There are lots of stories in the press this week reporting that tooth extractions have soared by 30% in four years. What a surprise!
There is just no incentive for NHS dentists to do complex and time consuming work such as root fillings. In fact doing root canal work can actually penalise an NHS dentist. A NHS dentist has to achieve his UDA target (he is contracted by his Primary Care Trust to do a set number of UDAs, units of dental activity) and because he is allocated the same UDA for doing an extraction (which might take a few minutes) or root canal work (which might take 1-2 hours) the NHS dentist is of course going to suggest an extraction to the patient.
So what is happening? Patients are having their teeth removed unnecessarily when more complex treatment could have saved the teeth. What a scandal.
Shame on them! What kind of dentist would immediately decide to perform an extraction when the tooth can still be repaired? Certainly not those who genuinely care for their patients’ teeth.
Have to agree with the post above. Save the tooth where possible – Extract as last resort!
this system is not going to work , i think its a shame to blame the dentist if they are given the same money for doing any ,save or extract .this is like nhs wanting to test the honesty of dentist with every other patient and expecting him to not to cheat any time ..ha ha ha.