Agoraphobia and NHS home treatment service

[Guest]

Question to Gordon or Mike: I came across a post on the Beyond Fear message board and was wondering what the story is...

The post was by someone with severe agoraphobia who discovered the NHS home treatment service. The person got fillings etc. done, but they don't do root canals or extractions in the home.

Question 1: is this service available throughout the UK, or is it restricted to certain areas? And - is this the same as "Domiciliary Dental Care Services"?

Question 2: I can see how it's not possible to do root canals in the home, but what's the story with extractions? Gordon mentioned in the "tooth glue" thread that extractions are one of the things that can be done on the move... or does it depend on the complexity of the extraction? The teeth in question are abscessed.

Now, I found the following document by the British Society for Disability and Oral Health (entitled "The Development of Standards for Domiciliary Dental Care Services: Guidelines and Recommendations") which mentions surgical kit under domiciliary equipment - which would lead me to believe that extractions are doable in a home setting?

Just wondering, and it would be interesting to know more because agoraphobia crops up quite frequently...

 

[Guest]

1) It's theoretically available throughout the UK, but in some areas the CDS is so run down that it can't provide the service and general practitioners aren't interested in doing domiciliary care.
2) I do extractions in the home on a regular basis. It does depend on the likely difficultry of the extraction but no big deal.

I also have portable kit that allows me to do simple fillings in the home, I draw the line at root canals because of lack of x-ray facilities, but in theory I could do one.

Funny enough I was out doing some extractions on an agoraphobic chap this morning. 4 extractions and fitted a nice wee partial denture.

 

[Guest]

Many thanks for the info ! I didn't realized that the CDS (that's Community Dental Service for anyone who was wondering) is the same as Domililiary Dental Care Services and does house calls for agoraphobics - very interesting to know. Apparently, there's no such thing in the US (private, I mean) - I asked around.

 

[Guest]

As a GDP (General Dental Practitioner) I tend to only do denture work at peoples' homes or nursing homes. I don't have a portable handpiece or suction and therefore could not provide fillings or extractions in a person's home (although I could place a temporary dressing etc).
It is a problem for agrophobics to get the treatment they need, although I have had agrophobics who have managed into the practice for emergency treatment. Not surprisingly agrophobics tend to have quite a severe dental phobia as well.
Mike