Click on the questions below to reveal the answers to them.
What is Healthy Living Dentistry (HLD)?
This award recognises the dental practice role in improving people’s oral and general health, and your commitment to quality. It is a quality framework that encompasses Baby Teeth DO Matter, and Greater Manchester toolkits and health campaigns.
Who is running the HLD programme?
The programme has been developed by the Greater Manchester Local Dental Network, in conjunction with the Greater Manchester Federation of Local Dental Committees.
Is HLD the same as Baby Teeth DO Matter?
No. Healthy Living Dentistry is a requirement of many Greater Manchester commissioned services, including Baby Teeth DO Matter (BTDM). BTDM involves training and improving access to dental care for children. HLD is about quality and health improvement for all patients in the practice.
Who can be a lead?
The lead takes responsibility for developing the programme in the practice and needs to be someone with a leadership role in the practice – a dentist or practice manager.
Who can be a dental champion?
Dental champions need to be committed and enthusiastic, and could be a dental nurse or receptionist.
Is there training available?
The lead and champion are required to attend an evening training session and the champions will follow up with an online course (usually eight hours over a four-week period) and two half-day training courses.
Will the course train staff to do prevention and fluoride varnish?
No. The HLD training will cover understanding health needs, having a health chat and running health campaigns in practice. Training for fluoride varnish and dental prevention is available through other courses on Health Education England’s Maxcourse platform.
Do we need to run prevention clinics to be a Healthy Living Dental Practice?
No. There is no requirement to undertake prevention clinics as part of HLD. However, this is good practice and any dental practices that wish to run prevention clinics can do so. We would encourage all practices to apply fluoride varnish, in line with national Delivering Better Oral Health guidance.
We are a Wigan Healthy Living Practice – how do we transfer to the Greater Manchester scheme?
You will already have a dental champion and be familiar with the concept. You will nominate a lead to undertake the one-day course for leads and complete an action plan. Then you can receive your Greater Manchester award.
How do we know which campaigns to run?
A timetable of campaigns will be sent to your dental champion, along with a link where you can order resources. Most of these will be free to order or download.
For more information, email: england.healthyliving.gm@nhs.net
