Our patients may enter the correctional facility in poor dental health, but they don’t have to leave that way. Once acute and chronic dental conditions are identified and treated, the best intervention is teaching and motivating patients to manage their own dental health. 

The CDC recommends the following actions for good oral health:

• Use a fluoridated toothpaste
• Brush and floss teeth daily
• Avoid tobacco, as its use quadruples the risk of gum disease
• Limit alcohol as alcohol increases the risk of oral and throat cancers, especially in combination with tobacco
• Limit refined sugars and starches
• Have a dental evaluation and teeth cleaning annually

The Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA) has a variety of guides that might be helpful for patient teaching at https://www.ada.org/en/publications/jada/jada-for-the-dental-patient  as does the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control at https://www.cdc.gov/oral-health/site.html

To summarize our series on Dental Concepts for Correctional Nurses, dental conditions are prevalent in the incarcerated patient population. As most often the first health care professional to evaluate a dental concern, correctional nurses need a fundamental understanding of routine, urgent and emergent dental conditions. Knowledge of dental and oral anatomy is an important part of a thorough patient assessment. Knowledge of common dental conditions is important in the proper triage of patients with dental complaints. Documentation of oral and dental conditions at intake provides a foundation for ongoing treatment and self-care instruction.

Certain medical conditions, such as diabetes, anemia, and HIV, impact dental health.   Some medications may cause oral problems such as dry mouth and hyperplasia. Incarceration may be a time when patients are able to have their oral health concerns addressed, and nursing staff should take the opportunity to provide patient dental and oral health education.  Although dental assessment and management are rarely a part of nurse training and practice in other settings, correctional nurses can develop the knowledge and skills to holistically care for their incarcerated patients.