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LEEDS, UK: Dental treatments cost an estimated €79 billion a year across the EU, yet dental diseases are almost entirely preventable. A new research project, funded through a €6 million grant from the EU, aims to bring about a shift in dental care practices, from a focus on treating teeth by extraction and fillings to more effective oral health care treatments to prevent disease in the first place.
The four-year project will be led by the University of Leeds, in conjunction with the Academic Centre for Dentistry Amsterdam and Heidelberg University, in collaboration with NHS England, as well as universities and dental insurers from across Europe.
Using de-identified data from millions of health records across Europe, the researchers will work with dental professionals and insurers to identify effective strategies for preventing disease in each country. Providing continuous feedback to shape best practice, a set of key performance indicators will be developed against which dentists and health care systems can measure themselves.
“The World Health Organization has said that dental diseases are the most common chronic diseases known to man. We want to change this,” said Prof. Helen Whelton, Dean of the University of Leeds’s School of Dentistry and project lead. “The hope is that, by continually assessing and feeding back the performance of dental professionals and healthcare systems in keeping teeth healthy, it will foster change in practices and encourage a move to more preventive dental care.”
“We will be using secure, de-identified medical records to develop a model with a focus on preventing dental problems, which gives dentists and health systems the ability to measure their success in making patients healthier,” Whelton explained. “We will be looking at things such as how long teeth remain healthy with no need for treatment or, at country level, the amount spent on extractions each year. This information can be compared across different systems and countries.”
The project will have access to eight European patient record databases from countries including Britain, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Ireland and the Netherlands. In addition to hearing the views of professionals and insurers, the project will consult with patients in the participant countries to identify their preferences and gain their perspectives on the dental care they receive.
“This is a fantastic example of collaboration between universities, the public sector and the private sector, with the aim of improving the dental health of an entire continent, and we hope this will feed in to the reform of healthcare systems globally,” Whelton concluded.
From http://www.dental-tribune.com
