‘Mouth Matters’ – better oral care for offenders

Published On Fri 8 Aug 2014 by Grant Hill

The oral health of prisoners and young offenders in Scotland is worse than that of the general population. Now a new guide has been launched which aims to help significantly improve `Mouth Matters’ for the prison population.

Michael Matheson, Minister for Public Health, will launch the `Mouth Matters’ guide for trainers on Tuesday, 12th August.

The `Mouth Matters’ project will offer better oral care for offenders and help address their oral health and psychosocial needs. It has risen out of research carried out in three Scottish prisons - HMYOI Polmont: HMP&YOI Cornton Vale and HMP Shotts – in 2011 by the University of Dundee’s Dental Health Services Research Unit, NHS Forth Valley and the Scottish Prison Service.

“Our survey showed that the oral health of Scottish prisoners is poorer than that of the general population, with offenders having an increased number of decayed and missing teeth,” said Professor Ruth Freeman, Co-Director of the Dental Health Service Research Unit (DHSRU) at the University of Dundee.

“Younger offenders had a greater number of decayed teeth than male and female prisoners, suggesting the need for accessible dental services and the prevention of tooth decay. In addition prisoners had an increased prevalence of physical and mental ill-health – with 11 per cent diagnosed with mixed anxiety-depressive states compared with 2.6 per cent of the general population.

“The offenders also suffer more negative impacts of their poor oral health on their quality of life, for example feeling self-conscious and embarrassed about the appearance of their teeth. The extent of this can be up to three times as high as in the general population.

“Given these issues, we have worked closely with the Scottish Prison Service to develop a programme which can not only address the prisoners’ needs but help them to become `champions’ of oral care.”

Derek Richards, Director of the Centre for Evidence Based Dentistry within the DHSRU, said, “There has been a great deal of work already done on health promotion to prisoners and Scotland is very much in the vanguard here.

“With `Mouth Matters’ we are ensuring that oral health is also being addressed which is very important. The resources we have developed will serve as a backbone to the promotion of oral health improvement for offenders in Scotland.

“Good oral health helps our self-esteem, which is important for people trying to re-establish a place within the community.”

Michael Matheson, Minister for Public Health, said, “Many prisoners have underlying  health needs, including high levels of existing dental disease compared with the rest of the population.

“Today I am launching Mouth Matters, which is a guide for the wide range of professionals who work with offenders.   We hope that this guidance will enable staff working with people in Scottish prisons to be more confident in dealing with oral health matters, and help offenders to take the necessary steps towards better oral health.”

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