rate of 43.1% was achieved (n=10,864). Across all deprivation quintiles, smokers (17.5% of respondents) were more likely than non-smokers to report fair, poor or very poor oral health (p<0.001). Smokers in the least deprived areas were more likely than non-smokers to attend the dentist symptomatically (p<0.001). Advice to quit was most frequently gained from GP services followed by NHS Stop Smoking Services and dental teams. Conclusions: Smokers were more likely than non-smokers to have a poor self-rated oral health status and attend the dentist symptomatically, irrespective of deprivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on ease of using an alcohol screening as a tool in dental setting to know patients' alcohol consumption in Great Britain. Topics discussed include alcohol misuse as an contributing factor to increased mortality, chronic ill-health and violent crime, use of Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test Consumption (AUDICT) as screening tool to know level of alcohol consumption in dental patients and importance of alcohol brief intervention training for dental team members.