This guidance provides evidence-based interventions and advice on how dental health professionals can improve and maintain the oral and general health of their patients.

Many of the risk factors for general health conditions also affect oral health, such as:

• poor diet
• smoking
• alcohol misuse

The guidance includes advice on how to prevent the main oral diseases dental caries, periodontal diseases, oral cancer and tooth wear (which can be found in chapter 2) with additional advice on:

• the use of fluoride
• brushing your teeth
• eating a healthy balanced diet
• stopping tobacco use
• drinking within the lower risk alcohol guidelines
• how to support behaviour change

The guidance is the result of a comprehensive review of published research evidence on prevention and draws on a UK wide collaboration of over 100 well respected experts including frontline dental teams and patient representatives.