Joint dental Dean statement on COVID-19

In response to the challenge of COVID-19, dental Deans of Surgical Royal Colleges in the UK have issued a statement to dental members and fellows. This can be downloaded as a PDF or the content can be found below. Updated resource links are being held at rcseng.ac.uk/covid19.

Monday 23 March 2020

Dear colleague,

Re: COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic presents an unprecedented challenge for all health and care workers in the UK, and we know what a worrying time this is for everyone in the oral health profession.

As dental Deans of Surgical Royal Colleges in the UK we are in regular communication with the Chief Dental Officers and public health authorities. The health and safety of our members and their patients is of paramount importance to us and we are taking every opportunity to convey your and their concerns about all aspects of dental healthcare delivery.
We want to assure our members that officials fully appreciate the urgency of these issues and are doing everything they can to address them as soon as possible. The latest evidence based advice and guidance for health professionals on COVID-19 is available through the links below and is being continuously updated:

• England: NHS England and NHS Improvement has published guidance for dental practice.
• Wales: The Welsh Government has published guidance for health professionals including guidance for dental teams.
• Scotland: Oral health professionals in Scotland are advised to check the Health Protection Scotland and Scottish Dental websites for the latest advice (guidance from the Chief Dental Officer for Scotland as of 23 March instructing the cessation of routine care is available here – members should continue to check for further updates). (Note - this link was updated by RCS on 25 March 2020)
• Northern Ireland: The HSC Business Services Organisation has published key dental advice.

We would encourage you to continue to feed through your concerns so that we can collate these and work with government to help address these issues.

We realise what a difficult and challenging period this is for all our members and would like to thank you for your commitment and professionalism in these exceptional and rapidly evolving circumstances.

Yours Sincerely

Professor Michael Escudier
Dean, Faculty of Dental Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons of England

Professor Fraser McDonald
Dean, Faculty of Dental Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh

Mr Andrew Edwards
Dean, Faculty of Dental Surgery at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow