Dental checks face axe

Last updated at 16:39 06 April 2004


Six-monthly check-ups at the dentist are to be axed under plans being drawn up by the rationing watchdog.

Healthy adults could be told to visit their NHS dentist only once every 15 months, it emerged.

The National Institute of Clinical Excellence is proposing to sweep away the twice-yearly examination, saying there is little evidence that all patients need to be seen that often.

Supporters say the new plan will focus scarce resources on those who need them most.

Dentist shortage

The changes, which could take effect by September, follow a shortage in NHS dentists and alarm over the poor state of the nation's teeth.

A total of 32million Britons do not have an NHS dentist and rates of decay are returning to levels last seen in the 1970s. Four in ten children now have problem teeth by the time they start school.

Only 44 per cent of adults and 60 per cent of children were registered with an NHS dentist last year. The crisis results from dentists leaving the NHS because of poor pay and overwork.

Ministers are keen to improve the provision of dentistry, after a 1999 promise by Tony Blair that everyone would have an NHS dentist by 2001.

Currently £1.4billion is spent on dental health compared with £1billion in 1999.

The British Dental Association said it supported dentists deciding which patients should be recalled.

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