A recent survey of nine countries suggests that NHS dentistry is among the most expensive in the world. The survey, which was led by the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Holland on behalf of the Health Economics Journal, found that the total cost of a filling ranged from just £6 in Hungary, to a massive £117 in England.
In the survey, the cost of everything from dental x-rays and drugs to the rate of dentist pay was looked at. The results of the survey indicated that England was the most expensive place to receive dental treatment, closely followed by Spain and Italy. In England, dentistry is partly paid for by the NHS, although patients must contribute to the cost of their treatment too. On average, patients in England must contribute £43.60 towards the cost of a filling.
The findings of the study can be attributed to each country’s cost of living, which has led to the survey being criticised by many Dentists for failing to compare “like with like”. The British Dental Association’s Peter Ward believed that the results were also flawed because many of the English dental surgeries quizzed had a large amount of special needs patients. He also believed that the amount of people surveyed was so small, it was not representative of NHS dentistry as a whole. He said: "It is a very small sample, it is not representative.” He then added, "It is impossible to make a sensible comment on flawed data."
Despite the contention of these results, the study still raises some important questions about the state of NHS dentistry, which has been continually criticised since the introduction of 2006’s controversial new contract. The new contract was introduced with the intention of luring dentists back to the NHS. However, the contract has made little impact so far and 2 million NHS patients still claim that they are unable to gain access to dental services.
Source:
BBC
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