Pharmacists need more informatrion about dental services in their area so they can provide co-ordinated care with other healthcare professionals, Pharmacy Voice has said.

There was a need for improved information-sharing and signposting of patients between pharmacies and dental surgeries, the representative body said last week (May 14) in its response to NHS England's Call to Action consultation on dental care and oral health.

As part of its consultation on the future of dental services, which closed on Friday (May 16), NHS England said it wanted to consider the role of community pharmacists in promoting good oral health.

Pharmacy Voice said the sector was "ideally placed" to signpost patients to appropriate local dental services, but pharmacists were often unaware where these were located.

"Few pharmacies have the right information about which local dentists provide NHS services and which are currently accepting new patients, let alone information about the full range of extended dental services available," Pharmacy Voice said.

Pharmacists needed to work with dentists to ensure they supported the management of self-care and reduced unnecessary GP and A&E visits, it said.

NHS England needed to become further integrated with Public Health England around dental health issues to make "every contact with the pharmacy network count", it added. Pharmacy Voice called for greater collaboration between local dental and pharmaceutical committees as well as greater consistency in commissioning public health services across the two professions.

The role of pharmacy counter assistants should be expanded to include providing "opportunistic" oral health advice to patients, it added.

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	More than five million dental prescriptions, costing approximately £22 million, were dispensed in England last year, Pharmacy Voice said in its response.

A 2009 study in the US showed that pharmacists could play a vital role in alleviating dental problems, particularly toothache, by providing relevant advice to lower income individuals and those without easy access to dental services, it added.

NHS England said the results of the three-month consultation would feed into its overall strategy for primary care, which is expected in the autumn.

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