The role of dental public health in patient, public and the professions' safety: insights and case studies from England

Introduction Dental public health (DPH) is a clinical dental specialty that works across six domains and the three pillars of public health, including health protection. Across the UK, the DPH speciality workforce plays a vital role in the management of dental health protection cases, utilising their system-level knowledge and clinical leadership to address complex health protection incidents in dental setting. This paper is one of two papers dealing with health protection as part of this Themed Issue on the speciality and aims to provide insights to the systems leadership role it plays within health protection across the UK. The second paper is focussed on antimicrobial resistance, which is another key element of protecting the health of our population. Methods This paper provides a narrative overview of the role of dental public health and includes case studies focussed on the contribution of specialist leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic response and the management of a dental case involving a practice with infection prevention control concerns. Case studies Through these case studies, the proactive and wide impact the speciality has in the protection of patients, the public and the dental workforce is highlighted. Conclusions The management of complex dental incidents, with health protection concerns requires robust, timely, and evidence-informed system response. Specialists in DPH provide critical clinical and system leadership, enabling partnership working and influencing coordinated actions across organisational boundaries. Their specialist understanding of the unique combination of dentistry and public health is crucial for patients, public, and healthcare workforce protection.