Tooth care in hospital

SIR – David Berry (Letters, May 15), a dentist, describes visiting a patient in hospital and finding that no attention had been given to her teeth or dentures in three months of “care”.

In 1998, one of my dental patients remarked: “Of course, you never get your teeth cleaned in hospital.”

I couldn’t believe this, and it prompted me to do some months’ research into the oral healthcare instruction in nurses’ basic training.

There was none. I researched 31 textbooks that 162 nurse training establishments had told me they were using and, in the majority of them, advice on dental care was either very brief or completely absent.

The British Dental Journal published my research paper in May 1998. Sadly, however, nothing appears to have changed.

Dr Rosemary Longhurst

Exmouth, Devon