Who can refer
We accept referrals from:
- general dental practitioners
- primary care dentists within the salaried services
- general medical practitioners
- paediatricians, and
- other medical and dental specialists
How to refer
If your patient lives in a London borough
You should refer your patient to community dental services (CDS) using the CDS dental referral form (Word 87KB). Details of which CDS office to send your referral to can be found on the CDS referral information document (PDF 308KB).
If your patient lives outside of London
Please refer using South East London paediatric dentistry single point of access.
Urgent referrals
Patients with suspected cancer, acute dento-alveolar trauma (up to 48 hours old) or acute facial swelling of dental origin can be referred directly to us using the details found above.
Dental radiographs
As we want to keep radiation exposure as low as possible in children, when referring a patient please include any relevant X-rays taken within the last 12 months. Genuine copies of X-rays should be sent to gst-tr.DentalReferrals6@nhs.net.
If your patient has already been registered, you know their hospital number and you have relevant X-rays, the X-rays can be forwarded securely from your nhs.net email account to gst-tr.DentalRadiology@nhs.net. Please state the patient hospital number as the reference.
Referral criteria
We accept patients from birth until the age of 16 years.
We accept:
- extensive caries in pre-cooperative or uncooperative children, where dental treatment under local anaesthesia is not possible, and who may require oral rehabilitation or extraction under general anaesthesia, inhalation or intravenous sedation. Efforts by the referring practitioner should be made to identify a general anaesthesia service, for example within a local hospital service, for their patients in the first instance
- children who have sustained complex dental injuries
- medically compromised children to whom delivery of dental care poses a risk to their health
- children with inherited or acquired dental anomalies such as altered tooth structure, shape, size, form and number of teeth
- children requiring surgical exposure or surgical removal of un-erupted teeth
- children with soft tissue pathology such as oral ulceration, swellings, lumps and bumps
- children requiring investigation of disorders of eruption and shedding of teeth
- children with periodontal problems
- children with extensive tooth surface loss such as erosion
- phobic children where treatment attempts have failed
- children with special needs who are not being regularly managed in the local salaried or community dental services
We do not accept referrals for:
- molar endodontics
- orthodontic extractions in healthy children where treatment has not been attempted elsewhere
- healthy children over 5 years old with primary caries where treatment has not been attempted elsewhere
- management of molar-incisor hypomineralisation in children under 8 years old
- management of anterior opacities or discolouration.
- management of temporomandibular disorder (TMD)
- management of a prominent labial fraenum unless in conjunction with orthodontic treatment
- uncomplicated enamel-dentine fractures
We do not accept internal referrals for dental check-ups with no obvious dental disease, unless a child is scheduled for surgery or treatment that requires confirmation of dental health.
Dentral trauma referrals
Please make a referral using the 'how to refer' information above. Please include the following information in your referral:
- what happened
- when it happened
- what initial treatment the patient has had
- any recent radiographs
Referral criteria
We accept referrals for:
- fractures of the teeth requiring specialist input (complicated crown fractures) where the nerve and blood supply to the tooth may be compromised
- injuries to the root and supporting structures of the teeth requiring specialist input, such as luxation injuries, fractures to the root of the tooth and fractures to the alveolar bone