The NHS Information Centre has awarded the contract to deliver the Adult Dental Health Survey (ADHS) 2009 to a consortium led by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The consortium will include The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) and a number of University Dental Centres.

This will be the fifth in a series of national dental surveys that have been carried out every ten years since 1968. The purpose of the survey is to provide information on the current state of adults' teeth and oral health across the UK and to measure changes in oral health.

The 2009 survey will cover England, Wales and Northern Ireland; Scotland has decided not to take part.

The survey covers a random sample of the adult population, is carried out in households and includes two elements – an interview and a clinical examination by a qualified dentist.

Interviews and examinations will be carried out over a six-month period starting in October 2009, and a report will be published by the end of 2010.

Following an EU procurement exercise, the decision to award the contract was made by a project board chaired by the NHS Information Centre and which included representation from the English, Welsh and Northern Irish Health Departments, the British Dental Association, the Dental Observatory, the NHS and the British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry (BASCD).