TY - JOUR T1 - Building bridges with dentistry: NICE guideline supports collaborative practice between GPs and dentists JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 461 LP - 461 DO - 10.3399/bjgp20X712529 VL - 70 IS - 698 AU - John Ahern AU - Lisa Simon AU - Jane Barrow AU - Hugh Silk Y1 - 2020/09/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/70/698/461.abstract N2 - The title of this article may suggest a discussion surrounding missing teeth and intra-oral prosthetics. However, this article is intended to discuss a broader topic, one that has gained increased coverage across academic journals in recent years: the integration of oral health into primary care.The integration of oral health into primary care is still a relatively new initiative worldwide. In the US, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) has shown its support for a new model of care that promotes the integration of oral health into primary care. This model was outlined in the Oral Health Delivery Framework (OHDF).1 The OHDF aims to support GPs to incorporate some oral health practices such as: promoting oral health, identifying risk factors for oral disease, providing patient education, and developing referral networks to support collaborative practice with dentists.1 The potential benefits of collaborative practice are perhaps most pertinent among specific populations such as children, pregnant women, older adults, and people with chronic systemic diseases, for example diabetes.1In the UK, previous studies have suggested that GPs and dentists should collaborate more to improve the early detection of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC).2–3 It has been shown that patients who have regular dental check-ups are more likely to have OSCC diagnosed at an earlier stage.4 However, only 50.4% of the UK adult population was seen by an NHS dentist in the 24 months prior to 1 December 2018.5 Data from two large national surveys in the UK showed that the ‘inverse screening law’ applies to OSCC, and that there was a lower probability of regular dental check-ups among those with a greater risk of OSCC.6 In keeping with the OHDF model,1 a study of … ER -