Working at the interface: lessons from a joined-up approach between oral medicine and paediatric dentistry.

Oral mucosal and other head and neck conditions in children have a variety of presentations. The joint oral medicine and paediatric (JOMP) dental clinic is a specialised unit within a London teaching hospital, developed to manage a wide range of oral conditions with an absolute commitment to a child-centred care approach. The authors present eight cases from the JOMP clinic experience at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation trust, over a nine-year period. Each case is unique in its presentation, diagnosis and bespoke management, tailored to the nuance of each individual patient and their unique position. The eight clinical cases demonstrate the success of the JOMP team in achieving good patient outcomes, in terms of providing accurate diagnoses for their oral conditions and for appropriately tailored management/ treatment. The cases also serve to raise awareness of some of the more unusual oral conditions affecting paediatric patients among our professional colleagues.

Dry Mouth and Clinical Oral Dryness Scoring Systems.

Dry mouth or xerostomia is the feeling that there is not sufficient saliva in the mouth. If this is present all or most of the time then it can be uncomfortable. It can also sometimes indicate health problems and as a result should be brought to the attention of a health care professional. Xerostomia does not always equate to hyposalivation. There are ways to assess degrees of oral dryness, namely-CODS (clinical oral dryness scoring) which helps to give a numerical value to the oral signs.