Out-of-hours emergency dental services in Scotland--a national model

A model of out-of-hours telephone triage for patients with a dental emergency has been piloted in an area of Scotland since 2001. This is linked to an integrated patient booking service. The model has been developed into a national emergency dental service which is currently being made available to all NHS Board areas. This new national service incorporates a single point of telephone access, triage by trained dental nurses using a clinical decision support system and centralised patient booking arrangements. The new service is complemented by Emergency Dental Care Guidance published by the Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme. This paper describes the model of out-of-hours dental care, its underlying principles and the process of development.