Community & Special Care Dentistry
Community & Special Care Dentistry is the main provider of special care dentistry in Sheffield, and also a significant provider of paediatric dentistry. The service provides dental care in community settings for patients who have difficulty getting treatment in their "high street" dental practice. Patients are referred in to our service by a health care professional.
We look after people with severe learning and/or physical disabilities or who have a profound mental illness and patients who are elderly or housebound or have a medical condition which compromises dental care provision. We also undertake dental treatment for homeless patients at the Cathedral. We also host the city’s Oral Health Promotion Team who are involved in epidemiological work regarding oral health. Adults and children who have a dental phobia and who need a special introduction to dentistry to prepare them for treatment by a family dentist may access the service if they are referred by a health or social care worker. In addition to patient care our service is a major provider of education at both basic and postgraduate level, working alongside the University of Sheffield, the Postgraduate Dental Deanery http://www.postgraddentalsyem.co.uk/ and the School of Dental Nursing. We deliver outreach clinical teaching of undergraduate dental students and dental care professionals, dental postgraduate training posts at foundation, core trainee and specialist registrar level, and trainee dental nurse posts. For the majority of patients requiring the specialised care provided, the service is their ‘regular primary care dentist’ and they remain with the service long term rather than being discharged to another provider at the end of an episode of care. However, for some patients, they will be seen for a shorter period of time, and then referred back to their General Dental Practice. Community & Special Care Dentistry works in conjunction with Charles Clifford Dental Hospital as we are both part of the same Trust. We work under different rules as we offer the Primary Care Service and they offer the Secondary Care, however both services work together in a complementary format.
