THE PROVISION OF DENTAL AND ORAL HEALTH ADVICE BY COMMUNITY PHARMACISTS

A common theme of recently published strategies for improving oral hea lth has been the need to involve healthcare professionals so as to inf luence a wider section of the population, many of whom do not routinel y attend a dentist. The purpose of this paper is to review changes tha t have affected pharmacy practice in the community, to identify opport unities and barriers to the provision of dental and oral health advice in that setting, and to propose increased collaboration between the d ental team and pharmacy staff.