Management of Dental Patients Taking Anticoagulants or Antiplatelet Drugs 2022 guidance update
Informing the Scope of the Guidance
To inform the scope of the guidance update, online interviews were conducted with dental practitioners from across Scotland.
Recruitment emails were sent to the SDPBRN Rapid Evaluation Practitioners, NHS Tayside's Public Involvement Team and the Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Co-ordinator for the Health Service Research Unit in the University of Aberdeen, for distribution to their network members.
Four interviews were conducted with dental practitioners: two GDPs, one Oral Medicine specialist working in a hospital service, and one special care dentist working in the Public Dental Service. Practitioners were asked about their experiences of using the 2015 guidance, if there had been anything particularly challenging to implement, and if there were any topics that they felt should be included in the update.
Feedback on the guidance was overall positive, and suggestions were made for the updated version, including taking into consideration new available anticoagulant and antiplatelet medications, and updating the statistics regarding medication use.
Suggestions were also made regarding activities to support implementation following the publication and dissemination of the updated guidance.
Diagnostic Analyses
A pre-guidance publication questionnaire based on the COM-B model of behaviour was sent to dental practitioners before the publication of the updated guidance. The purpose of this questionnaire was to inform the development of appropriate training and support to help practitioners implement this guidance by exploring aspects of current management of patients taking anticoagulants or antiplatelet drugs in primary care dental practice. This questionnaire asked about current practice and beliefs regarding the recommendations within the guidance. The results of this questionnaire are currently being analysed and will be published in a peer-reviewed journal in due course.
A post-guidance publication questionnaire will be sent to dental practitioners six months following the publication of the updated guidance.
Patient-Facing Resources
The SDCEP guidance is accompanied by several patient-facing resources, including patient information leaflets and post-treatment advice sheets. To inform the update of these resources, TRiaDS conducted interviews with patients and patient advocates, and developed a short online questionnaire, to collect feedback on the existing resources and suggestions for improvements.
For more information, please contact: TRiaDS@nes.scot.nhs.uk