Dentists and opticians to run blood pressure checks to spot early signs of stroke or heart attacks

Dentists and opticians in England are to begin running blood pressure checks at appointments to help find people at hidden risk of strokes or heart attacks.

Following the success of community pharmacy blood pressure checks – which have already helped more than a million people keep on top of their risk of cardiovascular disease, without the need for an appointment – the new NHS scheme is set to be offered at routine dental and optometry appointments within the coming months.

According to the NHS, 4.2 million people in England are estimated to have high blood pressure, but as it usually presents no symptoms, they often have the condition without knowing it.

For anyone with high blood pressure, reducing it by even just a small amount can help lower the risk of secondary conditions such as strokes, heart attacks, kidney disease, vascular dementia, and more, but the only way to know if you have high blood pressure is to get a blood pressure test, and people often don’t think to get them.

This is why NHS is rolling out its new dental and optometry scheme very soon, after already piloting it parts of London and Yorkshire earlier this year.

15 local integrated care boards across England are taking part in the scheme six areas – with more than 60 clinical practices involved, and in excess of 100,000 blood pressure checks expected to be delivered over the next 12 months.

The new service will focus on case finding at dentists, five in optometry, and four will be offering checks at both dental and optometry sites.

The NHS hopes it’ll reach patients who may not otherwise have interactions with its services.

“These convenient checks at dentists and optometrists will enable thousands of people to monitor their blood pressure and could potentially be life-saving,” commented Helen Williams, who is the NHS’s National Clinical Director for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention.

“Many otherwise healthy people over 40 only visit their GP when they’re feeling unwell, but offering these vital checks as part of routine dentist or eye test appointments means we can identify and support more people at risk.

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“High blood pressure is a significant factor in many cardiovascular diseases but as it usually has no symptoms, many people don’t know they have it, so I would urge anyone offered a check to come forward.”

Featured Image – agilemktg1 (via Flickr)