Oral medicine

We work closely with oral and maxillofacial surgery and the dental specialities within the Dental Hospital and have close links with the departments of rheumatology, dermatology, ENT - ear, nose and throat, haemato-oncology, gastroenterology and genito-urinary medicine.

Specialist interests include Sjögren’s Syndrome, dysplasia, oral manifestations of systemic disease and autoimmune mucocutaneous disorders with links to the Behcet’s team.

We also work closely within the local Tower Hamlets community to provide public health related care.

Information for patients

We provide an outpatient service for patients of any age who can attend the Royal London Dental Hospital or are inpatients at Barts Health.

We provide outpatient based service for patients with oro-mucosal conditions and systemic conditions affecting the mouth and salivary glands. Patients can be referred from medical and dental general practitioners as well as from other hospitals.

We also provide care for inpatients upon request from other clinical teams. The department provides an emergency telephone line available between 9am - 5pm for patients under our care and out of hours patients can contact our on call Oral Maxillofacial Surgery (OMFS) team.

Why choose us

The Barts Health oral medicine department is one of only four oral medicine units in London. We provide a great breadth and depth of clinical care for oral mucosal, systemic oral and salivary conditions. We run specialist services in Sjogren's syndrome, immune-bullous diseases of the mouth, dysplasia and complex cases.

We have specialist experience of patients with rare conditions such as oral submucous fibrosis found in largest concentrations in Tower Hamlets. We provide high quality clinical care using evidence based holistic approaches and use close links with other clinical specialists to provide in-depth treatment plans suited to patient needs.

We are an academic unit and therefore also provide research opportunities, training opportunities at clinical undergraduate, post graduate and specialty level. We have links to both Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and Health Education England.

For clinicians

Referrals

By email

Email the referral form to bhnt.OralMedicine@nhs.net

E-referrals

Patients can also be referred by their general medical practitioners using the e-referral system.

*Please note we do not accept referrals by post 

Enquiries

Any clinical queries or correspondence regarding existing patients under our care can be sent via email to the dental medicine team, or by post to the above address.

To talk to a clinician about an individual patient in an emergency or for clinical queries, you can contact our clinic directly on 020 7377 7677.

Research

As an academic unit linked to Queen Mary University of London, our research, trials and quality improvement and public health projects are on-going. Our research topics include:

  • Sjogren's syndrome
  • Taste disturbance
  • Recurrent oral ulceration
  • Dysplasia
  • Behcet's centre studies
  • Various other conditions

With the continual development of new research activities and projects patients are recruited for these on a regular basis.

Patients will be invited to take part in research by their consultant or nurse.