Putting some bite into oral health education Oral Health Services Tasmania senior clinician Dr Ioan Jones is passionate about collaborating with other health professionals to achieve better patient outcomes. This has led him to work with many fellow health colleagues and university students to educate health professionals on oral health issues and how they contribute to overall health.
Education for health professionals With a high number of hospital emergency presentations being due to oral health problems, it is important hospital emergency department and other clinicians are knowledgeable in oral health practices and pathways. GPs also have an important role in patients’ oral health—in addition to patients who specifically present with dental issues, GPs can opportunistically check patients for underlying oral health problems. ‘We also work with other Tasmanian Health Service colleagues, with OHST’s health promotion coordinator Jenny McKibben, working closely with midwives and child health and parenting professionals’, Dr Jones said. ‘Oral health professionals working in partnership with other health professionals allows all of us to collectively provide our patients with the best care and outcomes possible. It is truly the most
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The Health Advocate • MAY 2020
Dr Ioan Jones with friend
satisfying thing I have experienced in my career,’ Dr Jones said. ‘It is important to identify other areas in health where it could be appropriate and useful to opportunistically refer a patient to oral health services, or discuss ways to improve their oral health. It could be something as simple as convincing hospitalised patients to brush their
