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A new pilot study led by DHSV researchers is looking at developing an effective way to help determine how strictly dentists, dental therapists and dental hygienists adhere to evidence based clinical guidelines and the impact that that might have for oral health outcomes.

The Director of Clinical Leadership, Education and Research at DHSV, Professor Hanny Calache, says the long term aim of the study is to ensure a consistently high quality of oral care for all Victorians.

“Evidence based clinical guidelines are intended to provide oral health clinicians with guidance and assist them with making decisions based on current evidence,” Prof Calache said.

“They are not a standard of care, requirement or regulation. However, using of evidence based clinical guidelines, where applicable, ensures that the oral care provided is consistently good and focused on quality, irrespective of where the patient lives or what their circumstances are or whether they attend public or private dental services.

“DHSV, Victoria’s leading public oral health agency, publishes best practice clinical guidelines to assist public oral health clinicians in Victoria, to provide high quality dental care.

“It is not currently known how closely clinicians adhere to these clinical guidelines”.

Prof Calache said the study was inspired by a recently published investigation of Australian General Medical Practitioners called the “CareTrack Study”.

The “CareTrack Study” found adherence by general medical practitioners to clinical guidelines ranged from 13 per cent for patients presenting with health problems associated with alcohol dependency to 90 per cent for those with coronary artery disease.

The Caretrack study concluded that although there were pockets of excellence and some aspects of care well managed in Australia, there were gaps and a need for a National agreement on clinical standards and better structuring of medical records to deliver more appropriate and consistent care.

DHSV Chief Executive Officer, Dr Deborah Cole, said there was a need to develop an efficient way of testing whether oral health practitioners were closely following current published best practice clinical guidelines.

“This is essential to ensure evidence based quality dental services are provided to the eligible population attending public dental clinics,” Dr Cole said.

This pilot study, led by Dr Richard Clark, Epidemiologist from the Oral Health Practice Research Unit at DHSV, will look at comparing the effectiveness of information collected from dental records and that collected from electronic data systems in determining whether clinicians are adhering to published clinical guidelines.

The study will concentrate on three areas of care at The Royal Dental Hospital of Melbourne (RDHM) and Barwon Health: the use of stainless steel crowns in children, the provision of dental care for children under general anaesthesia and the type of materials used when providing oral care for children.

Prof Calache, also from the Oral Health Practice Research Unit at DHSV, said the clinical guideline pilot study would concentrate on adherence to clinical guidelines at RDHM and Barwon Health, but that the findings of this pilot study could inform future research across all public dental services in Victoria and possibly include private practices.

“This pilot study is the first step towards a second, larger investigation across public dental clinics in Victoria,” he said.

“The aim will not change. It remains that at DHSV we want to deliver good quality dental services that are safe for our patients, in a cost-effective manner.”

Media contacts

Lisa Fairweather, Tel: (03) 9341 1134 | 0402 373 585
Email: lisa.fairweather@dhsv.org.au

Mingsia Lee, Tel: (03) 9341 1139
Email: mingsia.lee@dhsv.org.au