HIV Dentistry Report - Your Healthwatch Leeds

Access to Dentistry - 5 Year Review

We produced a report in 2015 (Access to dental care for people living with HIV in Leeds). A factsheet was produced by Public Health England that is now used nationally and training modules have been introduced for dental students in the region.

In the summer of 2019, we learned that people living with HIV were still experiencing problems with access to dental care. We decided to re-visit the subject and seek views and experiences to help assess progress since 2015.

Access to Dentistry - 5 Year Review

We worked with BHA Skyline and the Brotherton Wing HIV Outpatient Clinic at Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) to carry out a survey. The same questions were used as the previous survey and the project ran from October to mid-December 2019. To read the report click on the report cover image

Highlights

4 out of every 10 people we spoke to aren’t registered with a dentist. Most often, this was because they hadn’t been able to find a practice which could offer them NHS treatment.

7 out of every 10 people who are registered have disclosed their HIV status to their dentist. In 93% of cases, disclosure hadn’t led to them being treated any less well by their dentist.

When people don’t disclose their status, this is commonly because of fears of stigmatisation

Infographic for the Access to Dentistry work

Click on the image on the left to see the full infographic.