Hospital data put tooth decay at the top of the causes of admission among UK children aged 5 to 9. Medical care still too often treats the mouth as a separate concern.
A new issue of the RCP's Future Healthcare Journal argues that physicians should bring oral health into routine assessment. That means using it in prevention and diagnosis, while accounting for its role in the management of wider health conditions.
Guest edited by oral and maxillofacial surgeon Ms Jasmine Ho, the issue follows oral health across the life course. It links the subject to cardiovascular disease and diabetes. It also examines adverse pregnancy outcomes, inequalities in NHS dental access and the recognition of systemic disease.
In 2025/26, dental practices in the NHS Surrey and Sussex area delivered more than 1.74 million courses of treatment, over 134,000 more than the previous year. Urgent dental interventions exceeded 156,000, rising by about 17,000.
The mouth can change the picture for the whole patient.
Why medical assessment must include the mouth
In The forgotten organ, Dr Victoria Sampson examines the oral microbiome and its reported links with wider health conditions. She writes: 'What can be said with more confidence is that the oral cavity is not isolated from the rest of the body, and that oral health deserves a more consistent place in general medical assessment and preventive care.'
Ms Ho makes the same structural point from a clinical and public-health perspective. The issue places gum disease and changes in the oral microbiome beside the continuing difficulty many patients face when seeking NHS dental care.
For children aged 5 to 9, the consequences already appear in hospital admission figures. Poor oral health can also damage quality of life and make appropriate care harder to access.
The UK Government continues to include hospital admissions for dental caries among children in its official child and maternal health profiles, treating tooth decay as a population-health indicator. The latest accessible update does not provide new figures or a reliable trend that can be added here.
The gap between medical need and professional responsibility extends beyond the journal. A related clinical report found that only 24.7% of physicians in a Saudi Arabian survey routinely assessed oral health during COPD care.
Training should improve without disguising a system failure
The journal's debate over undergraduate medical education goes further than a call for more teaching. Ms Ho argues that medical students need greater knowledge of dental problems and the oral signs of systemic disease. Doctors could then reinforce preventive behaviours and work more effectively with dental colleagues.
Ms Clarissa Hjalmarsson warns that crowded curricula cannot absorb responsibility for a failing NHS dental system. She writes: 'Shifting the responsibility for dental health onto medics will not solve the problems of an NHS dental system that fails to meet patients' needs, and increases the risk of delay, misdiagnosis and mismanagement.'
The distinction matters. Doctors should recognise oral problems and act on relevant signs. Better training cannot replace functioning dental services or shift dental care into general medicine.
Prevention must include vulnerable patients
Former chief dental officer for England Dr Sara Hurley sets out a vision for dentistry in 2050 based on prevention, earlier diagnosis and closer integration with wider healthcare. She argues that scientific and technological advances must reach all patients rather than widen existing inequalities. Her description of the task is to put 'the mouth back in the body: clinically, digitally, contractually and politically'.
A separate article on special care dentistry focuses on people unable to use routine dental services because of physical or medical vulnerabilities, as well as social barriers. Integration falls short if patients facing the greatest obstacles remain outside the system.
Mr Neil Shah brings fragmented care into personal focus. He was diagnosed with oral cancer after years of treating patients with the disease. Reflecting on his experience as both clinician and patient, he describes a 'triad of care' built around delay, certainty and dignity: 'Delay, certainty and dignity are not peripheral to care. For patients, they are often what care feels like.'
The issue also covers multiple long-term conditions and healthcare innovation. Other articles address digital clinical work and diagnostic uncertainty. Introducing the issue, Dr Andrew Duncombe writes: 'All physicians now need to be aware of the impact of oral health on organ systems and systemic disease.'
The RCP's argument avoids choosing between medical and dental responsibility. Physicians need enough oral-health knowledge to recognise risk and coordinate care. Dental services still need the capacity to provide treatment. Calling the mouth part of the body has to reach beyond curriculum reform, because prevention and equitable access depend on both parts of the system.
Recent NHS data show the scale of dental activity without proving that oral-health assessment has entered routine medical care. The regional NHS update reports more than 1.74 million NHS treatment courses and over 156,000 urgent interventions in Surrey and Sussex during 2025/26. The UK Government also publishes separate national statistics on emergency attendances and admissions, but the available material does not link those figures directly to doctors' adoption of routine oral-health assessment.
