If you're a provider or performer based in Wales, an Assessment of Clinical Oral Risks and Need (ACORN) is a risk assessment tool and includes components that should be recorded as part of a thorough oral health assessment. An ACORN should be completed once a year as part of the overall patient assessment (or at a longer interval if the dental recall for a patient has been set longer than 12 months).
There are 8 key points captured from an ACORN that must be completed on your FP17Ws:
- medical history
- social history
- dental history
- tooth decay
- total number of teeth in the mouth
- total number of teeth with dentinal decay
- periodontal health
- other dental need
Provider Assurance Dental ACORN support
Following agreement with Welsh Government, our Provider Assurance Dental team support dental performers and providers with the completion of ACORNs. This is in line with the move towards Units of Dental Assessments (UDAs).
During 2020-21 we supported a small selection of dental contractors in Wales, reviewing the accurate completion of the ACORN. Our ACORN report for providers (Word: 616KB) demonstrates the overall findings from these reviews.
Further ACORN support reviews have now been agreed with Welsh Government and we're working with health boards to identify dental contractors that might benefit from this support with a focus on providing feedback to providers at performer level.