INtroducing DIabetes Checks in A denTal sEtting–2
Diabetes
Eligible patients will be identified by the dental practice teams, who will invite those eligible to read the patient information sheet (PIS) about the study and ask any questions they may have. Where practices can email patients in advance of their appointment, they may opt to send eligible participants electronic copies of the PIS and consent form in advance. Where practices do not routinely contact patients in advance of their appointment, the practice receptionist may elect to inform eligible patients on arrival to the practice that the practice is involved in a research study and ask if they are happy to be emailed the PIS. This type of "opportunistic" recruitment would be more aligned with real-world practice if this intervention were to be adopted into routine practice beyond this study. Information posters have been generated that the practices can display in their waiting rooms to highlight the study to patients who may be interested. Those participants who consent to undergo the Risk Assessment process will be invited to complete an electronic risk questionnaire. This will consist of a single electronic survey on the encrypted REDCap platform and will include the questions from the Diabetes Risk Assessment in Dentistry Score (DDS) and the Leicester Risk Assessment score (LRA). All participants, regardless of their score on the questionnaire, will be offered the Point Of Care Test finger-prick blood HbA1c. This will allow the research team to assess the performance of both these Risk Assessment tools in this prospective cohort and validate them both on a UK dental population. Any participant who scores ≥42mmol/mol will be informed that they are potentially at increased risk of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and that they would benefit from a formal test and follow-up with their GP. The participant will also be provided with the results from the RA process in the form of a standardised letter and where they provide consent, a standardised letter will be sent to
1. To read and understand the PIS and consent form sufficiently well to provide informed consent and to participate in the study 2. To be competent to provide informed consent 3. Patients aged >=40 and <=80 years 4. Have not had a diabetes check in the past 12 months
Current key exclusion criteria as of 01/06/2026: 1. Patients aged <40 years or >=80 years 2. Diagnosis of type 1 or type 2 diabetes or NDH (pre-diabetes) 3. Diagnosis of sickle cell or sickle cell trait 4. Unable to provide informed consent 5. Pregnant 6. They have knowingly been tested for diabetes in the past 12 months _____ Previous key exclusion criteria: 1. Patients aged <40 years or >=80 years 2. Diagnosis of type 1 or type 2 diabetes 3. Diagnosis of sickle cell or sickle cell trait 4. Unable to provide informed consent 5. Pregnant 6. They have knowingly been tested for diabetes in the past 12 months