Perceptions of foundation dentists on minor oral surgery teaching in dental foundation training

Oral surgery wait times in NHS secondary dental care in England: a five-year review

Aims To report the oral surgery referral to treatment waiting times in hospitals in England and to identify any trends in the percentage of patients seen within 18 weeks.Materials and methods Data published by the NHS statistics team was analysed from 2016-2020.Results Pre-COVID-19, the best performing month was February 2016, with 91.5% of patients seen within 18 weeks. The worst performing month was September 2019, with 79.3% of patients seen within 18 weeks. Oral surgery was the worst performing speciality for 8% of months (4/50). Post-COVID-19, oral surgery was the worst performing speciality for 70% of months (7/10). In July 2020, the percentage of patients seen within 18 weeks of an oral surgery referral dropped to 24%.Discussion Over the last five years, there has been a steady decline in the number of patients who have been seen within 18 weeks of their oral surgery referral. There has also been an increase in oral surgery referrals to secondary care which needs to be addressed.Conclusion Improvements to undergraduate and postgraduate training, combined with enhanced commissioning of primary care services, is required.

Questionnaire surveys - sources of error and implications for design, reporting and appraisal

Questionnaire surveys of dentists are a commonly used research method which can yield important results. Nevertheless, in order to give reliable information, surveys must be carefully designed to avoid bias. The challenge of planning, designing and implementing a questionnaire study is often underestimated. While headline response rate is commonly used as an indication of survey quality, there are four potential areas of survey error. These are coverage, sampling, measurement and response. These four areas of error are discussed, with examples from the current literature, to assist readers in critically appraising questionnaire studies. We make 12 key recommendations to researchers to help avoid bias in their research; approaches to response enhancement are also considered. Reporting guidelines for questionnaire studies are suggested which improve transparency and assist in understanding of research methodologies and results. We have termed these guidelines: Reporting Items for Surveys and Questionnaires (RISQ). In conclusion, there is no single solution that can guarantee a successful study. Conversely, failure to pay careful attention to any one of many crucial aspects of survey design can be the downfall of an otherwise robust study.