Letter: Dental check
What’s important is not how many patients are registered with a dentist and might attend appointments in theory; it is how many patients actually are accessing dental care.
Patients don’t have mouth cancer, tooth decay or gum disease detected because their names are on a list; they have them detected because a health professional looks in their mouth.
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Hide AdThe Scottish Government recognises this and publishes details of the number of patients actually visiting the dentist.
It is this figure, which is significantly lower, which is the really important one. Successive Scottish governments do deserve applause for the real progress they are making in oral health, but credit should not be given to an illusion of progress.
(Dr) Robert Kinloch
Scottish Dental Practice Committee
British Dental Association