Exploring oral health in care homes

Sara Hurley, former Chief Dental Officer for England and former non-executive director at Surrey Heartlands ICB, has said: “Oral health is not a dental issue - it is a health equity issue.” It is therefore unsurprising that Surrey’s Oral Health strategy identifies improving the oral health of care home residents as a key step towards achieving its vision of a Surrey with the lowest rates of oral ill health in England. 

In partnership with our colleagues at Surrey and Sussex ICB and Surrey County Council, our current project aims to explore oral health and nutrition practices (as these are closely linked), in terms of what’s working well and where there’s room for improvement. As part of our Enter and View visits we talk to staff, residents and families, as well as making general observations. We’re also running a survey for those we can’t speak to face to face, in order to strengthen the depth and breadth of our insight.

We have a total of 7 Enter and View visits planned and are grateful to both the care homes who are making us feel so welcome, and to our volunteers who have so far given us 12 hours of their time as we conducted our first two. 

Each care home will receive a bespoke report after their visit, containing insights and recommendations, and we’ll be bringing a number of homes together at the end of the project to discuss and share best practice. 

We’re delighted that our work is already having some impact though, with several managers acknowledging that it has led them to re-look at training materials and practices!

We’ll be reporting more on this project over the coming months but, in the meantime, please do complete our oral health survey if you or a friend or relative live in a care home. There’s a separate staff oral health survey too! Closing date for surveys is 15 November 2026.

Need a paper copy of the survey or prefer to share your experience in your own words? Contact our Helpdesk.