If someone asked for your oral health records, what would you hand them?

You end up with a record instead of a tick box. For every resident: an assessment on file from the week they arrive, a dentist's opinion on it, a date for the next one, who needed to be seen and what came of it, and the daily oral care logged as it happens. That is the material someone asks for when they want to see how oral health is handled here.

We can't make you compliant, and anyone telling you they can is overselling it. The Commission assesses your facility, and parts of this sit with you and never touch us. What we can do is make sure the oral health side is there, current, and easy to hand over.

For now, yes. Smile Advisor runs alongside iCare, Leecare, AlayaCare or whatever you use, and we're honest that having two systems isn't ideal long term. Integration is on the roadmap and it isn't built. What we can say today is that the daily action is two buttons, not a second round of documentation.

A screening takes about two minutes and happens roughly twice a year per resident, so in a hundred bed facility that's under one a day. The daily part is recording that a resident's oral care was done, or offered and not taken up, which is two taps on a card your staff already have open.

A resident consents in the app where they're able to. Where they aren't, a link goes to the next of kin or their appointed decision maker. No assessment opens without consent recorded against that resident, so it isn't something a busy morning can skip.

Photos are taken inside the app, never on the phone's camera roll, and they don't stay on the phone once they have gone up. A care worker, a nurse and a facility manager each see what they need rather than everything. Once something is recorded it can't be quietly changed or deleted, and records are kept for at least seven years. Your IT team is welcome to the detail, and we would rather they asked early than late.

Once a dentist has reviewed it you get plain advice for that resident, a date for their next assessment, and a care card for the floor. Anyone who needs to be seen goes onto a list automatically, so nothing waits on a report being read.

The same people who pay today. We aren't a dental provider and we don't fund treatment. What changes is that the need is found early and the referral, the conversation and the outcome are all recorded, including when a family decides against it.

Because it takes the dental judgement off your nurse and puts a registered dentist in the loop. The assessment tools in common use are hard to implement and the research shows carer scoring on its own correlates poorly with a professional exam. Your staff still do the looking. Someone qualified does the deciding.