Referring to the on-call oral and maxillofacial surgery team – what, when and how to refer emergency conditions

Abstract

Primary care dentists are occasionally faced with conditions which cannot be managed in a primary care setting. Some of these conditions may be acute conditions requiring immediate input from the on-call oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMFS) team and/or emergency medical team. This paper aims to describe the conditions that may present in primary care and outlines their prevention, initial management and the factors which would prompt onward referral to a secondary care setting. A referral proforma is provided which can help clinicians in providing the essential information when speaking to the on-call OMFS team. In this paper, the term ‘immediate’ indicates within hours, whilst the term ‘urgent’ indicates within days. CPD/Clinical Relevance: To facilitate accurate referrals to the on-call OMFS team by outlining complications which are seen in primary care.