A summary is given of how urgent dental care was established in the North East of England during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may help with future preparedness for pandemics.Aerosol generating procedures were almost always avoided in the delivery of urgent dental care. A telephone triage system was effectively used to determine who needed clinical care and to separate symptomatic, asymptomatic and shielding patients, with very few failures in triage noted.

Highlights overall poor compliance with both GDC guidance and ASA-CAP regulations on advertising.Provides specifically created easy-to-follow checklists to cross-check against practice websites and social media accounts enabling GDC and ASA advertising compliance.

Dental Core Training is a postgraduate training period, eligible following successful completion of foundation/vocational training, that has multiple entry points and endpoints with a varied duration from one to three years. The introduction of National Recruitment in 2017, away from a previous individual, Deanery-led process, has introduced new variables such as a ranking-system for preferencing training posts, with the outcome dependent on combined performance at interview and a situational judgement test for which competition is nationally against other applicants. This unique, trainee-led study provides an appreciation and understanding of the motivations and experiences of trainees who pursue Dental Core Training, such as the rationale behind location and specialty choice, perception of National Recruitment and the situational judgement test and influence of salary variation alongside trainee perceptions and experiences of the training programme from inside the trainee perspective. Undertaking Dental Core Training is not a "forever decision" and will stand the trainee in good stead in pursuit of specialty training or a return to general practice, with a wide variety of opportunities that can lead to fulfilling and a rewarding career pathway for enthusiastic dentists.

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Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has posed many challenges, including provision of urgent dental care. This paper presents a prospective service evaluation during establishment of urgent dental care in the North-East of England over a six-week period. Aim: To monitor patient volumes, demographics and outcomes at the North-East urgent dental care service and confirm appropriate care pathways. Main Outcome Methods: Data were collected on key characteristics of patients accessing urgent care from 23rd March to 3rd May 2020. Analysis was with descriptive statistics. Results: There were 1746 patient triages, (1595 telephone and 151 face-to-face) resulting in 1322 clinical consultations. The most common diagnoses were: symptomatic irreversible pulpitis or apical periodontitis. 65% of clinical consultations resulted in extractions, 0.5% an aerosol generating procedure. Patients travelled 25km on average to access care, however this reduced as more urgent care centres were established. The majority of patients were asymptomatic of COVID-19 and to our knowledge no staff acquired infection due to occupational exposure. Conclusion: The urgent dental care centre effectively managed urgent and emergency dental care, with appropriate patient pathways established over the 6-week period. Dental preparedness for future pandemic crisis could be improved and informed by this data.