Mouth Care Matters – Working to improve the oral health of people with Neuro-disability.

Mouth Care Matters working in partnership with the Royal Hospital of Neuro-disability.

Mouth Care Matters is delighted to be working with the Royal Hospital of Neuro-disability (RHN) to develop an oral health training programme supporting staff, carers and patients to maintain good oral health.

The RHN is a specialist residential neuro-disability hospital in South London where maintaining good oral health can be challenging as many who are admitted will have spent a long period in acute care where their oral health may have deteriorated.  Patients with neurodisability often exhibit lip biting which may result in dental or soft tissue trauma, with severe lip or tongue lacerations.  Grinding of teeth, jaw clenching and a strong bite reflex can also make it difficult for staff to gain access to the mouth and brush teeth.

The RHN onsite dental service will be leading on the Mouth Care Matters Programme.  They will work with the multidisciplinary team to look at ways to support staff/families and patients with up-to-date evidence based mouth care.

The team are planning to develop additional training resources for patients with neurodisability to complement the existing Mouth Care Matters programme and will become a training hub for other centres that care for patients with neurodisability.