How we write our advice

What the guides are

The guides in our Advice section are general information for patients. They explain a topic in plain English, say when it is worth seeing a dentist, and say what a dentist can do. They are published by TG’s Dental Suite.

Where the information comes from

Each guide is written from published evidence, and the sources it used are listed at the foot of the page. We look for evidence in this order.

1. UK public bodies and clinical guidance: the NHS, NICE (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) and UK government publications.
2. UK professional bodies and health charities with clinical oversight, such as the British Dental Association and the Oral Health Foundation.
3. Peer-reviewed research, preferring systematic reviews, where the sources above do not answer a question.
4. Respected bodies outside the UK, only as supporting evidence and never as the only source for a claim.

We do not use other dental practices’ websites, product marketing or social media as the source for a health claim. Where the sources disagree, or the evidence is weak, the aim is for the guide to say so rather than to pick the answer that sounds more certain.

How a guide is checked

Before a guide is published, what it says is checked against the sources it lists. The links are there so that you can check too. A source is read as it stood on the date shown beside it in the list, and guidance does change.

When a guide says it was clinically reviewed

A guide shows “Clinically reviewed by”, followed by a name and a date, only once a named clinician who is registered with the General Dental Council (GDC) has read that guide and signed it off. The same fact is recorded in the page’s structured data for search engines, and in neither place is it shown without that sign-off.

A guide that does not carry that line has not been through that sign-off, and nothing else on the page should be read as saying it has.

What the dates mean

• Published is when the guide first appeared on our website. Some guides replace a shorter post from our earlier website and keep the date of that post.
• Last updated is when we last made a substantive change, such as rewriting the guide or changing what it says in response to new guidance. We do not change it for a typo or a layout tweak.
• If a guide carries a clinical review date, that is the day of the review, which can be later than the day the text was last changed.

What the guides are not

A guide is general information and not a diagnosis. It cannot take account of your own mouth, your health or your medicines. What applies to you is settled at an appointment with your own dentist. If a symptom worries you, speak to a dentist or doctor rather than relying on a guide.

If you think something is wrong

If a guide looks out of date, unclear or wrong, please tell us through our contact page, naming the guide and what you noticed. Details of each of our five practices are on our Areas we serve page. We will check the guide against its sources and correct it if the sources support a change.