About OUT

About Oral Urgent Treatment (OUT)

OUT is an on-demand service providing basic emergency oral care. An OUT service must be tailored to the perceived needs and treatment demands of the local population. Thus the precise content of an OUT service will differ from country to country and possibly from district to distrcit within the same country.
The three fundamental elements of OUT comprise
- Pain relief
- First aid for oral infections and dento-alveolar trauma
- Referral of complicated cases

It is anticipated that an OUT service would be able to manage the majority of cases requiring basic oral care. The main treatment modalities would include:
- Extraction of badly decayed and severely periodontally involved teeth under local anaesthesia
- Treatment of post-extraction complications such as dry sockets and bleeding
- Drainage of localised oral abscesses
- Palliative drug therapy for acute oral infections
- First aid for dento-alveolar trauma
- Referral of complicated cases to the nearest hospital

Demonstration models are needed to:
- Tailor the content of the emergency care services
- Assess a minimal set of instruments, materials and medicaments for health centres
- Provide care with adequate hygiene procedures
- Define appropriate use of antibiotics
- Identify employable health personnel
- Assess the extent of utilization of provided emergency care
- Assess the sustainability of emergency care services